Kicked off a deal
Hey fellow monkeys, feeling disappointed and anxious here
I got staffed into one of the most landmark deal recently, alas I made a screw up which irritated my deal team and irked the client abit. Post the fuck up, I was ever so quietly kicked off the deal (removed from DL, etc.), then I eventually learned another analyst has been staffed on that deal replacing me.
Has this ever happened to anyone? 1. I feel really disappointed cuz I must be a shitty analyst 2. Feeling anxious as my team did this without telling me at all, it's like a stab in the back almost.
What type of mistake was it?
Missed one aspect of the deliverable, which resulted in my deal member having to rush it like 4-5AM (timezone difference with client). By then my exhausted ass has hit the bed and was soundly sleeping.
Was this deal member a senior to you? I would guess that if it was an associate/VP that they just got really pissed off and asked to take you off the team
I don’t know man, that’s a bit strange you were directly submitting things to the client and your associate wasn’t 100% certain the deliverable fulfilled what was asked
What actually happened was assoc caught the missed deliverable, had to cover my fuck up till late night. As a result, we had to push back client a bit, so they didn't see the fuck up but am sure they weren't too happy about being pushed back.
Fml bro.
That really sucks. Not much you can do now except try to be really proactive on your remaining deals.
Ok I just read your other responses and realized I made a similar (but less material) mistake in my first week. Was turning comments on this deck and missed a message asking me to send it to our MD. I was working on something else so my associate just sent it instead. Felt terrible since it was like 2am his time and he thought I was asleep or something. In the end it was fine and he just told me to be more aware in the evenings. We’ve kept in closer contact on deliverables and it’s helped a ton since then.
The handoff / sign off is pretty key. Like my teams span NY and LA so I point folks to my work on the drive so they can find it before I sign on the next day. Sounds like your associate shouldn’t have given you the all clear when he did. Communication error and I would argue it was not entirely your fault.
Hi there, so there's almost always never been anybody who has made mistakes on deliverables, but lets concede that your bosses kind of lost face to the client as they had to post pone the meeting, which sometimes happens to the best of us.
Owning the mistake could go a long way, really reflect on what could have gone wrong, blame game is a natural defense mechanism, does not help you at all especially when communicating with seniors.
If there is ever the right situation, and this associate seems like a decent person, talking it out based on how you would improve would help to kind of bridge the gap that has been created. Doesn't solve the problem overnight, but they may come to think of you from a different light. I am sure the same Associate has done mistakes back in his day of some sort, so unless he's super crazy should be accepting.
Having said that your tone, reflection content truly matters, if it is going to sound fake dont do it, but if you can genuinely have a discussion on what went wrong at the right time, might help to improve their perception of you and the mistake that was made.
Mistakes happen sometimes, not the end of the world, cheers!
Not the worst mistake i've ever heard of but not great but its all about the client and us bankers are disposable. My buddy at a PE firm was running a sale process and the analyst of their sell-side banker (Credit Suisse... lolz) sent the 1st round bid summary to ALL THE BUYERS. Its about the worst thing you can do.
I really don't get this...you missed something which - from what i understand - was spotted by the Aso / VP during review before it goes out to the client. Is this correct? If so, what kind of fked up firm / team is this? Even Laz Paris sounds like a fluffy kindergarten full of love compared to this..
Yea, but when they caught it I have long gone hitting the bed thinking I've done all, so my asso had to stay all night covering for me. Which is why they mad and kick me.
Praying that I won't get kicked from the firm lmao.
You’re definitely not going to get kicked out for this. People make mistakes, but the crux of the issue seems to be that you sent a deliverable to the Associate to check and ended to up going to sleep / not confirming there were additional comments to turn. That is on you for not thinking if there was anything else before turning in for the night knowing a critical deadline existed.
That being said, it sounds like the Associate / VP did a shitty job managing client expectations and deadlines if it just took one mistake from you to push a meeting / caused an Associate to work all night.
In more detail, I did check and ask my assoc if all good and anything else could be done to which he said "No, thanks". He caught the one missed item like 1hr ltr after I have dozed as I had a very tough day.
Basically my deal team berated me on two angles: 1. for missing an item 2. for not standing by all night
Thanks for the reassurances. Tbh this gives me major paranoia...
What the hell? Did he try calling you and you missed his call? Or multiple calls?
If he said no thanks to anything else for the night and didn't even bother to pick up the phone to call you to wake you up, that's 100% on him imo.
Say it with me Analyst monkeys:
"I will talk to my actual teammates in person before asking for advice from anonymous monkeys on WSO"
Communication is key fellas
Sounds like horrible expectation management from all levels, and you bore the blame. The next 5-10 deliverables matter, so be on your game, and this will fade away!
I guess that having the “you’re out of the deal” conversation is never easy to have, especially If it is because a mistake, however hiding it from you was not the right way to proceed. I can imagine how bad you must feel, and working with any of these deal team members in the future will be uncomfortable and awkward after what happened.
Having said that, it seems there has been a luck of time management and supervision here. If you’re an A1 they shouldn’t rely that much on you, and check out constantly how are you doing to ensure you will deliver the right thing, but as always the analyst is the easiest to blame.
