I'm curious how other first-year analysts are handling their first couple weeks on the desk and starting in a WFH environment. I've personally found it quite challenging to learn everything virtually and not having anyone next to me to ask a quick question. Would love to hear the experiences of other first-years and hear from y'all about how your banks are training you/getting you up to speed.
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Tbh I haven’t done anything yet. Literally sit with my email open and just read, Cook, do whatever. I’m on week 4 now
do you ask for work though?
Yea, I just talked to analysts and associates.
Same here - nobody seems to be comfortable to assign me work, since they’ve never met me and barely know who I am (I recruited FT). It’s quite underwhelming to be honest, and it’s been really challenging to develop proper working relationships with the team. I’m on a Week 6 and have just been sitting on my ass at home refreshing my email.
Same. I kind of feel like a burden because I don't know anything yet. I know the second years and associates in my office are working really hard right now, so I don't want to bug them with questions all day, but I also don't think they have much time to train me.
I’ve been going directly to analysts for work. Staffer basically ignored me when I asked for projects.
Same boat here. Buddies on sell side have been getting smoked but it’s just difficult to toss a brand new analyst (recruited FT as well) onto a live PE process
Phew, glad to hear it's not just me. What have you been working on in your free time then? The most I'm trusted to do now is to sit there and take notes on some calls. Maybe when an earlier-stage deal comes through the pipeline I might get tossed in there, but not likely until people actually start working again after Labor Day.
As a VP, this was always my concern with WFH.
I have no idea how the 1st years will be properly trained in this set-up. You then get into a situation where the 2nd years continue to be overworked and the 1st years don't come up the learning curve quick enough.
.
How will first years get evaluated? I feel like I’ve been getting work and getting it done but haven’t had any feedback. I don’t want to be annoying “hey, how did i do?”/“What does that mean” when everyone is getting crushed. Also, the learning curve has been flat. I feel like I haven’t learned to do anything faster (been on the desk for 2 weeks). Do you have any recommendations on how to go about this?
You should ask for feedback. I don't think anyone will find it annoying if you do it say once every two or three weeks or after a project wraps up.
lmao I am on week 6 with a BB and am fucking swamped with work. Training was 3 weeks long working 15 + hours a day (overtime pay was fat). Got thrown inot multiple transactions with little to no guidance except "Go pull quarterly financials and update model thanks".
working 15+ hours a day during training?
we were given less than a month to take licensing exams on top of an intense 1 week Accounting + Fin Modelling course with an exam at the end. If you failed the acg exam your start date was postponed. Had to balance studying for SIE + series without an instructor + following along on the accounting and FIn Statement course. Once the Fin and Acg course was over and I passed, I instantly got staffed on deals with firms heavily impacted by COVID without any training for the actual job while still studying. Absolute shitshow.
what kind of ridiculous training program did they have you on? we're like 10-5 at worst lol
idk man the team was busy as fuck and they needed bodies so they pushed us through training as fast as fucking possible. I am still fried from not sleeping. hours were like 8am to 10pm including meetings, training, courses, actual work, and then homework.
the actual work is a little boring. mainly updating financials, spreading comps, and general work. was not hard work just a lot. the best thing is that we are still hourly with OT until some time in September so paychecks have been amazing.
10-5? My training was more like 9-9/10 including homework.
Curious, what is overtime compensation like? Does it go on top of salary?
I've been getting a ton of work but don't really mind it. WFH makes everything so much better, have so much more freedom when that afternoon lull hits. But yeah, definitely harder to pick things up and learn in a virtual environment.
What do you typically do during that down time? Generally curious haha I usually just prep for PE recruiting if it ever happens
1st year here too. Barely any work. Spend my 12 hrs/ day just practicing LBO models, interview questions, and how to inflate random formatting tasks I've done to seem like actual transaction/deal experiences for interviews.... :'(
Well get through this hard time (PE recruiting) together
Still in training
I was supposed to be a first year but had my MM IB offer rescinded two weeks before graduation. Every day is pretty much a groundhog day, network/watch videos/review technicals/exercise in the afternoons and Warzone in the evenings. I'd switch spots with any of y'alls in a second.
