Breaking point for first year analysts
Have seen a lot of posts recently about first years quitting / thinking about leaving. To those who actually took the leap and quit, what was your breaking point? In other words, what pushed you over the edge to make this big decision? Also curious about how your wellbeing has improved / what you're up to now post IB.
My group puts people into sub sectors and I got put into one with an MBA associate and we got staffed on everything together.Whatevs, we can suck together I thought. No, this guy was actually useless to the point he made everything harder and if he was a summer would not have gotten an offer.
Highlights include:
1. Never saving up. He would always work out of the same version. We would be creating riders for v8 and he would be in v3 editing the deck.
2. Unable to add pages to the deck. He could not consolidate pages.
3. Would work out of the wrong client folders. If the company was “Amazing Boxes Co” but we internally called it ABC, he would go make a folder called ABC instead of looking for the “Amazing Boxes Co” folder. We had worked on other deals for this client. I get not finding the folder initially, but just ask for help or use common sense.
4. Would delete previous versions of the deck from the drive (rather then put them in an archive folder)
5. To add charts and tables to excel, rather than linking them or importing them would take a screen shot with the snipping tool, ctrl c ctrl v and then stretch it until it fit even though it was super distorted
All that would be fine if he could learn, but no, he did all of these things multiple times.
Bonus: “Excel is for analysts. Associates don’t do that”
My team was shocked when I left.
wow this sounds like a nightmare. good thing you left.
Realistically, how long could you get away with that type of performance/effort? 6 months? a year?
Not sure. He joined a bit after me. Most of this was still happening at his 4 month point when I lateraled. I tried to be patient and give him the benefit of the doubt the first 2 months and figured he would catch on. After that point I realized I should just do all the work because otherwise I’d end up redoing it at night/on the weekends. I’d brought up some issues with my staffer and vps but they told me to be patient and that eventually he’d catch on. I don’t think they knew how bad it was.
He’s good at politics so I think he will stay around awhile. Always seemed eager to learn and set up networking events
This gave me a good old belly laugh. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a comically stupid person.
Hahahaha. What this tells me is that the most valuable post-MBA associates aren't the ones that have finance/accounting backgrounds, but rather the ones that studied information systems/etc. in undergrad.
Incredible.
Haven't quit yet but almost definitely after the year bonus. Some moments that made me realize this isn't for me
1. Not being able to go home for Thanksgiving. I don't mean vacation, as in literally not having the time to travel home on a Saturday morning because this client work "might" end up being busy - it wasn't
2. Random nights that ended up with 3-4am nights in the office wondering why this could not be picked up in the morning given we don't end up getting comments until late in the day anyways
3. Having those late nights and getting called out on the most minor details first thing in the morning after sending out a 5am email that a VP catches after having a well-rested night
4. Constant exhaustion at this point. Think the frequent 2-5 hour sleep nights have accumulated to the point already where I'm just constantly tired even if I sleep an ok amount for a few days in a row
4. All the other advisors in DD work (consultants, tax, audit, legal, financing) all mostly tell the client that its Friday and they'll do this Monday. For some reason only bankers have to be the ones to suggest everything will be done by the next day or over the weekend. Client seemed fine with MBB taking 2 weeks off during Christmas but we have to work the weekends for some reason
5. Associates working just as hard as analysts (3-6 years in or MBA associates that are like 32). Even VPs and director level people having plans and weekends blown up. If it doesn't get better, what's the point?
Already looking for roles with good hours to actually enjoy life outside of work and maybe even enjoy work itself. I just don't care about any of this work enough and nothing ever seems like it has to be "urgent ASAP" about putting numbers into Excel to put up with these hours and lifestyle.
What kind of bank are you at? Top BB or a group that's struggle with deal flow? Sounds brutal, best of luck looking for the next gig.
Not a top BB / EB group, but not struggling for deal flow at all either (have only been on one pitch, plenty of deals just come to us through senior connections).
sorry you've had to go through that - I can relate to the majority of what you're saying, though your situation sounds more intense. best of luck in finding a new role!
Point 5 makes me think. When we talk about a career, we tend to say "look at your boss and see if you wanna be him/her in the next 5-10 years".
Great comment.
Yup, literally don't envy any of these guys. Even the top level MDs, sure they have more life control but they gave up 20+ years to this job and still are at the whim of a client at all times. Everyone earlier in their career than MD has the client but also all the people above them controlling their lives. My VPs and directors make high six to maybe low seven figures yet barely have control over their schedules compared to any other job. Definitely not what I want to work towards.
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