How to be a Successful Analyst: Do's and Don'ts
Looking for current analysts and experienced professionals to give advice on this topic. No matter what sector of finance you are in. Thanks!
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2nd year analyst here-
- Once you've finished a project, whether it be turning comments on a deck, comps updates, a model, etc. take 5min and step away from your desk. Do literally anything else - check the news, text a friend, whatever before coming back and reviewing your work. I've found that putting some distance between myself and the ask helps me catch more mistakes.
- Always spell check everything before sending (F7)
- Take a stab at playing up, whether it be crafting language for a page in a deck or choosing companies to go into your comps, it's always a good look to at least attempt doing more than the bare minimum
- Sanity check your assumptions in a model - ask yourself if you were investing in this company and the only thing you had to go off of was this model, do the assumptions make sense?
- Spend at most 30-45min trying to figure something out - after that, ask someone else and WRITE DOWN what they tell you. This prevents you from asking the same question twice. Personally, I keep a word doc for each project I've worked on, whether it be a deal or a pitch, broken down by category (ppt q's, excel, etc.) so I can reference them before asking my ASO or VP
- Over communicate - I've gotten into the habit of updating the ASO I'm working with (or VP if there's no ASO on the project) what my bandwidth looks like / the other projects I'm working on so they're aware of what's going on in the background. Makes thing easier when I push back on an ask due to another project being more time sensitive
- Take the time to connect with people outside of your immediate circle (aka analyst class) - if you have a few minutes each week, shoot the shit with your ASO / VP (if you have that type of relationship w/ them - more so with ASO's than VP's). Helps build camaraderie and definitely helps when it comes time for them to review you
- For public clients that you cover, setup alerts on bamsec so you're notified whenever a new filing is uploaded. Scan these for any M&A news, anything spoken about capital allocation decisions / acquisition appetite, and prepare a brief email to the MD that covers said client / your client team summarizing the info. This also applies for earnings summaries, especially if you're interested in leaving for a HF someday - great habit to build
This list is definitely not exhaustive and I'm sure others will have more ideas, but the above are some tips that my second year told me when I joined that've been very helpful. Happy to go into more detail.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Bruh this is so helpful you dont even know - appreciate it
Happy to help
🙏
Commenting so I can come back to this comment.
Yes
Super helpful man, thank you
No problem, good luck
Great list!
Thanks!
Really great stuff!
Much appreciated - glad I could be helpful
Bump on analyst advice
commenting for reference - super useful!
This is great
All of these assume you have free time (ie need more time to do). When under the shotgun 24/7 it’s difficult to go above & beyond
Absolutely. When under the gun it's much harder to do the above. I've found that building these habits when things slow down help a ton when I'm slammed. The commentary re checking work / spell checks / stepping away apply no matter what the time constraint. Always better to have things take marginally longer and be right, than for something to get out quick only for your ASO / VP to come back with a block of comments.
Helpful
This is great stuff — applies equally to PE associate role, btw.
Good to hear.
Super helpful!
Damn this blew up. Glad people found this helpful - if there's interest I'll do another post on mistakes I've seen new analysts (myself included) make that's impacted their ranking / reputation in the group.
Yes, I'd find it helpful if you have the time to do it!
do it!
Thanks!
Commenting to keep for later reference
This is great
.
Equally applicable for associates btw
This was helpful. I'm glad I some of these things already. Great post!
Very helpful. Thank you!
Thanks!
Thanks
Bamsec reminders are huge, can't tell you how much that helps with impressing MDs if you just put all your core clients and prospects on the watchlist
Very helpful thank you!
The #1 most important tip to succeed and be a top bucket analyst (and honestly this applies to any job) is to always be proactive. Like others have mentioned, this involves looking for ways processes can improve or ways that you can progress a deal along / get ahead of things to make your superiors lives easier. This can most easily be thought of as doing the job of someone who is the next stage above you (so for analysts, that would be doing the associate's job).
This tip is also one of the hardest things to do though, especially when you are already at full capacity. If this is the case, you definitely don't want to be in the situation where you try to be proactive on things but end up producing subpar work products on both the things you're expected to do and the things you're being proactive on.
It's a hard balance to strike but generally, try to do what you can to make the whole team's lives easier in a deal. Think of this deal as if you're the one in charge and suggest or do things that would be beneficial for the deal team / would please the client.
Again, much easier said than done, especially if you're at full capacity on many high priority things already in an industry where you're already working so many hours.
Fuck being a successful analyst. I'll take being a mid-bucket analyst for $10k less bonus any day of the week....
Yeah, this sounds like so much additional work for little benefit. Seems a little wild that to be "successful" you should be doing the person above you's job, especially as a first year who is finding the ramping up process to be slow, but maybe it's more clear when you're in the office.
Completely get the feeling. New first years are arguably having the shittiest banking experience in decades. Insane workload and little to no on the job teaching? It's absurd that you guys are expected to be operating like my class was at this point. It's brutal and I'm not sure if I would've stayed had my first year been like this.
I've been trying to be helpful to my first years - to the extent any of yall need support don't hesitate to reach out via dm.
I see where you are coming from. On salary, I think you should also keep in mind the increased benefits over the long haul in your career if you make sure you build up rocksolid habits that lead to excellent performance.
And while, yes more money, in general is great. For me, I want to be able to perform excellent at my job because I know how these habits will influence my current career, my future career, and quite frankly also all other aspects of my life i.e. how I train my body, what I put into my buddy, the quality of sleep I allow myself to get. How thoughtfull and good spirited I will be in relationsship etc.
There is alot to gain to striving for that in the short and long term. Also, there are always less busy periods throughout the year where you can recover and spin the other plates of life I feel. PS. I am not in M&A/Deal environment currently.
Good business analysts are rare nowadays tho.
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/dos-and-donts-first-time-analyst-gig-on-the-horizon?page=0#comment-1712892
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Great comments here
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When it comes to marketing materials and other deliverables, think about the flow, voice over, or talk track while reviewing your work. Remember, whether a pitch or set of marketing materials, someone needs to be able to speak to whatever is on the slide in a clear and coherent manner.
Great tip. Any recommendations. What about Oren Klaff's "how to pitch anything."?
Don't break your back trying to impress MDs who don't care about you. Try to optimize work/life balance, learning experiences, and most importantly compensation. Working an extra 10-20 hours a week for an extra $5k-$10k in pre-tax bonus (~$2.5k-$5.5k after tax) is just not worth it at all. Few tips that I found to "game the system":
This is great.
Nice
😈😈
Excellent tips bro thanks 🙌🏿
Super helpful, thank you so much
Very good advices!
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Awesome list
Awesome list
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