Can you pivot after a below-average mid-summer review?
Coming up on 5 weeks at the desk in a couple of weeks. Have been staffed on 4 live deals and a pitch and am a little worried about my mid-summer review. Got into a pretty technical group (RE/FIG/O&G) and didn't have any prior experience in that industry either. Also didn't get any specific desk training (vs. some other banks which have up to 3 weeks of industry-specific training). So, long story short got thrown into the deep end. Group is looking to bring all the interns on given satisfactory performance and then hire more for FT (so the only way I don't get an offer is if I screw up).
Most of my deals are actually going pretty well and have had good feedback and also did a project for an MD where I got a great review. However, my main deal is which I am the most worried about. In my first week and then some bit of my second week I made somewhat careless mistakes and ones that seem pretty stupid in hindsight. Anyways right now I have been relegated to arranging a slide here or there, throwing some charts together (not finding or arranging the data behind the charts, literally just reformatting the charts), and creating shells. Have two analysts staffed on that deal and both of them do most of the work for it and the closest I got to the main work was probably pulling some comps together from Bamsec (there, too, I had a couple of mistakes and this was also in the first 1.5 weeks). I spoke to the staffer and he said I have been working hard but I don't think he has heard anything from the two analysts yet. I was worried so I also spoke with the senior analyst who said that I have been really proactive and that I am starting to get a hang of things - one of feedback was that I should ask my intern class a question before I approach the FT folks (other than that pretty positive, but don't know if that's actually true). Thus, I feel like my mid-summer review won't be glowing or even average but instead below average.
TL:DR: super technical group, staffed on many deals no industry training, making some stupid errors on one of my deals (frequency of errors has started coming down tho) and I am worried that will affect my mid-summer review and lead to a below average-or-an average rating. Afraid that this will stick throughout the summer tho, and very negatively affect my FT offer chances. Has anyone been able to pivot after a not-too-positive mid-summer review?
I think you gotta relax a bit - you are an intern. You’re worried about mistakes you made after 1.5 total weeks in banking? There is no way your group/those analysts expect anything near perfect from you.
They are going to give you a holistic review, just make sure the vast majority of your work is good work, and don’t make the same mistakes you made in that first week to prove that you learned from them.
Yes, that's true but I don't know how the other interns are doing and so I am assuming I am doing worse. Yeah, I am definitely trying to not repeat mistakes and for the most part, I haven't. I just feel like my analysts haven't given me anything outside of charts, maps, or shelling out decks. When they say stuff like it looked great, good or amazing, clean are they just saying that to say it or do they mean that? Cuz, for example, my analyst said the chart I created looked great but then changed a color up in the teaser after I was done, so don't know if she actually meant it or no.
You are just going to stress yourself out further by overanalyzing these situations. Additionally, no one here will know if the analysts are telling you the truth or just being nice. Any answer you get is going to be heavily based on someone’s personal experience, and that isn’t helpful when nobody knows your analyst (and they could be behaving totally differently).
All you really need to know is:
1) yes you can pivot from a bad review, that’s why they give you feedback I’ve seen it happen many times
2) getting stuck on the first few weeks and over analyzing that is probably going to lead to additional stress and mistakes. Focus on being good now
3) take feedback, be proactive, and don’t repeat mistakes. No one expects you to be perfect but they do expect you to learn. A great analyst is one that is constantly learning. As I said #2 above can make this hard as you won’t be focused on what you need to do but rather on what you did and whether it matters. You can’t change that so learn and move on.
Yes. Showcase how you took the feedback, made it a point of improvement and progressed through the rest of the summer. Good luck, don’t over think it!
Voluptate commodi saepe omnis voluptas occaecati. Et voluptatibus hic doloribus atque est. Commodi suscipit deserunt aperiam molestiae. Qui non voluptas aperiam ipsam tempora. Sequi nisi nesciunt dolores. Adipisci in pariatur aut et.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...