Annual Review was bad how do I bounce back?
My annual review was bad. Said I need better responsiveness and attention to detail. Anyone here ever had a bad review and bounced back? Work from home was difficult. How can I get better?
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Be more responsive and have more attention to detail
Thanks Perd Hapley
Eh, not really much coming back and your impression is set for the rest of your analyst stint (I'm assuming you're an analyst). Likely your bonus will be affected and they will nitpick every little thing you do going forward and then put you on a performance warning. Possibly 3-6 months until you're fired or indicated you are not on a path to promotion. Start interviewing. Don't take it the wrong way, this happened to me recently and I ended up getting multiple interviews instantly and landed a significantly higher paying job offer in less than a month into my search
I actually think this is a very good point. First impressions stick. The first IB shop I was at I wasn't very good at my job (I'm naturally a slow learner) and I truly felt the weight of being treated as such. I left because I felt the environment was toxic and I took what I learned at my next shop and things improved greatly because I was experienced and didn't feel judged.
Sometimes people need fresh starts.
+1 on the fresh starts
The toxicity of your team makes a huge difference. I specifically had a VP that was constantly throwing me under the bus to the MD when he was the one that would not reply to me for hours/days on time sensitive projects. As an analyst, no matter what you do or say to show your improvement is going to trump how the toxic senior members of your team make you out to be to your boss. OP, you said your team is great which is a good sign but keep your options open. It doesn't cost you anything to at least interview
Second this, it's a truly underrated point. Writing was on the wall for me at a small boutique during covid, but I stuck around because I thought I didn't have great, transferable skills. Ended up getting let go, found my next job, and learned more in the first 3 months than I did in 1 year prior. Been at my current gig for a year now and its amazing what a fresh start can do not only for confidence, but also your perception of the workplace and IB in general.
You don't have to be irrational and quick to act, but being ready to make a sound decision fast is something that will help tremendously in your situation. I know because I've been there.
Not saying I think you should necessary leave - but I have to agree as well with fresh starts.
The feeling of starting a new job with experience and making all the right moves right away is great. In my second job I felt within a month I already had such a better reputation and reach than my prior.
But again none of this will matter if you just move and make the same mistakes at a new place.
This happened to me as well. My first stint was a truly rough go of it…
I internalized those lessons and had it be both a motivating chip on my shoulder, humble life lesson, and guide point for my next stop.
Was a significantly better banker and I attribute that largely to getting a really fast start.
First impressions stick, for better or worse.
If you crush your first 6 months, literally anything that you do wrong after that they think you’re just “swamped.”
No bouncing back unfortunately. Superstars stay superstars once their reputation is crystallized as an analyst, and underperformer reputation sticks around. I would say have an honest assessment on whether or not "attention to detail" just isn't your thing, or was something else impacting your performance during this time. In my experience things people try to improve but something is just fundamentally holding them back (it's just not who they are to pay attention to details, for example). It doesn't mean you can't be good at other things though.
I would say start finding another job where there's a low chance folks there have access to your old colleagues (they always check), and then do better when you get there if you feel this is still the career path you want to pursue. If not, maybe try your hand at something else that requires more "big picture" skills and less "attention to detail" type qualities.
Please shut the fuck up
Don't listen to the 2 idiots above. You can always bounce back in your second year, its not the end of the world. Take the comments with stride and work on them. Type a list of checklists to always go over before you send off a deliverable, print it out, keep it next to you, and use it at all times so you don't miss important details like Titles, Footnotes, Logos, Format, Comments, Numbers Tying out, etc. Fastest way to improve your detail-oriented skills. These retards telling you its over and you're about to be fired are a joke. Crazy how people overreact in this field. You'll look back on this 5 years later and laugh at these dumbasses telling you to switch jobs because of a 1st year review. This job is not rocket science. There are systems and structures you can create that will drastically improve your performance. I've known bottom buckets that became top buckets their following year. I've known top buckets that became middle-low buckets because they went hard first year and weren't able to sustain their hardo performance the following year. Consistency and stability is key.
Thanks man I’m pretty nervous
Like I said, don't let the two idiots make you nervous. The first idiot's name is "BigBankerBrand." The second idiot's name is "LarryUVA." I mean, come on.
Everyone has their own pace and that goes for your job and life in general.
As long as you're actively working on the issues pointed out in your review and taking the necessary steps to make sure you're improving daily, you shouldn't be nervous at all.
