I found out a month ago that both my senior associates hate me and talk shit behind my back 24/7. I am a first year analyst and have been trying really hard at my job. What makes it worse is that they never provide me any feedback on my work product nor take the time to teach me anything. But since I found out, I dread going into work every day and have become pretty severely depressed. I don't really know what to do and I am scared their strong opinions of me will eventually get me fired. Being a first gen kid, I would never be able to handle being fired, and I would probably find ways to end my time on here as well. Please help, my associates are making me spiral.
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yes - banking at a boutique. team dynamic is non-existent but has been like that from day one. and i think ive improved majorly on their comments but ive never gotten any solid feedback from them. i have asked for more feedback and still nothing.
Lateraling is pretty much the sound option here but in the same note the lateral market is pretty much shut. You're right that associates will have a hand in your performance/comp/etc, but depends on bank. Some banks you choose who you want to review you (4+ people) or its just seniors. Either way, you need to start getting folks in your corner. Below I have some proposals based on what your situation is. However, how did you come across they hated you? Did you read a teams chat?
1) They hate you and you feel like they 100% have it out for you - this would be a case where you know they are recommending you get fired. Hard to tell but base this off of what they said/your attempt to improve. If you know they are out for you, I would actually set up a meeting and call them on their attitude in a respectful way. Say "hey - I know we haven't gotten off on the right foot but I want to work hard. Give me some things to do better, I'll do them, and I'll try to make your life better and be a better analyst". It's an awkward talk to have, but I'll tell you why you need to have it. We have a guy on our team that worked his way from back office to front office and he straight up sucks. Everybody knows he's bad, he gets special projects from staffers, and he's been kept around because there is 0 diversity on our team. It is a bad situation, but that's what it is. Well, on a junior call, one of our analysts was not on mute and started trashing the guy for a good 10 seconds before muting. Poor guy played it off like he didn't hear anything and basically no one said anything. He knew it and so did everyone else that this guy sucked. However, he did nothing to change the narrative and make it uncomfortable for everyone. Guy is 100% on the chopping block
2) They hate you but its your fault - Hard to admit but its possible you just don't jive. It's possible you don't live up to their expectations (right or wrong) and you just don't fit in. I've been there. During an internship, my team was big into movies and animals, and I'm a heavy metal/fashion head. We didn't mix, and my attitude (although positive) wasn't convincing. That sounds like what this is. Not every team will hand hold. And it sounds like you just haven't gotten over the hump they expect
3) They are just dicks - always someone on a team like this. Just a weird person who either wants to watch the world burn or has drama to be taken out on others. If it's this, you just need more people in your corner/move up the food chain. Talk to your seniors above them about the situation. Make it ugly for the associates or upper level will make you a casualty.
Boutiques have limited resources, and people on these platforms could be busy or may not want to spend the time or effort to hand hold on every task or analysis. Particularly in a small group, your associates will prefer to work with analysts who can hit the ground running from early on. If you struggled a bit in the first six months, that is understandable and not an issue. However, make sure your teammates can see that you've made noticeable improvements in efficiency or accuracy, it takes time to show progress. Be honest with yourself - perhaps if you've received some comments in the beginning around certain areas (formatting, attention to detail, etc) that may still need improvement, always try to continuously improve.
However, see if your associates treat the other new analysts badly, they may just be assholes... If they are downplaying your ability, it may help if you work on a couple of projects with a VP / MD without the associates who dislike you, so your seniors can see that your performance is better than described.
Overall, gauge the situation and the team, and see if you truly want to stay in that environment or lateral out. If the group is not a fit, it can't hurt to search for new jobs.
You need to do some jiujitsu and turn an enemy into a friend. You should proactively bring gifts such as coffee / cookies / breakfast sandwiches for the team. After you've softened them up a bit, then invite them to lunch.
If this fails straight up say "Hey Jenny / James, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I get the sense I could be doing my job better - and I really want to. I want to be the guy you can lean on to make your job easier, but I acknowledge I'm not there yet. I'm doing my best to remedy the situation on my own time, on weekends and evenings, and I hope you can be patient with me. You can also give me direct feedback and tell me ways I can improve, because I really want to."
