Treating Sr Analysts/Associates like "Clients"?
Have heard from seniors and mentors that as an AN1, we should treat our seniors like "clients" and get our job done efficiently and effectively. Then had this thought while I was getting dental treatment:
The dentist was fine. Seemed to know what he was doing a good deal, and was a nice guy and decently capable (although I cannot really tell). But I noticed a few habits that made me uneasy: he would analyze and re-analyze his tools frequently, he would explain everything he was doing in detail seeming to seek my reassurance, and he had an overall uncertain demeanor. Teeth seem fine to me and he clearly is experienced (I'd guess 45+ years old), but I feel more skeptical than I otherwise would have been had I not noticed these habits.
TLDR: even though he was likely trying to be transparent with me and keep me in the loop, I would have thought him more competent if he had not over-explained and just gotten the job done while pretending that it was easy (i.e. made it seem easy when maybe it wasn't).
Does the same logic apply to AN1s, or are we expected to know very little? For instance, how does a senior view the analyst that made it look effortless and turned in work they were unsure about vs the analyst who communicated frequently and was honest about their weak spots to ensure their final product is what was desired? Will the former be deemed more competent than the latter because, at the end of the day, seniors are just "clients" who want the work at their feet with no fluff?
Sorry but turning in work that you are unsure about under the guise of confidence is called incompetence. If you are not sure, you ask questions, how else are you supposed to learn?
Also, I fundamentally disagree with treating your senior analysts as your "seniors". They are not. They are just another analyst.
You're seriously, seriously, overthinking this.... I was told by a senior banker when I first started, 'your clients are also the people you work with'. It's just a piece of generic advice that's often thrown around to encourage juniors to work hard and try their best. It doesn't mean that you don't ask more experienced colleagues questions??
One of the first things they screen for in IB interviews is good judgement. This is a scenario where you need to use personal judgement, not take what you are told literally...
Here's how I view it: the further up the chain you go the better the work product needs to be but the less dumb questions you can ask. So while treating your associate like a client is a good mindset in terms of making sure you are giving them a decent work product to review and not just slop, they are still there to help you out. But by the time it gets to the MD it should be in a pretty good state, and obviously by the time it goes to the client it should be near perfect (assuming nothing is ever actually perfect).
Whether you treat a senior analyst as a "senior" will depend on the analyst you're working with. When I was a first year I was on a pretty lean team and our senior analyst would have to act more as an associate on certain staffings. He was a really strong analyst and performing above his level so I definitely treated him as a senior. But there were other analysts that I worked with who were no longer first years that I wouldn't treat as "seniors" because they were lower performing members and we would typically get the same responsibilities assigned to us. Now as an ASO I don't really care how my analysts treat each other, as long as the work gets done. Definitely had some interns this past summer that I held in higher regard than some of my analysts who are now second year analysts.
Why do you hold some interns in higher regard than some 2nd years? At least as a 2nd year, I feel like it's hard to distinguish most analysts outside of the extremes of people who are extremely sweaty and/or don't care.
It was just the case of a low performing analyst who is barely scraping by to not get fired vs. a few really high performing interns who I saw displaying intellectual curiosity and strong technical knowledge who I believe will have very successful careers. At the end of the summer if you asked me who I trusted more with a work product between this specific analyst or one of the high performing interns, it would've been the interns
Your client is not the client, your client is your boss (and anyone above you with influence over your compensation / promotion)
Was top bucket first year at a mid-tier BB large group (BoFA/Citi), and my thoughts are as below:
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