No Idea what I'm doing
I'm a first year analyst at a regional office of a BB bank (Chicago, Houston). There aren't that many bankers in my office (15ish), and I only came in with one other analyst.
As a result, I have not been able to gauge what my performance should be like - there simply isn't enough people at my level to compare myself to.
I went through training, but still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I have had trouble with some models, etc., and have made mistakes. I would love to heart about some other people's experiences starting out. Did any if you feel like you had no clue what you were doing?
If so - how long did it take before you really got the hang if it, and what did you do to get better?
Your first few two to three months are going to be tough. You're not going to be super useful, and everything you do is going to take multiple times as long as it will the next time. Grind it out and ask for help from analysts who've been there longer than you (I'm assuming there's at least one second/third year).
You mean you went straight from undergrad into an analyst position and you don't know what you're doing? You're so fucked bro.
Take a deep breath. You're not going to get Tiger parent curb stomped for a few modeling mistakes in your first 3 months.
1) Learn all the excel shortcuts and functions as quickly as possible. Force yourself to use them, it will pay off. 2) Have a great attitude in the office so your superiors like you. It will help when you make mistakes. 3) Work together with other junior people around you. If you can't figure something out in google ask them before going to more seniors for assistance. 4) Don't worry, after a few deals you'll start to crank and alot of the work will become second nature.
If you're really nervous (like I was), you can always just go up to an associate that you are close to and ask how you're doing, what you can do better, etc.
a good flashcard system to study is to create 4 buckets, labeled daily, every other day, weekly, monthly. The labels are for how often you study those flashcards.
Start with all your flashcards in daily, if you get it correct, you move it to the every other day bucket. If you get it wrong, it goes back into daily. Tomorrow, you repeat, but moving flashcards to the more frequent buckets when you get them wrong, and less frequent when you get them right.
the point of this is that your brain doesn't actually know what information to remember unless you get it wrong. When you're lost, you use bad directions to help you find the right way. It turns out learning is very much the same - that's why we remember the questions that stump us so much more than the ones we get right. So by pushing back what you already 'know', you are spacing out your practice, which causes you to forget at first, but ultimately strengthens that neural connection.
I didn't feel completely confident in myself until after a year. You're working with people who have been working / out of school for at least 3-4 years, so some things will make sense to them that will not make sense to you. Just keep an open mind, take the time to shore up what you think are weaknesses (but don't spend all your free time doing it), and one day you'll see a project and know what to do.
Also, take time out of work to not think about it. I know it's hard being a first year, but do something that you used to enjoy, like going to the movies or reading a book. Sometimes, if you step away from the job, more things will make sense when you come back to it.
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