OP listen to the guy you responded to
also be transparent with your manager on both the steps you’re taking and the steps they recommend you take to improve. Bad reviews can suck but showing coachability and being able to improve are strengths
Hey Steve, please don't listen to the morons who say it's irredeemable.
If you're tempted, ask yourself: Do I really want to go on with my professional life without having fixed the issues? Sure, some will say "who cares you'll never need to align logos outside of banking" but that's missing the point: There's a great deal of professional growth that you can gain from fixing the negative feedback you received.
I once received similar negative feedback in the 1st quarter on the job (MBB M&A). It sucks, but it's not the end of the world, I worked on fixing it the next 6-9 months and left with a top 10% evaluation the next year, and you certainly can do that if not better. Most of what I did was amply covered here so I won't repeat it.
Just make sure you're sincerely working on fixing them, and let them know that you're serious about fixing it and that their feedback is always welcome. Once they sense your seriousness and progress, you'll notice that some will want to invest their time in helping you on things you need help with.
If you do all that and they still don't like you, only then should you consider moving. However when you do it then, you'll have gained the most out of the negative feedback, and it is really their loss that they lost someone who is able and willing to improve because of a first impression.
I’m not trying to be overly negative here, but the others you referenced have points that seem to mostly be true in reality.
Every person I know that has had a bad review, has always become the guy that everyone criticizes extra, shits on extra, feels more comfortable complaining about. If you have a good review your first year, your work may not even be scrutinized, whereas if you get that bad review, supervisors begin to look for any error at all to criticize the poor guy for
I had a first year on my team was had similar review and in his second year he never got staffed on a single good deal. The bias will be there most of the times. Not a bad idea to start looking elsewhere.
Had a similar situation in my first year as an analyst and IMO it 100% depends on your group's culture and your relationship with the group, so its really your judgement call.
If you are in a group with good culture and have decent relationship with the group, it's likely that the review is reflective of your true performance and you need to improve. If you do show improvement, they would typically acknowledge in a mid-year review or something and the issue is solved.
If you are in a shitty group and have a poor working relationship, I would try to leave ASAP cause even if you improve they won't acknowledge it and your reputation is set in stone. TBH you can find mistakes and come up with "areas of improvement" for any analyst if you try. Like the above user said, you don't want them to be nit picking everything you do from now on and just focus on your mistakes even if you are really improving.
IMO unless you really like this group/bank, I would try to lateral just to be safe. Wayyy easier to start fresh then to try and change people's perception of you.
Culture is great and I really like them
This is the right answer
Hey, it is not a big deal, really. Focus on the positive fact that someone is telling you, early in your career, what you need to get better at, this is priceless. I would use this opportunity to improve on those "weak" areas highlighted in your performance review and the best way I know (at least it works for me) is to buddy up with a more senior team member and tell him you are determined to improve on x, y and z but you are not sure what's the best way forward, then ask him if he is willing to help you out and guide you through your improvement process. This way you will not only learn but you will build rapport with your teammates. Key piece of advice that I received earlier in my career and worked wonders for me - ask for constant feedback instead of waiting for your performance review to come. This way you will always know what to expect and avoid surprises.
In reality, you need to understand you are just starting off and this is marathon, we all make mistakes and have things to improve on but what will determine your success in life is how you learn from your mistakes and how you react to unexpected swings in life. Always keep a positive attitude and when you do make a mistake, don't take it too personal, just try not to make it again.
Good that you're getting that feedback. The first thing I would do is go to your superiors (ideally the people that gave you that feedback if you know) and say what feedback you got, that you're committed to changing it, and ask for examples of things that may have led to that feedback.
What is the issue with your responsiveness? Are you responding to emails promptly? Make a push for responding to emails within 5 minutes, even if it's just "ok got it".
What mistakes are you making in your attention to detail?
Are you missing some comments when turning documents? Go through comments three times: once to read through them all and make sure there aren't any that are hard to notice, then once one by one as you're incorporating the comments, and then finally as a side by side one at a time to ensure that they're all incorporated (put them up on your dual monitors and literally touch each comment on each document to make sure they're all in).
For any other attention to detail errors you should be taking a step back after you've completed something and looking through it once more with a fine tooth comb before sending out. I open up every single document that I attach to an email before sending and look through it to make sure everything looks right.
