Obviously I know keeping these and giving them out is illegal. Would it be bad if I kept them after deals close and the transaction is over? Show as proof of deals closing?
Was asked this today and I have no idea how to answer. Only my first year so maybe someone else can answer.
Namaste 🙏
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Not sure
I've sent stuff to my personal email multiple times with no issues, both things I just wanted to keep and personal stuff which I am fine to keep (payslips etc) and it has never been mentioned. But our IT team sucks so they probably don't check unless there's a reason to...
I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice. But it's very common for bankers to hang on to old materials.
Also, you shouldn't need "proof" of a deal you did in terms of a physical document. The "proof" is going to be in your ability to discuss the deal and your contribution to it at a level of detail that would pass another person's BS detector.
I personally don't hang onto old decks because I don't like clutter, and 90% of them are recycled analysis anyway. Instead, I liked to write my own 1-2 page docs on deals I did and keep those to refresh for interviews. Hope that helps!
Play it safe and just take pictures and/or print the materials out vs. leaving a digital trail
Agreed, there are too many articles about SEC fines and firings over mixing business and personal emails.
Most modern IT departments have detection systems if client materials are emailed to personal inboxes or are uploaded to personal drives.
During analyst training, someone was given a stern warning for sending their capstone project (not technically “confidential”) to their personal email.
It would be a better idea to keep printed copies, if anything. No shop will ask for “proof” of deliverables; this would breach confidentiality.
1) It depends on what you mean by "keep". If you are planning to email, print-and-take-home, or snap a photo, think again. Depending on what organization you work for this could be grounds for immediate dismissal and/or getting sued, so not worth it. However, if you simply recall-from-memory the moment you get home from work and re-create on a PD, you're probably in the clear so long as you never publicize this and your organization does not aggressively enforce non-compete contracts.
2) Whatever you do, DO NOT brag or mention that you have these models if you are ever in an interview for another role. It would be like screaming "I'm a legal and compliance risk violation waiting to happen". Plus, most organizations have their own modeling best practices and they likely won't be interested in you recreating and relying on whatever you were using in the past.
Just print them out
I've heard stories of firms going to the person's house to check for printed items.
don't send them to your personal email at all costs. Have seen many warnings and penalties, especially to new joiners.
but if you want to, by all means. just a warning it's against the spirit of your contract.
Which firms have gone to people's houses to check for printed items?
Bankers definitely have copies of their old materials. I’ve seen printouts and photographs first hand from MDs (of their own previous work). Have not seen screenshots but I’m guessing that’s because MDs don’t understand screenshot technology. DON’T send emails or save to usbs or anything like that. On models I think recreating is your best bet but you probably already have the PowerPoint outputs if the analysis in your CIM printouts.
You shouldn’t be emailing anything from your work to your personal IMO
Lost my return offer for doing this so take that how you will lol
Bro what happened
Bruh what
I personally wouldn’t.
Rebuild what you want on your personal computer while still at the firm. If you can’t hack it to build it by hand you shouldn’t consider it something you know well enough to take
Don’t send to your personal email. If you print, which is the safer option, don’t do it all just before you leave - I know someone who got called by compliance as they found he had printed a bunch of materials for old deals the week he quit.
Fundamentally, that material is not yours. It is the property of your bank / client. You do not have a right to the material.
However, there is a bit of a… grey spot for if you (1) anonymize/generalize the material and then (2) take pictures of the anonymized version and recreate it yourself. Recreation of material on your own isn’t necessarily a problem. And when you anonymize/generalize it you won’t have any trade secret issues. There are no real trade secrets in modeling or PPT. Everyone knows how this is done. You just need to “break the chain” of your firms ownership. Which you can do by taking a picture and recreating it. But you are just basically copying and pasting their material so there is a bit of room for them to say something to the effect of “copying our material near exactly doesn’t break the chain.” And you have to be willing to deal with your firm being difficult about this. They can make it painful for you and you have to be willing to tolerate it. This isn’t likely but you have to be comfortable with this.
I should also note that this is speaking in generalities. This analysis, to be any useful, would be super fact-dependent.
Somewhere in the paperwork that you signed when you joined your firm, you most likely agreed that all material prepared on company-owned hardware is property of your employer and that you must relinquish those materials upon leaving the firm. So, yes, keeping anything is definitely a no-no. That being said, everyone does this. If I had a penny for every time a consultant or former banker goes "let me just pull up this model/presentation/whatever that I created for Company XYZ so that we can use it as a reference", I'd be the richest man in the world.
Save it to a Dropbox account don’t email anything to yourself
you guys are such pussies oh my god. needing validation for every single thing you do.
"oh my god my GPA is actually 3.87 instead of 3.88 like on my resume will i be fired and blacklisted from the industry????"
"guise please halp halp i accidentally excluded an internship that i did in the 9th grade from my resume will HR find out about this???? i am going to cry guys please"
"OMG PLZ PLZ PLZ i printed some pages and took them home will my staffer find out about this and cut my nuts off???? i am so scared!!!!!"
just keep the damn files and shut your fucking mouth about it
I sent some of the files to my personal mail. Worked well 100% of the time.
Then I was doing this LBO during an on-cycle, so I encrypted the file to send it to my mac to make sure they can never open it. The system flagged me sending encrypted files. Some IT nerd put a conference with my MD, some HRs and stuff.
Told them I didn't remember the password, they did two additional rounds of these calls and it died. Probably helped that my MD never bothered to dial in.
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