Struggling to “get it” as a AN1
A few weeks into the job at an EB (Lazard/Moelis/etc) and I feel like I might be missing something fundamental that other people have. I know there’s a learning curve with the job and I was expecting that going in. I’m determined to learn, and I would gladly put in X number of hours to learn it well if it was only that simple. But there are things I just didn’t expect that cannot be simulated well. For example, time pressure. I feel like I struggle tremendously with that very fundamental aspect of the job. Things ramp up quick, and 5+ tasks fall into my lap needing to be done asap and without fail I make mistakes across all of them that wastes other people’s time who need to fix it. It’s like I’m given an opportunity to prove I can carry my own weight and yet I end up as an anchor holding everyone down. That’s the worst: it’s letting your team down (and they’re 10x busier anyways). I honestly hate the adage “just don’t make the same mistake twice” . Like that’s obvious for silly mistakes: you mess up aligning something, or send an email wrong. But what do you do if you’re missing the vision of what the team is trying to present? That’s harder to fix. I’ve just never felt so stupid and helpless in my life.
had this experience at my soph BB internship where i expected to come in and be solid at the job (the perils of youth lol).
Anyways, ask a top bucket asso for a few decks that he thinks are really good, and put in the time to understand the way your group presents big-picture wise. Spend your free time getting more exposure to different pages of decks and the stories that each MD likes to tell. I remember staying till 3 or 4 every night just doing this, and by week 5 or 6 i was far ahead of most the summers (i started out being bottom 3 across soph jr and mba interns). Just dedicate yourself to learning the why behind the what and it’ll come.
Time pressure is also normal you have no visibility on how long a certain page takes if you’ve never done it, so again as you do more stuff that’ll ease up. Everyone goes through it
Great advice
This is an interesting post because how many A1s really "get it?" Most of the ones I see are just robots who do what they're told and don't really understand the bigger picture for any of the deals they work on. So the fact that you are sitting here worrying about this is already a fantastic sign.
It is the job of a senior associate - VP+ to really understand a lot of this stuff. The other commenter gave really good advice which you should definitely follow since you have the ambition. But you shouldn't be worried if it doesn't "click" yet, it really isn't meant to for someone at your level.
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