I'm enrolling at an M7 this fall and heavily considering recruiting for IB. I see a lot of posts on here from analysts regarding hours (especially during WFH) but haven't seen as much for associates. For post-MBA associates, how comparable are hours to those of analysts? My guess is its probably ~5-10 fewer hours a week but that might be totally off-base.
I recognize that the first 1-1.5 years I'll basically be an analyst but is there a material difference after that?
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Good associates - the same
bad associates - less
good associates usually split the work (when they can, they are usually on more projects) bad associates will tell the analyst to do something and then only review
That was what I thought. I assume this holds true for weekend work too?
Can you give me your take on why bad associates work less?
Self-explanatory. Bad associates see themselves as people to review work rather than do work. If you arent involved in the model or creating pages and just making comments, you are going to work a lot less.
I’m an incoming summer associate and not to be rude but I don’t think this should be a concern of yours for a while. It’s understandable, but I am expecting to work the same hours as analysts or possibly more to get up the learning curve faster. Leaving them 2 hours early to hit the gym or something isn’t a good look.
Your job is going to eventually be managing people who have more experience than you, quicker, know how to run processes. You need to get up the learning curve as fast as possible and become competent before you should even take a stab at delegating work. Even then you should be doing the work with them. Look at the threads around here of how the analysts are living right now. It’s unfair to work less than them as an incoming associate.
Totally agree, that's why I noted I'll likely be an analyst for the first 1-1.5 years and even afterwards won't expect to ditch the analysts.
Yeah, it's a good mindset. I feel bad for what is going on and want to try to make even a slight difference. Me coming in and just dumping work on them helps no one.
At my bank, Associates, VP and EDs work comparable hours as Analysts. The only difference is that any items to finish that come up from MDs/EDs past midnight would be processed by the analyst. So 9-12 average + WE work still hold.
Only difference is I feel Associates tend to wake up earlier to process any morning comments from MDs while analysts tend to sleep in later to make up for late nights (in a WFH context, I personally don’t wake up at 7:30-8am to be ready “in case” anything comes up. I wake up at 8:55 for a 9am email check). Also agree that it depends on whether the Associate is good (check and help on work) or bad (pass on everything tu analyst and gives a quick high level review)
Echo everything already posted. Will add that it’s bank dependent too. Coverage groups at bulge brackets work slightly less than boutiques or M&A groups.
That's helpful, and fairly consistent with what I've heard.
The associates I have worked with in the last 6 months have been busier than I have been. They do a ton of ppt work and are very hands on in the models like us analysts are. They are generally more efficient which saves them time but they have the added job of acting as a 24/7 help desk for the clients we work with answering tons of questions and responding to emails all day. Can’t speak on hours directly but would assume similar wake up/bed times and less time spent waiting on comments with no pending work. Basically, they never seem to have nothing to do.
Also an incoming summer associate intern. Can anyone touch on the types of tasks I would be doing? Would someone say "here is a deck we are making for XYZ, I need you to make the following slides, use XYZ as an example?"
Idk I'm just trying to get specific. Any insight would be appreciated.
Yeah it’ll be “update this slide” or “make X slide, here’s a similar example or template.” Pretty block and tackle as a summer — little to no drafting.
Honestly depends on the bank.
I was a summer assoc. and was given the first cut of a teaser rewrite as well as a section of a CIM on top of building out a small model and helping cover DD.
My other friends who were SAs also had varying experiences.
That said, they’ll start you off with simple stuff (I was started with doing redactions and simple doc review) until you build up trust with those above you.
More established associates usually get in an hour earlier (FaceTime for the old school MDs) and then leave an hour earlier (final instructions to analyst for last turn), but are usually available from home in case something crops up.
If you’re trying to make a career of this, try to outwork your analysts on both ends of the day until you’re 18-24 months in.
My associate splits the work with me and works as much as I do. Most of the time even more.
VP, ex MBA associate here. Hours are comparable to analysts. Speaking from when I was an associate, the shitty associates leave way earlier than I do because I'm making sure all the work streams are running smoothly and taking work when I have capacity from my analysts. The shitty associates literally just forward emails and don't really know what's going on and are definitely not proactively anticipating road blocks for the clients, MDs and analysts. That being said there is definitely a fine line between not delegating enough and just dumping everything on the analyst.
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