All this fucker does it give me the things to do, I’m already staffed on 3 live deals and he keeps giving me busy work to do and says he needs it done within a couple hours. Can I push back? This is getting ridiculous, last 3 nights I’ve worked til 1 and he goes home at 7
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Dude… are you really complaining about having to work until 1am… sometimes?
If you read, it clearly says 3 days in a row. I don’t care if it’s 1-2x a week 1am, but 3 days in a row is unacceptable when someone on your team is done at 7pm then demands more of me when I’m working til 1.. I don’t work at Moelis
IB offers higher compensation vs other areas of finance and accelerated development at the cost of higher hours and more grunt work at the beginning.
You can’t have it both ways. if you want easier hours, there are plenty of jobs that offer this. Move to one of them.
So long as you’re in IB, there is nothing unreasonable about being expected to work until 1 or 2am every Monday through Thursday.
If you think working til 1am 3 days in a raw is unacceptable, you should resign right now because this is just an average day tbh.
Additionally, 1) it’s not your associate’s job to do strip profiles with you 2) seems like he is still working on this since he is “giving you work” 3) he may come home or take a break and then keep working later
I wouldn’t want to work with you, you seem to have a bad attitude.
Your associate goes home at SEVEN pm?! This guy is a workhorse and needs to take a two-week PTO ASAP.
My MBA associate goes home at 5, does nothing, gives worthless comments once in a while that are fundamentally wrong (do you know how hard it is to give comments that are objectively wrong in a subjective field?), blindly replies “will do” to anything (then tells me to do it of course), AND takes credit for my work.
Count your blessings my friend.
Lol and here I am working until 2am on average for 4 months, I’d switch with op in a heartbeat
The virgin 2nd year associate gets revenge on the Chad 1st year analyst
This.
Are you close with any of the other associates? Maybe tell them to staff you more with them so you have zero bandwidth for this clown.
Sounds like you need to learn to manage expectations
Remind him you have almost 1 year of work experience
LOL analysts complain about working until 1am these days
Echoing what others have said… build relationships with the “good” associates and try to get staffed on more of their projects. You won’t have much of a choice until that happens, unfortunately.
So much of surviving in banking is slowly maneuvering your way into the favorable positions.
must be an MBA...those guys can ligma
Compare comp to see who the bank values more
Yes but you’re paying off your MBA, are much older and probably spent a few years in some shitty job
Worth it!
Think about it from his perspective - he may want you to get the best learning opportunity. He should be helping you through the work though - that is the whole point of mentorship.
What kind of lifestyle group or bank are you at where analysts occasionally work till 1 AM and associates log off at 7 PM?
My group is chill, if you did 5x a week til 1am then that’s on u lil man
Sounds like your group has awful deal flow
Just tell him you got more important work for live deals to do. I had a guy like that and usually nothing he can say to that. He’d then go on and find another 1st year that wasn’t busy to do his bs work
3rd year associates should be able to log off by 5pm, 2nd years by 7pm. They earned their place. In particular, mba associates do gods work!
He is a MBA Associate and his value add is saying “looks good” & dumping shit he could do onto a overwhelmed first yr
As a recently promoted A2A, I figured I’d offer my 2 cents.
(i) As an associate there are tasks that I won’t do unless absolutely necessary. I’m not only more accountable for the final work product, but I am also responsible for training up analysts. Many of these things I’ve done a million times over and the only way for you to learn, is by getting reps. Remember, there’s always someone more senior who can do your job more efficiently, that doesn’t mean that they should do your job for the sake of efficiency
(ii) If you are working on one of the tasks that I won’t do (e.g., profiles, industry landscape, trackers etc.), I don’t expect to work the same hours as you. In some instances, I’ll work longer hours than analysts in the deal team drafting ELs and NDAs, getting on calls with sponsors, putting together / refining the model (especially when analysts can’t be trusted to handle), preparing for calls, or managing other work streams that are specifically related to my job
(iii) Everything comes down to respect. Leading by example is a quality that’s often understated. As an associate you need to be able to show analysts that (a) you excel at those things you delegate to them (i.e., I only delegate because I’m very good at it and could provide guidance and support as you learn those things) and (b) you always have their back when things get tough (e.g., this can be accomplished by thoroughly reviewing their work, providing real value-add comments that improve the final output, and making sure the content aligns with the VP / MD’s preferences to limit iterations. The goal is to make you look good in the eyes of VPs and MDs, which will ultimately make me look good as well).
The real issue is when associates aren’t fully capable and, in fact, cannot do the job better or more efficiently than the analyst. Then comes overcompensation and a last-ditch attempt to add value by providing comments / assigning additional work that doesn’t necessarily improve the work product. It’s very difficult for an analyst to respect you and work hard to make you look good, when he / she can realistically do your job better than you can.
If you believe you are in this last category (which becomes clear very early on), you should communicate with your associate, push back on comments that you believe are either unnecessary or flat out wrong (it helps to point out to previous materials you have drafted where you dealt with a similar ask senior bankers ended up striking down), and very clearly provide updates and timing on your other work streams sorted by priority. My last point serves the following purpose: if I give an analyst a task and said analyst has other work streams that take priority, I can either (i) withdraw the ask or (ii) do it myself. Point (ii) will only happen when I believe my ask is 100% required and truly adds value or structurally changes the output for the better, otherwise I revert to point (i).
Finally someone reasonable. Also want to add that as analyst you are not getting paid 6 figures to have work life balance of 9-5 job. It is a tough job. If you are upset about the workload then you really chose the wrong profession, the issue is not with the associate.
You should judge the associate on their ability to manage time/tasks, provide guidance and get you to create a decent work product that receives minimal comments from the seniors. Honestly it is so much easier to do the work myself but I have other responsibilities so the analyst needs to learn and they will never learn until they do it themselves and correct their own mistakes
What are those other responsibilities, I ask out of genuine curious because we get no visibility into what more senior ranks do, the above poster mentioned ELs/NDAs but those are executed by MDs so maybe you have to find a template?
What else is associate specific work (understand it’ll range by project)? This understanding would be valuable so analysts don’t blindly assume associates just delegate the work and check for comments, which is natural to assume when you work on all the pages for a deck and the model.
Do you think you're being paid for your brilliant insights or your willingness to do as your told and behave like a good monkey? Early in your career, it is not the brilliant insights :)
You know, it's amazing some people do absolutely nothing of value and manage to get paid 7 figures.
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