First Year Analyst Taking Vacation
What are your thoughts on first year analysts taking vacation? For example a Monday-Friday off?
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For a time that would be 4 or 5 months into the job?
Once you have been on the desk for 7-8 months, you should have accumulated enough social capital to ask for vacation days as a first year.
What if we just need one or two days for something?
In my group, no first years took any vacation until March except for one person who needed a day for a funeral. It's definitely group / deal flow/ situation dependent.
If you need it for a Health problem or family emergency then you can probably take it.
Jesus relax folks. Plenty of first years can take a friday here and there (for a wedding, a weekend trip w s/o, time around thanksgiving, xmas, etc). That being said I dont think its normal to take a full week as an AN1 at least until your there for 6-7 months.
Companies have a bad culture because of people like you
What dude, in what universe do you live in where its acceptable in your first few months to take a full week vacation. It 100% is allowed if discussed before you start your job (family trips, etc), however, it does not matter if you are working in IB or not. You earn respect and need to learn and get acclimated before just taking week long vacations.
Couple of things here.
1. Your ire is completely misdirected here. No one gives a fuck if an analyst has an issue with another analyst taking vacation days. However, at least in every group at my bank, VPs and MDs would be stupified at the thought of an AN1 taking a week off this early on the job. Maybe a completely different dynamic at other banks, but would have never considered asking my group head for a week off before I'd established myself as useful/necessary to the group.
2. You should be intentionally getting as many reps as possible at the 2-3 month mark. This should be the inflexion point where you start understanding what is expected of you on deliverables and how to efficiently reach that expectation w/out fucking up. Start taking time off when you actually have the job down.
3. As someone who does not care for many aspects of the banking culture (and is leaving in the very near-term), an analyst 2-3 months in taking a week off is a bad look for several reasons. Going back to #2, this is peak learning/reps time - if you're not pre-occupied w/ improving to the point where you're not a liability and no longer need hand-holding, your priorities are fucked. You haven't been on the desk long enough to be burnt out or in need of a vacation. You probably have been a net non-value add to this point, so rewarding yourself w/ a week-long vacation (which will represent 10%+ of the time you've been on the job) is going to be poorly received.
Lastly and most importantly, analysts are not paid what you are getting paid for any reason other than them being willing to grind their asses off and if you're perceived as unwilling / unable to do so, ppl are rightfully going to wonder why you're there. At this point in your career, you aren't being paid because you're smart or perform any function that any other warm, willing body wouldn't be able to perform. Most good analysts really hit their stride at the 6-8 month range, start getting out ahead of deliverables, having incrementally value-additive ideas, and no longer requiring any hand-holding from associates or VPs. Until you've hit that point and earned some respect from the guys in your group, stay at the desk and don't book any week-long vacations. Unless (100% unsarcastic) you truly don't care if it rubs ppl the wrong way and aren't going to be upset if there's any blowback.
I have a faint memory of this being discussed in my analyst class in 2015. I’m not sure then people took much vacation if any until maybe 6 months in / after the first main rush of PE recruiting it seemed like. Granted, this was like the first year the bank I was at instituted a protected week long vacation policy for analysts I believe so it was already kind of a struggle to try to implement that into the reality of deal teams and deliverables. Hopefully now it’s less of an issue to actually use the allotted vacation days. But anyway, like at any corporate job I think vacation days may need to be earned over time. I think they generally may accrue as a person works days over the course of a year but prob every place is different in that sense. Either way, best wishes and good luck :)
The only Monday - Friday that could be justifiable as a first year would be over the Christmas holiday, and MAYBE Thanksgiving (which usually has a lot of Weds-Fri + some Tues-Fri, and also usually involves getting interrupted at many points on that, hopefully not on Thursday).
I tried to travel my first Christmas week, and ended up with my laptop on the beach on Christmas / with about 1.5 days off that week.
The best time to try to sneak a week be in August, when lots of senior people are out, but no guarantees as a first year.
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What if we’re moving to the city from WFH is that a reason?
You can do that on a weekend. You don't need an entire week.
Been in banking for 3+ years (in a group notorious for having the longest hours at my bank) and don't really understand the stigma around taking a vacation. Obviously it'll be frowned upon if your week-long vacation jams those above you during a busy period and makes their life a living hell, but if you can't take a week off (yes, even as a first year analyst) during a slow summer week, there's some serious cultural issues in your group.
As those above mentioned, as long as you've:
1) Proven you're a driven, hardworking analyst during your first few months on the job
2) Checked with respective deal teams to ensure your files are quiet / your absence won't be sewering anyone else (associates and VPs vacations will take priority)
3) Ensured there's proper coverage during your absence (either ability to work remotely as needed, or have another analyst who can cover)
There shouldn't be an issue with first year analysts taking a week-long vacation. I feel like majority of the stigma is self inflicted with 1st year analysts afraid of asking, thinking it'll impact their respective rankings. I've been a consistent top bucket performer and have never had any pushback from seniors on taking a week to unplug if needed (often encouraged and they ask the rest of the deal team to limit email traffic during my absence).
It seems to me that all your 3 points listed imply subtly why an analyst should NOT take a vacation. Tons of problems here actually.
Someone in my class took a week vacation after ~3 months on the job. People (including myself) talked a lot of shit about them, but looking back, we were just super insecure and jealous. If all jr bankers start asking for more respect, including being able to take time off, it'll benefit everybody in my opinion.
If u work at BofA go for it lol no one will care
You’re required to at MS.
Source?
Worked there. You’re required to take two protected weeks per year as an analyst. It’s pretty enforced across IBD groups. Some analysts were forced to take vacation in December.
I guess most of the discussion is related to US/NYC. What about London?
In London, every first year I know as well as myself took at least 4 weeks off. The only caveat being is the majority was taken after the 6 month mark but no one cared if you needed a day or two for weddings/sibling's graduation/etc.
You SHOULD definitely take vacation. Book them early on and if it becomes busy ask for cover. A week is definitely OK. Even 2 weeks during summer / winter. If your group has a terrible culture it may affect your ranking slightly but 1) I would rather take vacation and earn a couple $k less than not taking vacation 2) people are so busy they will quickly forget 3) people will actually respect you if you show you’re not ready to dance like a monkey all year round 4) you’re not so important than no one else can do your work.
some guys in my group haven’t taken vacation for the first year almost, and this was incredibly stupid from my perspective.
PS: I’m based in London.
Some banks require time off these days. I personally encourage vacations but think 4-5 months is a little quick to take a full week, maybe I'm just old - but you can certainly take 1-3 days if needed. If you're asking this for some major family event like a wedding, teams are more understanding than if you're just wanting a vacation.
Very acceptable to take a full week around February/March/April.
5 months in if you’ve been working 90 hour weeks is a very long time with no break, so a week doesn’t seem absurd tbh.
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