Mid-Year Review - Do I Light Up My MD?
Mid year reviews are coming up and I am considering shredding my MD. I work in a lower-tier BB coverage group and have been year for almost 2-years now. My intent is to stay in banking in this particular coverage area.
For context, my team is relatively small and we only have one MD who runs the group and is responsible for sourcing and executing all deals. Well this guys absolutely sucks at his job and cannot originate business to save his life. I have not worked on a live deal since I have graduated in 2021 and the messaging behind this has mostly been “well the market has been slow, it will pick up”. BRO. 2021 and early 2022 were fucking ripping for M&A and we did NOTHING. It has become extremely frustrating to say the least. I have also heard from other guys in the bank that this guy has a history of not doing deals.
So my question is, do I say I am very unhappy with my experience in my mid year review? I’m not sure what this would do other than be cathartic for me. My concern is that lateral hiring is very slow right now and I may not be able to switch for some time. Advice would be appreciated. Really don’t know what to do here. Feel like my entire analyst experience has been wasted and I am in a really tough spot as far as M&A reps.
I don't see any upside for you by doing this. If anything, shafting him in mid-year raises risks for your full year review. My advice would be to ignore for now. If you think your XP has been bad in this team then try and lateral internally / externally.
Opening your mouth or complaining at work, especially about things that can’t easily be fixed, only hurts you. ESPECIALLY during formal processes like reviews. The only proper thing to do in official reviews is smile, say thank you, and gtfo the conference room. You’re not the first motherfucker to notice that your MD doesn’t make any money - trust that everybody knows this and if somehow he’s around despite bringing zero fees, you speaking up won’t be the straw that breaks the camels back.
The only person that gets damaged when you speak up about these things or really ever act in anything less than a professional, positive manner is you. You think it’ll be a blaze of glory but in the end only you look bad and like an idiot. In your situation the only proper move is to smile and keep good relations until you can lateral.
Will caveat by saying that it’s very reasonable to call your staffer or MD “just-in-time” any time there’s a real issue to be resolved that actually has an actionable resolution, and then hopefully it gets fixed. If done sparingly, this actually helps build trust between you and seniors. Don’t ever bring up feedback or problems during formal reviews as a junior person and ESPECIALLY not about non-producing MDs.
Seriously lol how do people like this survive in the world. Your boss (in this case the lead of your group) is still above you in the hierarchy, short of him sexually harrassing or abusing you... you don't say shit against him
This is very sad but also very true
This is BS to another extreme of OP’s tone, unless thats the norm in your department/ profession. Some areas are meant to be hierarchial for a reason (extreme eg. Military), but the general idea is to have a constructive two-way conversation .
Don’t do it man.
It will be cathartic for 5 mins and will then blow up in your face. How can you think complaining in an official review as an analyst will have any effect in “lighting up” your MD.
Think about it genius. He is in a small, revenue producing role and not producing revenue, yet still has his job. Why do you think that is?
Bangin boss’ daughter?
Why would he still be around?
Not for nothing if your MD goes you will near certainly go with him in this market lol. Get that you're just venting though, I laughed.
Hang in there brother, it's always the guys who can't originate that need the most materials and assistance from the juniors to compensate.
Maybe if you do want to be proactive you can speak about prospects of lateraling internally? Every bank takes that different so use your gut, I'm sure you're smart enough to not get yourself in trouble.
Look dude, despite whatever business school told you, HR has no actual power in the real world. The way to express your frustration about having a bad MD is to start applying laterally to other banks.
In fact HR works primarily works as risk management for owners/senior mgmt...not to help employees.
I’m stuck on this guy leading a team that has not had a deal since 2001. Are you serious? I assume you have other analysts, associates, VP, and everybody acts like this is fine? Sorry. You got good advice here.
I'm not saying the MD is good at his job...but who are you, lol.
I've known MDs who don't do shit and get promoted every year (D-->MD--> sector head--> multi-sector head). You're probably too young to understand politics at work but sometimes heads of IBD just want to make sure that "their guys" are in place for political power (so they "know what's going on"), or as a senior pawn to sacrifice when the going gets tough (in that case, good for you).
TLDR, your unproductive MD is there without doing deals for a reason, maybe even married to the daughter of the bank's largest PWM client. It's not your place to do anything about it as a junior person, certainly not without knowing the exact reason why he's able to survive without doing deals. That very reason probably gives him enough power to get you in trouble at your existing shop or elsewhere. There's very limited upside and significant downside.
Why don't you take leadership initiative and help him source rather than whining about it?
So what have you been working on for the past 2 years if there hasn't been a single live deal?
How will it benefit YOU shredding your MD?! Instead, why not ask for what will help you?
If you think your growth is stalled, have that conversation and ask for what you want - internal mobility, training, ideas that may mimic skills you’ll learn in a live deal, perhaps ask if you can help take more of a proactive approach to sales, meet clients etc.
No incremental benefit here. Just be nice in the mid year review
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