Where was this?
That sucks - really puts my whining into perspective.
wanna play warzone?
Lol, If you PM me your PSN or Activision ID, I'll add you
Cantor?
No, I don't want to say it as they only take like around 10-12 analysts a year (before COVID), but they have been ripped pretty hard on WSO this summer and are featured in the terrible boutiques mini thread
Sounds like BGL
Work from home has devolved into live at work
Praying for you guys.
Seems like everyone is in the same boat here
First years are way underworked and second years are way overworked.
Deleted—post is not anonymous since my signature is still there. Odd.
I’m getting cranked harder than the dick of that dude who wrote a thesis about banks being pornstars.
there is a difference b/w fucking and getting fucked.
Not to change the subject, but I'll be doing FT after graduation. Do you recommend studying and taking the SIE before starting FT?
Nope. Wait until your bank tells you
Not to come across as a hardo, but any reasoning why?
Don't take it. The bank will send you prep guides and you'll do like a week long prep class during training. Also doing it ahead of time wouldn't really impress anyone. Those exams are just mindless memorization of rules/regulations and are pretty much just considered a nuisance so your not going to impress anyone by doing it early (they actual require no/little finance knowledge). If someone told me that in an interview they already took the exams I would probably think you're a weirdo because you used your last bit of freedom to study and take a dumb exam instead of other things
Disagree, if you have free time just knock it out. Just makes your life easier during training / work
How much time roughly does one have to study for SIE? In other words, can I do it in the month of May/June, after school, but before work starts?
I spread out studying over a period of about a month a half (took the exam a month after graduation) and felt like I could have easily passed if I had cut my study time in half. So I would say if you have some baseline finance knowledge you could pass with a couple (or even one honestly) weeks of studying.
Cool, thanks for feedback.
a month and a half????? my analyst class crammed it in 4 days
Not much work but sick and tired of working from my bedroom. It is absolutely miserable.
Started several weeks ago and already on six different deals. I have no idea what is going on half the time, and any learning comes from messing up something and requiring someone to explain it over the phone, which is an entirely different learning experience than in-person. As people have said above, the second-years and third-years (and associates) are all getting smoked, so they don't have the time or in-person accessibility to teach us. Just watching over someone's shoulder to see how s/he multi-tasks or even organizes email is essential to starting a new job like this, and the fact that we don't have that is absolute crap. I'm hoping that firms start bringing back juniors soon so that first-year analysts can finally take on some of the work.
As another first year... be careful what you wish for. I feel like WFH makes the notoriously difficult first 6 months that much more tolerable.
Not the other guy above but oh yea. I didn’t do much my first few weeks and it would have been absolute hell to do it in an office. 9-12 doing nothing? Pass
Isn't that learning curve necessary though? When you go back into the office 6 months later, you're likely going to be much worse than a typical first-year with six months under their belt.
Personally, I've barely interacted with the first years staffing is very strict in our office (only through the staffer).
2nd year here...
Definitely feel for our 1st years right now. Obviously a challenging environment to start in. The other thing to remember is that we (2nd years) haven’t actually met you yet, since you interned before we started. Plus we just came off of training this summer’s interns, and there was a lot of focus making sure they had a decent experience... so it’s definitely hard not to be a little burnt out with spending a bunch of time explaining things when it’s so much faster just to do it ourselves (especially when we are getting demolished)
That said, reach out, introduce yourself if you haven’t interacted. Even if we’re busy, eventually you’ll need to start building relationships. I pulled a bunch of 1st years into my deals because my staffer wasn’t cutting it and I needed people to help cover, and given I hadn’t actually spoken to half my new analysts, I wasn’t about to give them work.
