Have you guys ever seen an analyst get fired?
Have you guys ever seen an analyst get fired? If so, What for? Curious if there are any good stories out there.
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I have fired one analyst before. He was 22 or so, interviewed and tested extremely well, had great recommendations and internships. Started off really poorly with a heavy "bro" attitude of hitting up strip clubs several times a week and coming to work hung over. His work quality was sloppy and associates were complaining about him. After 6 months of this we put him on a PIP and he didn't pass it. My one partner was pushing to let him go but I wanted to give him another shot. In the end it was best that we parted ways as he just couldn't act professionally and get basic work done without mistakes. Never have I seen such a strong interviewer not be able to hold down a basic job...
dang that is rough
Not me personally but curious about PIP in finance. I know in tech it is viewed as pretty much of a you need to find another job. From your senior perspective, is it an opportunity to turn it around or is it a similar interpretation to tech?
It basically means the next step is firing you but they need a paper trail (which is what the PIP lays out). In select circumstances, with a lot of hard work and with supportive seniors, you can use it as an opportunity to own up to past mistakes, have a come to jesus meeting with your seniors and turn it around.
Realistically though, most people just use it as a grace period to find a new job and continue to mail it in. The problem is even if you DON'T get fired, you still know your bonus is going to be shit and you're going to run into issues at promotion time so there's no reason to stick it out in most cases.
I believe it stands for "Performance Improvement Plan."
It's a process thing. I fired a few traders/analysts under me before.
I didn't even care about improving them on PIP.
If I care, I would have given feedback for them to improve BEFORE PIP.
If it has to come to putting people under PIP, they simply lost my trust and they're 100% gonna be chopped.
Is the bro attitude itself a problem or is it only a problem if it has consequences on his work? So like say he went to strip clubs but didn't come to work hung over, would that be okay? Also, how did you know he went to strip clubs - did he go with colleagues or did he talk about it?
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Link to the video? Can't find it anywere
If you recall, when you sign your employment contract, it's a 2-year long commitment with renewal contingent on performance.
I haven't seen anyone get fired but saw someone basically get bagel'd come AN2 bonus time and told they are not getting a renewed offer. It was a purely performance-driven decision. Sucks.
This was at a BB in NYC.
I think at our bank it is employment at will
Virtually every job in the States is, it’s just that firing an employee opens you up to legal problems (discrimination, wrongful termination, wage lawsuits), whereas just letting them go off into the sunset doesn’t (or at least not nearly as much)
I saw it once, dude was a nepotism hire (dad worked in PE or something like that and was friends w/ some of the senior bankers at my old firm) and just couldn't hack it. Had the cube next to him and guy was just so slow at everything, even super simple tasks like updating comps or tombstones files (seriously), made a shit ton of mistakes, and then would constantly make excuses about why whenever something was wrong how it wasn't his fault. It was honestly painful hearing the constant feedback given to this guy by senior analysts and associates who had to constantly babysit him. Unfortunately because of his dad he wasn't like fired fired, but pushed out by setting him up w/ an analyst gig at some random boutique.
3 analysts were let go from the MM IB I worked at as an analyst. The shitty thing was they weren’t even the worst, there were others who should have been fired ahead of them. The first was very committed to rowing and it was viewed he wasn’t sufficiently committed to the job. The second was having a hard time on their deals, they weren’t bad enough to get canned but they weren’t being fought for either. The third was just unlucky, he had never built up good relationships with seniors during his time there so there were no MDs fighting for him. The second also got unlucky with this, there were weaker analysts who should have been let go if done on merit, but they had MDs who liked them fighting for them.
Interestingly, all 3 are now in much better spots. They’ve ended up at a top BB, an EB, and a good credit fund.
Always suck to see analyst that are in a tough spot get canned.
Ye it was pretty shitty. Some teams were very lean, analysts often worked directly for VPs or Ds on deals. If they weren’t technically strong they ended up floundering badly due to lack of support from an associate or senior analyst who could take on more challenging workstreams.
Me. I was depressed as fuck during COVID and went on a month long bender. My boss called to scream at me after I successfully avoided him for two / three weeks by pretending to have COVID, which he knew was bullshit but employers in LA basically were helpless to call employees' bluffs at the time, and I surprised him by coming 100% clean about everything. Was depressed as shit and had gotten a major surgery recently so I was apartment-bound with nothing to do besides take all the prescription drugs I was prescribed. He actually was surprisingly sympathetic and was going to let me stay, but I was having issues from coming off-of sleeping pills cold turkey so instead he put together a separation agreement for me with HR, let me resign voluntarily, kept me on payroll & insurance for three months and let me collect my bonus (paid in March even though I got canned/resigned in January).