Some of the commenters here must have worked for real assholes (or just really sucked and failed to improve). Your superiors just want you to churn out solid work product and save them time. If you start saving them time (by producing good work that they don't constantly find hiccups in while error checking) they'll like you again. If you continue to waste their time and produce bad work they'll get sick of dealing with it and you'll eventually get pushed out. No one gives that much of a shit about analysts to judge them outside of if they can count on you or not. It really doesn't take anything other than a few positive performances on pitches/deals to turn into someone they believe they can count on.
Assuming your team is actually looking for you to improve and not ruin you, make a list of actionable changes and simply execute.
The first 2 years of your career will not determine the remainder and you’ll probably look back at this years from now and laugh
Please start interviewing. They are setting the stage to fire you. You will never become top tier no matter how hard you work. I know of multiple people who were told needed to perform better then went to other places and did really well. Start interviewing now before you’re put on probation
Ignore the comments re: finding another job. If you leave now then you learn nothing and frankly you’re just setting yourself up to leave future jobs when they get ahard. That can easily develop into a pattern where you’ll never stick around long enough to actually fix your issues. There may come a time for you to leave but given you’re in a group with a good culture and like the people you work with, they’re probably not the total assholes that many think of in banking. I worked with top-bucket and bottom-bucket analysts, was a top-bucket analyst myself, and frankly the differentiator was how hard you worked and how seriously you took the job. Granted it was a bigger group and there were disproportionately more top-bucket analysts given we all worked our asses off, but the point remains. Not to be an IB hardo but if you find yourself leaving well before other analysts then maybe consider spending more time checking your work. The checklist idea is absolutely the way to go, make sure you hit every single item before sending along. But also, your associate’s job is to catch anything you missed so unless you’re sending work directly to VPs/MDs, I’d hope they’re actually going through the turns and what not before mindlessly passing along.
My only piece of new advice vs what others have said is that if you want to really improve then tell a senior person that you work with/trust is interested in your development. If they’re actually trustworthy then they’ll respect the humility and can likely provide tangible examples where you dropped the ball which should then give you a jumping off point on what you can improve. They’ll also pick up that you’re taking both the review process and your personal development seriously and will be much more lenient/internally supportive as you improve. Might even result in getting more staffings with them and building even more trust. There is another benefit of this approach too - you’ll know where you stand. In many orgs a performance plan is an HR paper trail that sets you up to get canned. If they’re considering putting you on a performance plan, you can talk to them before they do it and feel out if they’re willing to provide real feedback/help you develop. If they give you generic answers then you know they don’t really care and can plan accordingly. But if you get real feedback then you can build trust that will extend to other things and could (maybe even likely) lead to your internal promotion or a buy side role in time.
Get a good PE offer and check tf out
Talk to seniors in your group asking for direct feedback. This shows them you actually want to do better.
Then talk to your staffer and see if you can work with anyone in your group that you haven’t had as much experience working with.
Lastly be super on top of all the work you’re doing. If people know you’re trying really hard they’ll look past a couple mistakes. So respond confirming receipt to everything, try to start taking workstreams up as soon as they arise instead of waiting for an associate to tell you to do them, even start responding to clients and answer their questions (can send draft responses to your associate to sign off first).
If there’s a lot of different comments/workstreams send a daily status update email summarizing what’s been done. The key is to spend 10% extra effort on things that look like it takes 40% extra time to do
Don't listen to those that are suggesting you to start looking for a new job. It was your first year, naturally it should be your worst year. What matters is whether you are working on your weaknesses and showing actual improvement.
I had my performance review and got knocked for attention to detail and did very well in the other categories. I plan to just be more attentive and not rush through documents. Even if that means getting snapped at for being slow. There’s steps that can be made and strong improvement certainly stands out
.
I had a rough first year & ended up in the bottom bucket of my first year analyst class. My reviews (and bonus) were terrible. I was extremely disappointed and embarrassed.
However, I just had mid-year reviews a few months ago. Our group COO said that my review session was one of the best she’s ever witnessed in her 20+ year career and she wished I could’ve been there to hear what everyone was saying. My reviews could not have been better, and there was nothing even remotely negative mentioned. I was even asked at one point why i was so bad my first year / what had changed.
I encourage you to stay & turn things around. Wall Street is a small world, so I didn’t want to just leave after my bad reviews and be remembered on that note. Instead, i decided to focus on being the best analyst i could & i ultimately succeeded.
I just got the associate promotion, however I don’t plan on staying. I now feel comfortable moving on from banking as I know I’m leaving a reputation that I’m proud of.
If i can do it, anyone can :) believe in yourself!!!!
Assuming you’re a guy, break out the knee pads and make sure not to use your teeth
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