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Senior associate here. TBH sounds like this vp was on his way out and just didn’t give a fuck and you got the brunt of it.


However, while the formatting / page numbers aren’t a big deal at all, it’s pretty annoying now as an associate when the analyst lacks attention to detail. Like if you couldn’t be bothered to fix the 0 -> “-“ or whatever, what am I going to discover when I open up the backup? A random hardcode? You price refreshed the comps book for the wrong date? Accidentally ran the stock price chart for a different stock? (These are all things my analysts have done) 


As someone who was a terrible analyst, it’s not too late and people will notice if you start to improve a lot.

My advice would be:

  1. Slow down. Double check everything
  2. Have a list of 10 things to check in every deck before you send it out (footnotes, titles, bank formatting, using ticket vs company name)
  3. Make sure you’ve turned every. single. comment. Print them out and literally check them off if you need to. It’s better to be slow and right rather than fast and wrong. If you don’t understand something, read every single  comment and then email back your list of initial questions. If you receive comments live that are going to take awhile, send the list to yourself and cc the associate / vp with “as discussed, will make the below changes” - that way, you have the time stamp. Also just take notes on every call and send them to the associate / VP, even if you aren’t asked. Seem proactive
  4. Probably more important than anything above, you need to find a well ranked senior analyst, junior associate to take you under their wing. Every week you need to make sure you are learning something from them or asking for informal feedback. When the MD goes to the VP and asks for their opinion, they are going to ask the associates / senior analysts if you’re any good and they will relay you are actually trying to improve (and hopefully improving)

    Edit to add: if you’re planning on staying in the industry, your first year bonus is super minuscule and doesn’t matter 5 years out. Mine was like 30 or something terrible and has doubled every year since 
 

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