How to work with an “off” analyst

I’m on a buy side DCM team and the 3 weeks I’ve been with the team have been really interesting. But, I’m working with an analyst who doesn’t always know what they’re talking about. As an intern, I know I don’t know it all, but I’m wondering how to navigate this without rudely correcting the analyst or looking like I don’t know my shit to everyone else.

Heres the situation that solicited this post:

I drafted up a simple summary of a transaction, ran it by them, and sent it to our VP for review. It got a lot of feedback with it overall being confusing. Anyway, I incorporated the feedback, ran it by the analyst, and they basically said the recommendations from the VP are optional, and took out some of them. We sent it off again, and, you guessed it, got for the same feedback. There’s just some things I know that they’re not to strong on. For example, they thought quantitative easing was fiscal, rather than monetary policy.

These are some recent examples, but I’d really appreciate any advice in these situations. How do you navigate not looking stupid but also not piss off your higher-up?

8 Comments
 

I would try asking more questions. Ask the analyst questions that hopefully prompt him to verbally rationalise his decisions to you. Ask the seniors people questions that show you are humble, willing to learn, and in some instances demonstrate that you considered the right answer/approach. This way you are less likely to offend the analyst and don’t look like an idiot to senior people.  

 

if you said back in 2010 that QE is fiscal vs monetary, it would've been fine since it was a newer concept, but if you still think that today it means you likely never read market news or paid attention to any finance/econ class in undergrad.  working in DCM and not knowing QE is worse vs working in M&A and not knowing QE

 

We have an intern and an analyst here. Believe it or not there’s a third option - Neither of you know what you are talking about.


I long for the days when interns just ate shit and said thank you because they recognized the internship was just a very short means to an end.


You’re there for what? 2-3 months? Just do what the analyst tells you to do. That’s what you’re there for.

 

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