Yep, I'm an idiot. Moral of the story is that sometimes your best and only option is to come clean and hope for mercy. Within 2 months I was back to feeling like my jolly, motivated self and found another great gig with a HL/Cowen tier bank.
thanks, man. recently passed up on an exit op that I spent a lot of time working toward because I got extremely anxious and decided I'd rather stay in my current role that I'm familiar with and pays in-line. It's been a month and I feel far better already. Hopefully back to interviewing and finding the right next opportunity for me by this time next month
Heard through the grapevine that one of my old college acquaintances got busted doing coke in the bathroom at his small MM bank. No surprise, the dude would crush 3-4 grams a night partying back in college and I guess he was never able to break it.
Has buddy never heard of vyvanse or adderal?
I’ve seen an analyst get fired / pushed out. It’s almost an exact repeat of the situation several commenters described above. This person wasn’t even the worst analyst in our group, but unfortunately a couple people at the senior level just didn’t like them. Of course they made some mistakes here and there, but show me the analyst that’s never made a mistake.
Problem is once seniors in banking form an opinion of you, it rarely changes. If they don’t like you, then all your mistakes are because you’re a complete fuckup. If they like you, then all your mistakes are always bad circumstances.
That is what I have come to realize.
100%.
I have worked with VPs that were useless, they stayed on. The top ones were canned. Clients could not believe it, MDs made up stories e.g. "they decided to change careers". Useless guidance from the VPs, opposing everything analysts and associates would say even though they were on the mandates before they were handed over, mandates went down to shit, MDs still thought they had made a good decision.
Knew an analyst that got fired for recruiting and also sending documents to outsiders (but not maliciously) using firm email. Funny thing is he's in a way better seat right now.
That's pretty bad.
Not if it’s just resumes / case study outputs. Was that the case, OP?
A lot of people have hinted at this but all of the Analysts I've seen that fucked up and got pushed out, ended up going on to better gigs.
One of my Analyst peers basically got pushed out by an aggressively shitty Senior Associate he was sort of paired with at the start of our Analyst stint. The dude was a complete hardo and didn't even care about quality of work he just wanted to see people work long hours and produce massively lengthy deliverables. Quantity over quality guy. The Analyst (cool dude btw) had a side-gig with his family (owned/operated a sushi spot) and had no desire to log 90 hour weeks consistently for a total douchebag.
He used the meeting in which the douchebag Associate and the Associate's Director were laying out his "Performance Probationary Period" to let them both know he was going to a well-known PE firm. The best part is I know for a fact the douchebag Associate wanted to go buy-side as an Analyst but couldn't and was super bitter about it. Myself and another Analyst actually took the opportunity to shit on the Associate to his Director that he always dickrode. We talked up the Analyst that left and made it sound like we all thought it was a super big loss to the group because he was a good Analyst, thus making him question the Associate's judgement on running the kid into the ground.
Based and friendpilled
Wait, I have to share the line my buddy dropped when talking to the Director about the Analyst that got rubbed out by a douchebag Associate.
He says to the Director, who knew the Associate was the only one having problems with the leaving Analyst, "Wow, dagger. I talked to him a few weeks ago and thought he was for sure in it for the long-haul. I wonder what changed?"
Literally passive aggressive corporate speak for oh wow he must have left because person XYZ is a douche.
That is rough my dude. Glad you are on the other side of that now.
I joined a tier 2 BB in London as an analyst in London in 2010. Out of a class of 60, 40 had been fired 18 months later. 10 were fired just after training. Very rough for ppl to find another spot at the time. Obviously was worse for more senior ppl. So yes lol.
2009-2010-2011-2012 were brutal.
For 2011-2012 more in Europe than the US (Greek crisis, etc.)
What was the reasoning for firing?
Recession / crisis / deal flow
I’ve only seen an analyst get terminated for failing a series exam twice
I mean that's a pretty fair reason.
Me. This was during COVID, was having a sort of existential crisis and got involved in a romantic relationship which was incredibly toxic and took up all of my time and energy. To make matters worse, I was excessively partying and using a shit ton of drugs everyday and throughout the week as I was working from home and my girlfriend at the time was fond of the lifestyle as well. I would take hours to respond to emails, lie about how much capacity I had to take on new staffings, and take an absurd amount of time to complete simple tasks. Head of the group and an MD reached out to me to ask about this drop in performance and warned that if I didn't step it up they wouldn't promote me to associate when the time came in a couple months. This scared me a little and I made some improvements, but, when the time came, it was too late. I wasn't promoted and they gave me till the end of my third year as an analyst to leave. Which was incredibly kind of them, 6 months to find a new job. This was a big wake up call to me, my time was up at my current firm and I had to find a new gig. Ended up finding a new gig, went from MM to working at BB and recently got promoted to Associate. Was really lucky to job market was hot at the time, and now I'm loving this new role. Felt like I got a second chance at life again.
So I'm not the only one who used COVID to go MIA and splurge on drugs like a tard???? No wonder my MD was so understanding lol.
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