Not Doing Anything - Paradise or Stagnation?
I have a lot to think through and ultimately how I proceed comes down to me, but I wanted to crowdsource opinions.
First, some context: first two months on the job in a fairly strong group (deal flow / exits) and basically not doing anything. I expected to hit the ground running but got put on a lot of low priority things.
The decision is kind of binary. I either go to my staffer and ask for more work (and ask what's wrong / how can I be a better team player / gain respect and trust of others), or I coast and step up if/when it gets busy.
Pros of current situation:
- hard to mess anything up
- unlimited time to finish things
- getting off before 10p every day
- weekends always free
Cons of coasting:
- not learning
- brain is turned off 90% of time on low priority things
- not gaining respect / trust
Obviously something needs to change because I'm not content with my situation. Ultimately I want to learn. I expected that I would learn by being "thrown into the deep end," but this hasn't happened. Will it? Maybe. Why hasn't it? Maybe limited deal flow, maybe my own capabilities, maybe too high of expectations. But in the meantime I either want to make good use of my time by self-learning (e.g. reading about industry, practicing Excel, learning a software like FactSet or bbg terminal) or I need to ask for more work.
My question for more experienced users is: should I raise my hand, or should I relish in the free time and try to self learn? Ultimately I'd like to try the buy side, so the question is what will I learn the most from: deal XP, or hours of studying/reading/upskilling with institutional resources?
Further, any advice on how to make the most of hours of free time (esp. how to set goals for upskilling and keeping personal goals/timelines of what I want to learn) would be great - definitely accustomed to being a task junky, and kind of feel like I'm working at a start up with all this white space
Whether you move to the buyside or stay on the sellside, deal reps are really important. There is value to learning on the side but hands on deal experience trumps it.
Early in your career, it's doing the shitty things on live stuff, but the more you get involved and win trust, the level of responsibility and involvement increases. So starting to get involved earlier is beneficial.
The other advantage of being in the mix is building relationships and trust with senior guys.
I don't see any pros to coasting other than free time.
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