I’m so bad at this job
I’m an AN1 who hasn’t even been working for 6 months and I’m losing hope. I have no attention to detail and it’s not improving as much as I’d like. I get overwhelmed with all of the asks I get in one day and have a hard time remembering things. I feel like some of my senior analysts and associates have to step in to save my ass a lot. My anxiety is off the charts and I get sad having to get up to go to work every morning. My confidence is just overall in the gutter. Working the long M&A hours SUCKS too. My team is an absolute sweatshop.
I’ve kinda come to accept that this might not be the job for me. I just don’t have whatever it takes to be good at this job in me. I applied to grad school during my sr year of college and deferred my admission as a back up in case shit hit the fan. I miss academic life and won’t have to pay for this program. I honestly feel like giving up….
Sorry just venting… I just don’t know what I can do to get through each and everyday. I’m feeling so down on myself.
Bump
In my experience 6 months isn't the end all be all. Yes, we'd like to see continuous improvement but being your first job it is a ton to process and get the hang of. Generally by 1 year you should be in the swing of things.
Sure, the job is not for everyone and you may be far better at other things than banking. Banking is hard for alot of reasons, but many of those reasons are the same as you'd find at any other job.
Attention to detail, various tasks etc. All things that, with the right structure and system, can be learned. It's different than school, not just regurgitation.
So my suggestion, stick it out and keep trying for a year and then re evaluate, you made it this far.Be honest with yourself about where you're struggling and make a list. Then find a mentor or someone who can help you optimize how you go about things for each task.
You may need to spend time self studying, which, if you want to do this job, you may need to set extra time aside for.
Set yourself up with a system..
-If you can't remember things write it down, make a check list of to do every day and tick it off by end of day.
-clean your inbox out to only have active items/use folders
-If you have no attention to detail, I'm going to bet you review things on a screen.. Print it out and review in a separate room away from the distraction of pit
-Missing comments? Highlight the markup as you go.
-listening to music as you work? Should probably cut that until you can nail the job with 100% focus.
I'm sure others have good strategies as well, and every analyst and associate has struggled in some way, but it's a mentorship model, learn from your peers and seniors.
Little things will add up to make your life easier.
If you decide it's not for you, then more power to you and go find something you're good at.. It's not the end of the world.Just don't quit because it's hard. Life is hard, work is hard, but if you're meant to be an academic, then go for it if it makes you happy, money isn't going to buy that.
Just came here to say that the tips above really helped me, and OP, the first year is the hardest hands down. I suffered through many of the same things you described and have incrementally improved over time. Sure, my attention to detail is still a weakness, but I have gotten to be dependable and execute well on the majority of the things I am asked to do (they just may not always be right). Hang in there
This is more common than you think. Others in your group may be playing it off like it’s not happening to them, but it likely is. Everyone makes mistakes and it takes most folks at least a year to pick things up as the poster above me mentioned. Keep your head up and don’t let it get you down. The steep learning curve is real for most and it is expected for new hires for the most part. Just give yourself some time. Reflecting and being aware of your mistakes, then focusing on improving on them shows a lot of maturity and will pay dividends. You can be great at this job, believe that.
Bro everyone feels this way… No one fucking thinks to themselves “This is great! Definitely the job for me!”
can u reply to this comment with ur username so i can dm u? very similiar feelings also an 1 struggling
You should apply to VP in my group. We’re highly regarded and they are bad at their jobs as well.
You’ll figure it out man. You need to create ways to hedge mistakes for you. On a phone now, maybe I’ll Tue out more later. My group is really into incompetent VPs though which could be great exit opp for you.
Hey dude. We have all been there. You will be ok.
attention to detail is not a skill. It’s a discipline. I was terrible at this and I have learned to get better.
print everything you do and read everything. Look at the spelling. Punctuation. Formatting. Check numbers. Slowly. And you will get better at it.
regarding organisation WRITE THINGS DOWN can’t recommend it enough.
I use Trello to keep track of tasks - you don’t need to be super smart in this job, you need to be organised.
if you want someone to talk to or need advice reply to this and il PM you.
Hey man, it's a tough job. It's got a steep learning curve and it's really easy to feel down about yourself. If you ever get really anxious, I'd literally just sit down and try to clear your mind of the anxiety. It's not easy with people on you at all times, but even taking that 15 seconds to do two quick deep breaths to keep calm made a huge difference for me when I was really stressed.
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As for attention to detail, I really sucked at first too. Like really, really sucked.
Don't work in IB anymore (so honestly take my word with a grain of salt compared to the posters above), but something that I've really found has helped with attention to detail more generally is implementing paper checklists. It's not something I've heard from anyone else except for one former IB person at my current shop who did the same thing and attributes his qualities in attention to detail in large part to this.
For example, if you have a deck to give someone else, some line items might include:
You might note that many of these points might be quite cumbersome or time-consuming to check off. Literally looking at the checklist and manually checking things off ensures that you follow a consistent process to ensure the quality of the deliverables you work on. I assure you that this was a game-changer for me.
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