How many edits/comments do you get on your decks?
Title is self explanatory - is it normal for your associate/VP/MD to have a ton of edits and comments on the decks you submit? I'm talking anything from content to minor formatting errors.
I feel like I'm pretty good at catching mistakes, but every slide always has requested changes. Some are 1-2, others are 7-8. Is this normal and just something I will get better at as I spend more time in IB? Fwiw I've only been on the job for about a month now.
I get a lot. Following
In strategic finance so maybe my exp is slightly different, but always get a lot of comments on decks. Sometimes small, sometimes big. The most confusing comments are ones where we've done something a certain way before and change it as per comments and then eventually we change back to the first thing lol.
Thanks for the response man, have had many times where my director asks me to change a sentence and in the next version wants it changed again. Doesn't make sense lol
Pretty common especially if you're a month in. Even then, most of my decks make it to ~30 versions and some up to 70 versions - banking is wildly inefficient and the 70th version will 99% still have errors, honestly unless it's some huge board deck the 5th version is probably fine enough. The best is when your VP and MD keep changing a single sentence's wording on one slide and you have to send it back up each time...
Content is their change and not your fault - just try to recognize the formatting errors, maybe write them down if you keep making the same mistake. In a few months you'll have more of an eye for these small things and make the changes automatically.
What are the most common errors that you see with formatting? I know for us the common culprits will be recurring metrics (EBITDA on multiple slides not matching), text color, font, and size. Just curious with no banking exp what the other common pitfalls are with formatting.
Mine are usually text, color, font, logos not being perfectly aligned and the occasional missing period/comma.
I appreciate the response, wasn't sure if it was just me or if I should be creating better content. Many times they'll have no problems with a sentence, and then on the next iteration they want it changed.
I'm definitely picking up on more formatting errors and developing an eye for it, but always seem to miss a few. Really trying to correct this but know that it will come with time. My ability to spot mistakes has already gotten 10x better since the first day. I've found that printing out the deck and reviewing a paper copy helps tremendously.
Several years into private equity, stellar reviews, and I’ve never once had a deck without comments. I think seniors tend to view providing comments as a must to show that they’re contributing.
Same with model errors, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a full model without some error somewhere, even from top banking teams and megafunds… though usually the mark of a “good” model is that it’s just an immaterial detail or memo line that everyone ignored
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