~1 year into my IB analyst stint and feedback has been good work quality but I have to improve speed. Any advice beyond getting more reps in?
I try to be very diligent but trade off is speed suffers.
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Avoid taking a BlueChew at least an hour before heavy modeling to finish faster.
Is this what they mean when they say never hardcode?
I see CNBC commercials are also stuck in your head
Honestly as long as you don’t miss deadlines, go your own pace / speed that you can produce the highest quality of work with the least amount of mistakes
When it comes to modelling you should just spend some time on excel. Understand the mechanisms, rebuild them and generally get familiar with all shortcuts / try not using mouse at all. Overtime, this will make you quite efficient in excel. For ppt you have to find some ways to stay efficient, leverage existing materials, spot mistakes first time etc. this will also save you time. Overall, try to stay productive during the day, don’t procrastinate much, try to understand what you are doing so when you do it next time it comes natural. The more familiar you are with what you have to do the faster you will be. It takes time.
Box jumps, power clean, sub-maximal sprint workouts…
This is what I thought this thread was going to be about unironically and got really excited. I love this shit lol.
I have been trying to improve sprint speed this past year and have been trying out a whole bunch of stuff. Lots of lower body explosive lifts and plyometrics.
I’d prob add long jumps, atg squats and rdls to list. Overall hip / ankle / hamstring mobility has also helped immensely
Rebuild models in the drive from a blank excel file. I’m serious. Rebuild every single DCF / LBO model excel you can find from (ideally) a live process from scratch every day, at least one a day. You’re going to get tired wasting so much time recreating a model you will naturally become more efficient and start to itch to find shortcuts to make it go by faster. Bonus points the technical knowledge of how each formula in a valuation model works in and out
Do as many reps as possible - practice in your down time.
When you take over a model, really take it over. Learn how it works, what should change when you change assumptions/toggles. When you assume ownership, you know it better and you don't hesitate.
But, like someone else said, don't rush. If your work is being delivered without someone bitching, don't kill yourself trying to be the fastest - you'll only get more work.
Ignore it - this profession is full of insecure assholes who will fake feedback just to have something negative to say. Speed is a common fake feedback item as it’s difficult to disprove, and even if you’re an Excel/PowerPoint wizard you should in theory always try to be faster.
Be happy they included something positive and try not to think about it again. You’re probably faster than the average analyst in your start class.
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