Update: Thanks all for the feedback. I have never been in a situation where an analyst pushes back on every simple ask (to make things easier for folks) and moreover in which her direct manager is weak / disorganized enough to not even provide written guidance or push for excellence. I think I am treading a thin line but honestly my priority is just putting in hours learning the things she covers (and deciphering all her hardcodes) without bruising her ego. It is extremely disappointing to be in this environment.
To be very honest, this was an eye opening experience outside of finance and somewhat disappointing but wasn't completely out of expectation. Will put up with this (and the rest of the jazz here) for a bit, we'll see where this goes.
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Hey guys,
Recently joined a new company and was curious your experiences (primarily folks that went A2A and joined a new firm) dealing with difficult analysts.
As quick background, I did a few years of banking at a large bank, then PE , recently joined a new company in a finance capacity.
Have been put on a team with an existing junior analyst. This individual was previously in finance, but have been running into some issues:
- Work quality: The XLS backups he/she puts together are frankly a little surprising for someone of her level (and in direct contrast with how she conducts herself at meetings) - lots of uncited hardcodes and frankly 'built-to-break'. This isn't just a a tactical 'best practice' issue of color coding, but it seems all of the analysis was put together by someone who frankly doesn't care
- Attitude: Doesn't seem like he/she is open to making life easier for other folks within the working team - the work is frankly extremely messy and almost impossible to audit without asking her for all of her sources. Unfortunately he/she been here a lot longer and is very image-concerned within the company. I wouldn't normally care, but the analyst a little territorial about 'owning the analysis' which unfortunately puts me in a bad position as I've spotted several fuckups in her work before.
My position is that I'll basically need to do the following:
- Learn his/her job inside out and be able to play her role without offending ego (don't care if takes credit, but I don't like my team having fuckups)
- Maintain a positive positioning - I've been making sure to praise him/her in broader meetings but am basically redoing her work on the side to ensure that we avoid situations from frankly messy and careless work output
Overall it's been an extremely frustrating experience to go from a firm where the expectation was to have error-free work to cater to an analyst that really is not doing a great job / has an attitude issue (in addition to everything else going on with this team), but I'm new here and still need to leverage her to understand how things work here.
Not in my style to throw anyone under the bus (reflects poorly on everyone) but annoying to have this extra person. There are definitely gaps in the way I've explained the situation, but curious how folks would respond. Would appreciate input specifically from folks that started as analysts and are managing others in PE, IB, or another finance job.
I don’t agree with the above advice. Spending months developing a friendship just to nicely prod the analyst to stop doing poor work and lying during meetings when blaming you?
And become friends over time, what?
I would first send her an email or talk to her after another poor work product and point out all the errors and ask them to be fixed. Be polite and don’t copy anyone so as not to embarrass her.
If she responds maturely and fixes the errors, great off to a good start.
But likely she will push back or something. Then go to a higher up you trust and ask him for advice, either mentioning no names or subtly mentioning her. This way the higher up knows you’re not trying to embarrass anyone, and just want advice, but now she is on his radar.
Making mistakes is fine.
Lying in meetings and blaming others is not.