Only other advice is to pay attention to the staffing sheet (if your group has one). See what other analysts have going on, who is on those deal teams, and then see what kind of materials are in those folders on the drive (if you can). Look at the models that have been built / materials created. One of the learning curves is figuring out the quirks of your senior bankers, since all of the MDs do things slightly differently, so the more decks etc. you’ve seen makes it more efficient when someone says “hey can you pull X” and you’ve already seen a slide you can leverage.
How would you go about ramping up now? I didn’t intern in IB so I don’t have the internal network and an internship under my belt. I know the technicals but I am having a tough time figuring how how to build a deck, role of an analyst/associate, when to do things, and when to take directions and when to go ahead and do work without being asked.
bump
Exactly what I’m struggling with too
If you really have a lot of free time. Try to recreate part of a pitch deck from scratch. Learn where to find your team's creds pages, where to find other stock materials you guys always use. Set-up a templates folder so you know where things are. Learn to know what to put in your Quick Access Toolbar and how to use your firm's shortcuts. People tolerate you much more if you are fast at the "easy stuff". Basically try to get to the point where if someone asks you to put together some pages you know where to find some of them off the bat before getting the mark-up.
anyone have good tips on how to be a good 1st year in this WFH environment?
so far i've just been introducing myself to the rest of the team and setting up intro calls. and some admin/IT stuff to get set up. week 2
keeping this thread alive so 1st years can update each other on how things are going
I’ve just hit the desk a few weeks ago and it’s rough. Have only been on one thing in the few weeks so I just sit around all the time. Ask for work but haven’t been getting any. Really missing the office now.
You could be getting fcked like me. I’d trade places with you
I'm in the exact same spot. Just been reading the news and checking emails since no work is given. Guessing you do the same?
Same, at a lower BB and have only done one thing so far. Just sit at my desk all day doing nothing.
in the same spot too lol but isn't it kind of nice though? like i rather spend most of my day chilling at home than have to get up earlier to commute to the office only to act like i'm doing work for 14-16 hours a day.
i'm going back to the office in a week and not looking forward to it at all lol
Few weeks in, same as the people mentioned above about little work. Group seems busy but I feel like it takes way more time to explain virtually how to do something then have to wait and check over it versus knocking out work themselves. I’ve had a few late nights but overall not bad at all (for banking standards).
so what do u do during those late nights? fixing up decks and data room stuff?
Similar situation as above. I re recruited full time and joined a new BB. Staffed, but only given very basic tasks. I recognize that it’s faster for the 2nd yrs and associates to just do a task themselves, so I try and screen share or listen in to how they’ll walk through something. But the longer they put off actually showing me how to do things, the longer it will be until I can actually help. Feeling generally lost at times in terms of what’s going on and why we are doing certain things, so it’s a bit harder to get clarity remotely with out bugging an associate. I feel kind of bad twiddling my thumbs all day but I’ve made it clear to everyone that I’m available if they need help, and I check in with every junior before logging off at night, where I’ll usually end up with more basic work if it makes their life a bit easier. It’s not the worst situation but would definitely be easier in person.
Everyone knows first years are available (or at least I do). The issue is the turnaround times in this environment are insane, so you can't have a new person do it because it takes too long. I don't care that it takes too long, the MD and client do. I do at least one fire drill a day, at minimum.
I joined early in my group three months ago and have been slammed...so can't relate as much to recently starting / not being busy. Been tough learning in a WFH environment and having information flows being very chaotic. That said, it isn't impossible and 80% of the work would probably be the same, it is mostly on the margin (i.e. late night comments suck a LOT more). Am glad for the experience I am getting but my days waver a lot between manageable and downright frustrating.
Anyone think about leaving?
Tbh it’s a thought everyone has had at one point, especially when your at the top of workload/stress. I know someone from Gs tmt left already but you can push through it
are you thinking of leaving because you're getting slammed or not getting any work?
Bumping this thread to see if any first-years have some updated experiences they'd like to share
Got killed a few times but still surviving. Team knows ramping up will be difficult from home so workload isn’t generally too much but overall enjoy WFH
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