Dude I am so sorry that happened. Yes you fucked up, and the team was right to let you know you fucked up. After that, the right thing to do was to let you continue working on the deal so you can learn from your mistakes and display growth and maturity and ability to push on despite pressure / setbacks. Star analysts are born after they make mistakes and realize they never want to make that mistake again, so they put checks and balances and methods in place that ensure things get done right moving forward.
Instead of investing in you, your team just silently take you off the assignment like a bunch of passive aggressive bitches. What, do they think that the other analyst will NEVER make a mistake the entire process? This is a horrible way to treat a first year analyst. You shouldn’t take it personally and just continue working hard improving until you get your next deal. You’re not improving for them, you’re improving for you, so you can enjoy the job and eventually lateral to better bank or opportunity. It’s a matter of time.
Only remotely positive thing I have to say is sometimes getting absolutely professionally fucked by your coworkers is a good thing. Opens your eyes. Makes you stronger. Finance is a shit eating business. You’ll work 3 weeks in a row on a bake-off only to lose the mandate.You’ll work 4 months on a deal only to have it die (and come back to life 2 months later). You’ll work 2 years for a group and lose a promotion to someone less deserving. Times like this are when you learn to steel yourself. Things always get better.
Yea, especially after they reassured me that I won't get kicked from the deal.
Thanks mate, very helpful.
Yea it seems like all around communication problems - the Associate should have checked thoroughly before signing off the okay and VP should have at least woken up early to check if the deliverable was going fine, and if it didn't, he should have pulled up his sleeves to make the deadline if he was the one setting it. Of course you made a mistake which did not help the situation.
If it makes you feel better any mistake that analyst or associate makes, VP is the one shouldering the most burden. Hopefully he learns his mistake and manages people better.
It's a more minor mistake than you think it is. Don't let it happen again as it's the kind of repeat mistake which would annoy people a lot. Find a way of making sure you remember all your deliverables, for me that was writing them down on a notepad on my desk and crossing them off when they were closed off. It was simple but worked well.
We've kicked people off a deal from time to time- usually 2 reasons- they've done nothing wrong but it was so tight of a deadline additional people slowed us down or we couldn't trust their work and checking their mistakes slowed us down. You should know which category you fall into. Trust your gut.
In VC? Or is this back in banking
Back in banking- I've been working for over 20 years now.
Is it common practice to kick people silently instead of letting them know why they have been let go from the deal?
Would you think a kick from a deal foreshadows a kick from the firm?
It's more common when under a tight deadline to just move on to someone with the skills/ capacity to handle it without making it a big deal. It happens and usually is spoken about after. It's even happened to me when i was a new analyst- more than once in my 20+ years..
I'd encourage OP to ask about it- but wait to do so. No- I would not say it's a precursor for being fired at all. This kind of thing happens a lot and you just suck it up and move on.
I think how you handle being kicked off is more relevant to your long term career than actually being kicked off a deal.
What was the missed deliverable?
Geez guys are we really gonna blame OP for getting some sleep at 4-5am? Sounds like a really toxic and petty thing they did. I got kicked off a project (buyside) recently because I pushed back too much and I also felt the self blame and guilt. But at the end of the day I realized it was not my fault and they’re the ones that gotta learn how to be professional.
I do think it’s really toxic they removed you silently though. You deserve an explanation. It’s a basic decency in the workplace and they failed that. Big culture red flag
It happened to me about 6 months into the job. We had just launched a sell side, my first. MD wanted the call log updated by 3pm so he could review it before calling the client at 5pm. Problem: nobody told me that. I assumed it's fine if MD gets it by 4:30, even 4:45. How much lead time could he need? It's one page summary of calls that he made to buyers earlier that same day. So now its 3pm, I haven't even started the work (which is essentially turning notes into a nicely formatted one pager - 30 mins). I'll get to it soon.
VP comes to me at 3pm and asks where it is. I say I'll get started soon. He practically has a heart attack in front of me. Tells me its needed now. Has zero regard for the fact that 3pm is the wrong time to tell me something is needed by 3pm. So I'm like OK no problem, I'm on it. He storms off.
I shit you not, he was back at my desk 5 minutes later expecting it to be done. Think about that. 5 minutes ago he was freaking out that it's not done (implying that it will take some time) and now its 3:05 and he thinks it will be done? I'm like sorry man, I didn't know, but I'm rushing right now and it'll be done by 3:30. He has another heart attack. He's in complete disbelief that (i) I failed to meet a deadline nobody told me about and (ii) I failed to do a 30 minute task in 5 minutes.
By 4pm I was off the deal and told to talk to my group head. Group head tells me that this will all be a forgotten incident in a few months if I just don't fuck up again. And he was right. Got top bucket. But quite sure I'd be bottom or worse if I did fuck up again (not that any of this was my fault).
tl;dr everyone has seen this happen before, your job to make sure its a fluke and not a pattern
That's what my deal captain told me too when it happened. You fucked up, but no biggies, ppl will forget, just don't fuck up again.
I actually had another massive fuck-up a year after my first one. But a year was long enough for the first one to be forgotten. Just keep trying your best, you'll be fine.
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