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Same thing which I have always been wondering Ziggy. From my conversations with other 1st/2nd year analysts, most of them are focused on churning out the pitch books, while associates are the ones creating and running the valuation models.
Anyone inputs would be much appreciated.
is also churning pitch books but once they trust you a little more, they'll let you touch the valuation models.
So what kind of valuation models do associates use?
I'm just trying to understand that first year analysts and then associates are putting in 80 or 90 hours week, but what are they actually doing? My elder brother is in S&T at a second tier I-Bank. He puts in on avg. 50 to 60 hours a week.
However, he tells me I-Bankers ( the one I call true I-Bankers are the M&A and equity/debt underwriters) put in at least 80 hours a week. I just want to know doing what?
If anything, the quantative models used by S&T are quite complicated. Also, from what I know, a lot of I-Bankers have been history majors (point being that the work requires more dedication instead of technical/quantative skills).
So what are those 80 hous spent doing?
Everyone from the VP-down is responsible for the pitch book... so as an analyst, you've got changes to be heard from your associate, your VP, and when you think you have a finished product, the MD (who may or may not tear your work apart). In banking, when there is time between now and the client meeting, this creates multiple iterations and revs, meaning you'll constantly be doing market updates for charts, tweaking small nits, adjusting the model for assumptions, etc.
From a modeling standpoint, the VP usually has an idea for the model and passes it down to the associate, who breaks it down for the analyst to build. After the analyst builds it, a good associate will get into the model and sanity check everything to make sure it's working right and that they're thinking about the valuation / issue correctly. A bad associate will assume the monkey's work is fine to have the team discover an extreme error in the model several hours before the client meeting. Brilliant!
So to sum it up, the hours your working are mainly due to the fact that you have so many iterations and nits in a book that you have to fix, and so many people to hear changes from. A lot of the hours stack up because it takes a while to hear back from people, so you gotta sit at your desk waiting to find out what it is you need to do. When things are really busy, though, and deal flow is good, you won't have that problem... you'll probably just switch gears and work on another project with another neurotic VP breathing down your neck. Fun stuff!
Thanks FreeCashFool,
I appreciate the feedback. That clears up a lot for me.
Since its mostly assignment based work, on average how many projects/assignments is an analyst working on. 2, 3 or more. (So that way, while an analyst is waiting to hear from his/her colleagues on one assignment's work, they would be working on others and, thus, they are always busy.)
Is that correct?
yes, an analyst will always be on more than just a few teams. sometimes you'll be on a client service team that just never dies, and is as annoying as hell because it's not going to amount to anything but the client keeps wanting new valuations and crap... pure retardation
i'd say on average an analyst will be on 5-6 teams, but typically only 2-3 require full-throttle (if that). the bad days happen when you get demands from multiple assoc's/vp's... while you can manage expectations and have them duke it out between the two, you still have to get it done.
for what it's worth, i'm only familiar with one staffing model at one BB, so i don't know how things operate elsewhere.
Thanks FreeCashFlow for the great explanations!!
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