Was told lack of initiative in the interim performance review. Help
Working at a boutique IB as a 1st year analyst doing TMT IPOs and M&As. Just finished the interim performance review and got some feedback from my MDs/VPs. They said my biggest problem is lack of initiative and not proactive at work. I guess it's because I usually don't ask for work and like to figure out questions/problems by myself instead of bothering my VPs/Associates. I think asking for work is kind of weird since they are my staffers and they're supposed to decide which projects I should be involved.
Really confused and frustrated now, any advice guys? Should I start bothering my VPs and say sth like"hey i think this IPO/M&A/research is interesting can i be staffed on this? "
Initiative can be other things too. Here's a couple situations I can think of where it can be something other than asking for work, these may/may not apply to you.
1) You turn something into boss and you don't see the e-mail go out to the client in 3-4 days, follow up with boss and ask "hey, did you ever send out x?" Sometimes your boss is so busy that they forget about a client and following up in this case is taking the initiative beyond just turning in your work. They will also appreciate it if they truly did forget to send it out so they don't look bad to the client.
2) Making a menial task automatic. Sure, you could spend 5 minutes every morning updating the historicals workbook or inputting trade information, but you could just as easily spend 1-2 hours and make it automatic.
3) Do some extra analysis. I've found that bosses don't know what they want in a powerpoint until they see it. Look at other offices/shops decks and see if there is something in there that they show that you currently aren't. Imagine what your boss will think if they see something new that they like, ask you where you got it and you say "I was going through [competitor's] decks and saw they showed x and I thought it added value." That is some serious initiative and doesn't require asking for more work.
I think you get the idea but initiative doesn't always have to be asking for more staffings.
Wow thanks man, your advice are really helpful. Never thought of this kind of initiative before. guess i'm not trained enough to be a star IB analyst.
BTW, how did you come up with all these? your boss/mentor taught you before? or just by yourself? you must been there too more or less if it's the latter i guess...
Great advice, thanks for sharing. Can you expand on 2? You mean like macros etc?
Fuck it, why not? If you are interested your work can potentially be better anyway. Plus, how do you think they decide who goes onto what project? Hopefully someone can enlighten this thread, because right now I'm picturing a group of old balding men with two baseball hats, one filled with intern names and the other with projects. If that's not the case, I'd like to be the first to recommend it.
Not asking questions is not typically a bad thing. The question is: how much is the lack of asking questions affecting your productivity, and is your work suffering as a result?
Actually I don'k think my lack of asking questions affects my work, maybe they just thought I was not communicative enough.
How small of a boutique are we talking? Moelis or a 10-man shop?
Not as small as a 10-man shop... let's say the size of Greenhill/Evercore
Be more communicative. I just got feedback that I don't communicate enough with analysts.
Yeah i realized that's one of my problems too. always love shooting an email instead of talking to people just for a simple question
I would say be more vocal. From my previous work experiences, sometimes the shyer/more reserved kids would go a bit unnoticed in their work ethic because they just didn't communicate or were not vocal enough.
There is some good advice in this thread. There's no shame in asking for more work. Act like you want to help out the guys above you without sounding like a try hard.
A quote I highly believe in is: "The more value you give, the more your value increases".
Or could it play against you in the sense that when you ask for more work to show initiative, they just give off some bitch work to you so that they dont have to bother with it. Kind of ruins all motivation to ask for any work in the future.
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