Struggling with Experience

First year analyst here and I want to voice my struggle to see if anyone else has been dealing with this. My aim is to recruit for private equity but honestly I’ve gotten little to no exposure. I’ve yet to have opened or set up a VDR or have been on a truly live deal pulling those crazy hours (which while nice for the lifestyle, completely stumps my learning, I get the joke of “haha tell me where you work so I can apply!” but it’s pretty detrimental to your learning if you’re just super relaxed and you don’t really have any live deal experience).


I know I want to do private equity but I would literally have nothing to talk about in interviews, I could take what I’ve been on so far and lie and exaggerate but I’d be scrapping super hard. The worst part is that I’ve actually gotten pretty far in interviews before and got scared because if I DID get the job I have no idea how I’d do because I literally have no tangible experience. I have not modeled, I have not done any thorough due diligence, most I’ve done is send calendar invite, prepare market pages, build case studies on companies or deals and learn email etiquette. It’s not even that I haven’t closed a deal, but that I haven’t even BEEN on a deal and I’m about to be a year in. I also can’t really leave because I wouldn’t exactly be competitive (no experience) and this is definitely not the environment to roll the dice like that, at the end of the day I’m not super stressed out or anything and I’m chilling, but I’m worried that the super relaxed standard this position has set for me has fucked up my baseline of what banking is like and now I’m too soft. I don’t know, anyone else in this position?

For what it counts for, I know how to do the modelling and the case studies and can do all that stuff. But all my exposure / knowledge is theoretical, which makes this frustrating because I also feel like I'm being underused.

 
Most Helpful

Sit aut eum neque ut ipsa ut vero voluptatum. Eos consequatur aut officiis vitae rem molestias. Animi autem itaque expedita corporis. Consectetur eveniet facilis consequuntur necessitatibus ipsam qui ut.

Sit est tempora repudiandae id officiis. Quia et nemo qui autem perferendis mollitia cupiditate. Et dolores iste aut sunt enim eligendi illo. Itaque ipsa sit esse quis ea odio. Corporis dicta ad omnis deleniti omnis fugiat. Quod et ratione necessitatibus nihil temporibus nulla expedita commodi.

Career Advancement Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. New 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

April 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (87) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (146) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
9
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”