Expectations vs reality of being a first-year IB analyst
I am curious how other people's expectations of being a first-year analyst vs their reality of being a first-year analyst have played out
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I'm a lot more miserable and had more emotional breakdowns than I imagined
Weak genetics combined with a silver-spoon upbringing. Sad!
Thought everything would be a lot more serious - team is actually pretty cool and seniors are generally friendly and respectful. Didn’t realize how much of a toll long hours would take on me - constantly pretty tired and generally feel bored, although I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy or miserable by any means. Also thought I would have learned a lot more by now, I definitely have in my coverage industry but not so much finance knowledge.
Modeling is touted so frequently from college student prospects and in interviews - the job is 95% PowerPoint edits and administrative tasks to move a process along (updating buyer logs, uploading data room files, sitting in diligence calls just to monitor) that don't take much if at all any brainpower. There can be very interesting modeling exercises in complex situations, but even when modeling if its a relatively straightforward DCF / LBO, there's probably a template from a prior project that you modify slightly and use.
The very late nights (3-5ams+ especially if consistent for a while) take a pretty bad toll mentally and physically. If you end between 12am-2am most of the time, its not too bad when you get used to it.
Looking upwards at more senior people, really only MDs have somewhat control over their time (also depends how strong their client relations are). Every level below that you can expect to be on call pretty much all the time.
A few thoughts on this topic:
- As someone mentioned above, the job is way less technical than most people think (most of the time is adjusting slides, arranging calls, writing emails, doing screenings, sending documents to the printing room, and other admin stuff)
- No matter how much effort you put in, 90% of the work you do during your first year will be trash and will have to be re-made by your associate
- Coming from college, you will surely underestimate the level of detail in this industry. (Using comas instead of semicolons to separate footnotes on pg 12 of the appendix will piss off your VP and will affect your review)
- You will not attend 90% of meetings with clients (and if you do, you will not open your mouth during the meeting)
- Senior bankers tend to be much nicer than what is said on this site, usually problematic people tend to be middle managers
- All the modelling you might learn in college, or in courses such as Wall Street Prep or TTS is pretty much useless. Most banks will have their own standard integrated models or templates which tend to be much more complex
- Weekdays working until midnight or 1pm are not that bad, your body can get use to it
- You realize that very few things are more scary than the sound of your phone receiving an email during the weekend and being more than 2 hours away from your laptop
- Finally, 85% of your success and happiness will depend on which associate you are staffed with. Working with a supportive, and caring associate that bothers to provide guidance and detailed feedback against working with an associate / VP who micromanages and has no patience is key (unfortunately this does not depend on you)