Might be the dumbest person to ever break in
I would appreciate any advice one could give, I did not do the traditional internship coming in FT. Very fortunate to be in the position I understand keeping the job is a lot harder than getting it and would be thankful for any guidance people can provide.
Keeping the job isnt a lot harder than getting it, pretty difficult to fire an analyst unless they royally f up. They just wont extend your contract after your two years. Find the best analyst who's a good guy and ask him every question under the sun. Take modeling courses before your start date, although a lot of places will buy those for you anyway. Bring a notebook everywhere, be organized, and do not ever ask the same thing twice to the same person. Be someone who takes criticism well and do not ever complain about anything to anyone. Most SAs do not come in with a serious advantage besides knowing people already, that would be the best place to start. Make sure every analyst/associate knows you and likes you
Congrats first of all! Before being too hard on yourself, consider that there is a massive difference between being a legitimately stupid person and someone who doesn't have experience yet. Interestingly, neither will necessarily preclude you from being able to hold your seat.
Attitude and incremental improvement should be your core focus at this stage. The best analysts I've worked with weren't always the ones doing mock merger models in their spare time for fun, they were the ones that showed up each day with an interest in the work we were doing and a strong desire to learn (btw, you can fake this if you must). ANYONE can learn how to model, set up calls, and do PPT but I've seen so many people with an inability to get out of their own way (e.g., bad attitude, entitled, no soft skills).
Improvement is obvious but so critical for someone coming in. You should be a sponge and if you're doing it right you should be able to look back literally weekly and realize "damn, I was so dumb last week, I'm so much more knowledgeable this week". Repeat and repeat and repeat.
For the boring part of the answer:
Excel: sumif(s), countif(s), v-x-lookup, index & match, RRI. Think about functions that help condense large sets of data. For example, turning a trial balance into a P&L, or a P&L into a summary P&L. It's not complicated formulas that make it happen, just proper organization and tagging that will allow the formulas to work. Additionally, consider that your work will be heavily audited and overly complicated formulas aren't always conducive to that (i.e. index/match). When summarizing across tabs it's good to get into the habit of adding excessive "Check" lines that when working should 0 out and will otherwise call out errors.
PPT: If you can get good at Slide Master, you can gain a ton of efficiency. Particularly with CIMs, if you invest time upfront creating a clean template it makes the iterations so much easier and allows for formatting consistency. Try creating a title slide, various content slides (i.e. 1/2/3/4 exhibit versions), section dividers, etc. Each slide should have consistent boxes for title, sub-title, bullets (including sub-bullets), footnotes, etc. In terms of formatting/content ideas, STEAL STEAL STEAL. Leverage past work, investor presentations from public companies, and any/everything else you can find.
good luck!
Great advice thanks
These are less do xyz to be a good analyst and more rules of the road. Congrats on landing the offer!
Always be learning, it never stops. A lot of it comes from being curious, asking questions and listening to senior folk talk to clients or amongst themselves.
What you know is just as important as who you know. Be kind to people around you, build a relationship with your staffer and whenever possible, with the people you're staffed with. Obviously MDs/Ds and VPs, but also associates and fellow juniors. Having positive relationships in the bullpen takes the edge off the hours and grind.
Getting assigned work done correct and on time are the bare minimum. Initially you'll lapse on one or the other but get up that ramp quickly. There are lots of posts here with good advice on how to tackle this.
How you bounce back from fuckups is huge, thick skin and a positive attitude are really critical. You'll fuck up, everyone does. Some people will give you proper feedback, others will tear you a new asshole. The trick is to learn from it and never make the same mistake twice.
Take good notes. Internal meetings, client meetings, whatever. Good notetaking is a skill and it's only performative admin bullshit if you treat it that way. Lots happen in meetings and I always go back to my notes to pick up on things I missed during discussions. Also helps you hone your ability to listen.
It's really really hard with the hours, grind and stress but be positive. People like being around and working with positive energy. It's such a simple thing that makes a big difference with your relationships.
Always try to see the bigger picture. As a junior, you're a cog in the big wheel. Maybe you're working on one portion of a big pitch or on a deal team and often you're struggling to understand the "why" of what you're doing. Ask the people above you.
Last one and this is based on the tone of your post. Whatever background you came from, once you hit the desk you're on the same starting line as everyone else. If you have imposter syndrome, deal with it or push it deep. Our line of work requires confidence, sometimes bordering on arrogance.
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