Be humble, be helpful, be team-oriented. They are wanting to shine. If they felt you could help them shine they wouldn't be talking smack. The fact that they ARE means you're under-peforming. Nothing wrong with that -we were all beginners once. The key is to own it, be humble ,and fix it.
Whether they are cunty behind your back is irrelevant. You can only change you, and bring out your best every day. That's literally all you can do - and it's all on you.
You sound like a classic MD in the making. I've been in banking going on 7-9 years now. I've lost count. I can tell you that you never lose the feeling that someone below or above you is out to get you. The best advise at the analyst level is to accept the mistake (even if you didn't make it), apologies (even though you have nothing to apologies for), say it will never happen again (even though it will definitely happen again - I would even suggest going to confession), and recognize that your associate has likely been in your shoes before but replaced all memories of sympathy with the names of their MDs seven teenage children.
For Associates that are A2A, they are literally the meanest individuals in banking. They still haven't completely developed their soft skills, but are still in their 20s with money so they drink a lot. They have enough experience to make decisions but do not have the authority to do so. They have the ego of the smartest people in the room but are not in the room to demonstrate their intellect. You don't need to sympathize with them, but you do need to understand what you future looks like.
I have both worked with shitty analysts and at some points been a shitty associate so hopefully I can shed some light.
The first thing I would keep in mind is that associates aren’t usually experienced at managing people and may be struggling at their jobs too, unrelated from you. It can be tough to transition from producing the work to checking someone’s work and giving feedback, so that may be why they don’t give you feedback and take over tasks. I got that feedback my first year as an associate and have really worked on it since to be a better teacher. They also may be stressed, burned out, having mental health issues, etc. and not be in the best place to interact with an eager analyst. They also may just be dicks. I had one VP I used to work for that would constantly treat me like shit and talk shot about me to other people openly. His peers came to me and said to ignore it and that’s just how he is. It didn’t impact my performance reviews and I’ve had a much better experience working with others. Try to gauge how they interact with other analysts and their peers to compare. TLDR: the issue may be them, not you. In that case, I’d try to not let it bother you too much and just keep trying your best.
If the issue is you - try to figure out if it’s a social issue or a work product issue.
Social issue: this is hard to assess without knowing you, so try to really reflect and think back on your interactions with them and if you’ve done anything that may cause them to be annoyed by you. Are you arrogant? Do you complain? Do you monopolize their time? Are you too much of a hairdo?Do you push back on work? I’ve worked with two analysts that I’ve written off that fall in this category. One was a walking WSO meme and would ask constant off-topic questions that was really distracting. For example: “what was the biggest deal you worked on?” “When do I get to build an LBO?” “Have I earned removing my F1 key yet?” The other produced good work when he did work, but had a very poor work ethic and was clearly in the wrong industry. I’d be getting 2-4 hours of sleep and ask him to turn comments at 6 pm and he said he needed to sign off to prioritize work life balance. These are very different and extreme examples, but illustrate different archetypes of annoying analyst.
Work Product Issue: if it is a work product issue, it likely falls into one of two scenarios:
lack of attention to detail: this is self explanatory and in your control to improve.
Not following directions: this is the primary reason I will sour on analyst / associate and is much more annoying than the first category imo. Do you carefully review the instructions you were given before submitting work to make sure you followed them? For new analysts/associates, I try to write out directions in detail so they have them for reference to learn from and call them to walk through any questions. I am surprised by how often people will just ignore the instructions and do something else (e.g., use different rev / expense mapping or different model drivers than requested). This may be harder for you to pick up on because your work may technically be correct, but if you don’t go back to reread the instructions you may miss where you screwed up. I try to call out when this happens the first time or two but if it becomes a habit I will stop wasting my time. To see if this is you, go back to old assignments and review the draft you submitted vs. what the associate ended up submitting vs. the instructions they gave you. If you get instructions verbally, make sure to write down everything you are asked, don’t feel bad asking them to slow down / repeat what they said, and read it back to them at the end to make sure you got everything.
Overall though, all of this stuff is either not your fault or pretty fixable so don’t get too stressed about it. It’s great that you even care enough to want to get to the bottom of it and improve, so I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I hope at least some of this is helpful!