5 Months Into FT IB Role - am I not cut out for this? (Plz advise)
Hi All,
I'm currently 5 months into my FT IB role. In college, I did not study finance, so I don't have a solid foundation of a lot of financial concepts. Most of my knowledge stems from the week before my superday where I crammed the basic IB interview concepts in my cranium in 5 days. Anyway, fast forward to today, I've been in my role for 5 months. I still don't know how to build a full model by myself, I have trouble understanding basic concepts like benchmarking in a DCF, and following the material during meetings. I try to study after work (when I have time), and I've definitely learned A LOT. Like much more than when I started, but I constantly feel like I don't know anything. I honestly experience imposter syndrome A LOT. When I speak with analysts that have been here for over 9 months, they seem to know so much about everything and it makes me wonder if this field is not the one for me. If anyone could chime in and give me their two cents, that would be amazing.
9 months is where you hit your stride. It’s very normal to feel like you have no clue what is going on until then. Personally, I think you need to see 2 full transactions before you really get what is going on. Also, modeling is pretty easy—I remember being very intimidated, but it’s really just plagiarism with some creative thinking. Everything you model, someone has created something similar before. The truth is, there aren’t that many different ways to think about a businesses from a logical standpoint. Keep showing up, keep learning, and one day you will look up and realize all the people you used to ask questions to have left the firm and people ask you for help all the time now.
Thank you for your response, seriously. I feel really hopeful after reading this. I'll keep showing up with a positive mindset and hopefully get this down. Thank you.
No problem! Glad it helps. Just to reiterate—it really is just a mess that first part on the learning curve. Doesn’t matter if you have an MBA, numerous years of work experience, or are the smartest person in the world. The only way to understand what happens in a transaction is to do it. The first time you do anything you have no idea how long it will take and lack the confidence to know if it’s completed correctly. Eventually, you get to the point where you have seen most everything before and you will have built up a bunch of examples of things you have done in the past to pull from. Also, you have confidence that allows you to dictate deliverables with authority and guide parts of the process you are working on.
A piece of advice—if you are ever doing anything ask for an example of what your direct manager was thinking of. “Hey can you do blank?” “Sure, do you have anything I should reference for what you have in mind?” Also, if you are truly lost ping a senior analyst—from my experience they usually are the most productive employees in the org without having ranking, so they are less ego filled (this advice applies to associates and analysts). Good senior analysts are absolute gravy for efficiency and learning how to manage the internal systems of the org.
Also, imposter syndrome is real, but this job is more intensity than intelligence. I only worked with one person who couldn’t do the role and they were just spacey on everything and seemed to get confused by ordering at chipotle.
Dont give up just yet. You can learn anything in your life! Just dont lie to yourself. If u have the feeling that u r on the right track and that u wanna keep rocking, GO! Keep going. Every beginning is hard, sometimes u feel like an idiot, having the feeling to know sht. But this is also part of your job. Be confident and make others believe in you and your skills to find out and solve tasks. Impress others, dont be a shy nerd hiding, no one knows everything
Awesome thanks for the words of encouragement.
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