Although this isn't 100% directed to IB it is a strong overview of working general and the main mistakes that good or great employees do that limit them from being rockstars.
1. They Clock In, Work, Clock Out
The difference between a great employee and a rockstar employee is the amount of value that they bring to the table.
I don't advocate for living your life based 100% on your business or professional pursuits, but the rockstar employees are the ones who keep learning even after they've gone home for the day.
They're the type who are on Bloomberg and MarketWatch learning, absorbing, and spreading their knowledge. They keep up with the status quo and leading innovations in their industries and even their positions. That may mean studying about new and upcoming trading methods, or analyzing the way that M&A in changing in other emerging economies.
The ones who come into work, do their job completely and then leave are great employees. Those who try to improve themselves, their craft and their abilities consistently are the rockstar employees.
2. They Don't Take Enough Risks
Great employees are able to do whatever they are given. Whether it be some huge, valuable project or just a list of tasks which need to done. Being consistent and correct goes a long way toward being one of the best employees.
However, they never take risks because they just want to do what they are told. They see their job as a set of guidelines and tasks and as long as they complete it they'll be OK.
Rockstar employees are out there pushing the limits on what is allowed or possible. They're willing to sacrifice and go through discomfort it the payout can be huge. Great employees try to lose small, whereas rockstars want to win big.
3. They Never Challenge Their Superiors
In the same vein of the above, the great employee is someone who managers and superiors are likely to say 'he's one of our hardest working employees' or 'I love working with him'. Obviously nothing wrong with this, but the rockstar employees are willing to challenge and push their managers when the time comes and they know they're right.
It's a risk, and requires you to know more than your manager at times to be able to stand up to them and say "I don't think this will work because (x) and (y). How about we try to do (z) instead?" But that's what rockstar employees do. They consistently challenge themselves and those people around them in order to grow. The only time it bites them in the ass is when they don't have a value-added proposition and they aren't confident in their solution.
Thanks for the post.
Excellent Post
Good post, thanks.
Lol all I thought of was how I pace around my condo thinking about my book for at least an hour everyday after I get home.
I have no clue what that shit storm of a sentence meant, but I do that everyday haha.
Wow monkey shit, been a while. Yes I am fairly scatter brain on here all the time, see my sig. I leave work with every intention of "leaving work at the door" but inevitably work re-enters my brain when met with the boredom of being at home without the willingness to go out. I made the comment because comically, I don't think that boredom induced book fretting is what the OP had in mind in point #1. Although, just changing your environment and mentally walking through your positions in a more relaxed state of mind can be beneficial to creative thinking (ancillary trades) IMO.
Great read.
Thanks for the post. I think at the end of the day, how you do your job kinda comes down to who you work for, both as the company (in the culture sense) and the boss.
Good stuff
3 can be a very tricky one. Most bosses don't like to admit they're wrong. Some of them will even fire a guy with value-added propositions for disagreeing too much. Not something a good boss would do but it happens more often than it should.
great post!
+1 for the effort, step above what i've read in a delta sky magazine recently but still feels like something straight out of Fast Company / Tech Crunch / INC / [insert what's hot in tech / entrepreneur trends magazine] etc
when someone writes something really worth reading please someone @mention me
That's actually exactly who I write for. Business Insider, Fast Company, Quartz lol. So spot on. Its more general and just a little insight. Nothing too hard and fast.
I mean honestly it comes down to the boss. You're right you don't want to do that with the wrong boss, but even just mentioning an alternative route might be more than another, not pressing on it or really doing anything brash.
you? http://www.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-mistakes-even-great-employee…
I would say that #3 can be very tricky and needs more in-depth discussion.
Part of being a good right-hand-man and team member is sometimes showing humility and keeping quiet and listening. No one likes the kid that has an opinion on everything and confronts authority over certain points, even if he is right. Those are the types to walk around and say 'I told you so' whenever one of their points was right - but are silent when they're wrong - which is most of the time.
I tend to stay quiet, let my boss take credit for most of my work and only ever question his decisions when I think he is 90%+ wrong, but will word it well - so that he gets round to thinking it was his idea. In return I am often brought on to the same shifts as him and get selected to run projects with him over some of the other senior employees. It is also noticed by other staff and managers and is perhaps the reason why after several rounds of lay-offs I have always been kept around. People may disagree and others will think being a macho, BSD, big-hitter is the way to prove yourself, but being shrewd and knowing your place is vital imo.
Otherwise a good post and I think for me #1 is the most important and sometimes least appreciated/noticed. In the end just do it for yourself and your own end-goals and you will come out well from your learning.
Agree 100%.
It can be a tricky ground to tread on because you're right, you don't want to be that opinionated kid who always has something to say. You want to be valuable insight when its needed.
Will do. I'll post a thread in the Other Roads forum.
Another important variable for #3 is the actual manager. I'm a very open boss, I'm truly of the view that I do not want to be the smartest person in the room, I want junior people to bring up new ideas, challenge me, etc. Most of the time the junior person is going to be wrong-I've seen nearly 20 years worth of business and there's a really good chance I've seen X, Y & Z before-but I like the discussion and maybe a new idea or way of doing things will come of it. At the least, a discussion occurs and one party learns something and maybe both of us do. Now I don't want a junior calling me out in front of external people, "Hey DingDong, wtf are you talking about? Did you hit your head last night?" and it should be diplomatic, but that's my management style. I had a former partner who was the exact opposite. He had to be the smartest person in the room, he had to be right (really smart guy but had one of the most fragile egos I've ever come across), and even if he wasn't right he'd spend hours coming up with a logical argument on why red was actually blue, even though it was clearly red. The person telling him red was red usually got stuck listening to him for hours, wasting everyone's time, not winning the argument and having him look down on the junior and then get stuck doing bullshit work.
That's probably 2 extremes but definitely gauge your audience before you start challenging them too much.
Great - thanks!
UTDFinanceGuy Would you mind creating a thread for those of us considering founding a startup out of college, rather than going down conventional paths?
Also, what is your opinion ( do you have an opinion) on Vinod Khosla?
In my experience in finance, both in IBD and private equity, your team's rockstar(s) are the guys and gals are the deal team members who get the first call for your groups most challenging and time sensitive deals and projects. When the stakes are high and everyone's scrambling to make sense of a difficult situation, you want to be the guy who remains calm, confident and capable of pushing the goal to the finish line even when everyone else isn't 100% there. Pretty simple.
Clearly not shitting with door open should be on this list.
great post
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