Hey all, I was hoping to get some answers on how much of the work you do vs. other deal team members. Not sure if I'm taking on way more than peer at other banks, but I’m curious what’s normal.
Currently its an MD, Director, an associate and me (1st yr analyst).
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Sounds about right
lol
That's shot for shot my life. I'll have a VP or Director in between possibly as well. Literally do everything on the deal until it gets to reviewing SPAs and disclosure schedules. I have no idea what they do all day when I'm running the model, creating all decks, buyer calls, run diligence, etc. Granted I do work in MM, but still.
Ya I'm at an EB so deal teams are legit bare bones. I can see why middle mgmt gets laid off when the bank doesn't do well. Literally zero value added.
I always wonder why they get associates from MBAs, most of them are shit even the ones from M7s
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This is my experience as well - banks really need to be better about promoting middle-level management.
There's usually always someone in the deal team that is more of a hindrance.
In my experience analysts create 95% of the tangible deck, but it’s the other 5% (negotiating term sheetss, shareholders agreements, etc) that adds the most value to the client. Most of the content we create is boilerplate and hardly read by anyone. Even a model is built with an “expected” solution
Lmao sounds like your associate has a cush gig. Guy is killing it.
what are associates supposed to do anyway
Ideally, they should be the analysts' succbois
So you’re saying, you, as a first year who just hit the desk in September, are running the whole model, creating the shell and developing the deck for significant projects? Are you at a BB because this doesn’t sound like the norm?
Not that guy but this is normal at my group, all based on capacity
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I am at a BB and I got full model responsibility on my first execution two weeks post joining + creating shell and taking lead on teaser and IM. Depends on staffing/capacity but can definitely happen
My associate does most of the heavy lifting on decks and he pretty much lays out almost everything for me and checks it all. I got lucky.
Similar in my case. Associate will usually get direction from VP on what he wants to see in a deck. Associate will usually create a shell from an older deck and assign me pages or analyses to run (which in some cases can be the majority of the deck based on his capacity) and will normally check my work before sending it up. Guess I got lucky too?
Quite concerning that a staffer would put both a 1st year analyst and associate on the same deal. Seems like a recipe for disaster.
Exactly what I was about to say. At my bank, 1st year associates are usually staffed with 2nd or 3rd year associates, but never with analysts. They spend their 1st year doing everything that an analyst would do - basically a better paid analyst gig for a full year. I think the OP's bank has a staffing problem lol.
OP, sounds like a pretty shitty way to do things honestly. No offense, but what client would actually want to see whatever materials you create, unchecked? In my experience, I have been in situations similar to yours, but that's usually due to the associate being completely maxed out in capacity (though incompetence does come into play in certain instances). Very rare though. Usually the associate does do a lot of checking (and A->As actively partake in the heavy lifting as well).
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I'm also at an EB and this is not the case at all for me. All my associates are in the weeds.
2nd yr in coverage group at a BB. I am staffed with associates but they know I do everything faster and better than they could. Haven’t had someone actively try to do work on my behalf in many months. Bright side #1 id say is to take it as a compliment.
Bright side 2 is that you can always rationalize to yourself when to stop doing their work for them Because they are paid usually 2-3x more. MBA Associates mainly serve as a group for which we can make fun of / outlet for us to look at and say “this is what is fucked up about banking, my 150k all in produces 5x their 300k all in does”
Is this deals or pitches? Usually associates will split deal work but not pitch work
Client based staffing, so for my group there’s no difference when it comes to workload and therefore no real excuse to not work on it. Valid point otherwise. I think what it comes down to is our team typically hires associates that would be considered the non-top tier MBAs and as such these people are generally pretty underwhelming. We’re talking guys who’d still be shitty at selling insurance if they didn’t somehow scheme their way into banking. In the grand scheme I would advise analysts to try to find groups like this because it helps tremendously wrt personal development and therefore PE/HF ops, but in the heat of the moment it really sucks to not have any associate support. Can say with confidence I am way closer with a handful of VPs than any of the associates
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