How long does it take to become a good associate?
Recently started as an associate in PE, having done my time in banking. I didn’t expect the job to be easy but I also didn’t realise how clueless I’d feel. I thought I’d have some knowledge from IB (which to an extent I do) but I am so out of my depth on generally forming an articulated view on things rather than just being a sellside analyst processing MD comments.
For those who have made it out the other side, how long did it take you to feel like you knew what you were doing with most things? And how long to feel like you were actually adding value?
Any other tips around making it through this stage also very much appreciated
Bump
Associates are there to do the quantitative work - the quantitative stuff comes with time
Use your intuition as much as you can if you have that. If not check as many old memos as there’s often a common way of thinking about stuff at your firm
to come back to the question, it’ll be different for everyone, but the below feels ballpark right:
- 6 months - pretty much in the dark (and you’ll be allowed to be)
- 12 months - should feel like some of the core concepts start to make sense and you can take a pretty good stab at them yourself
- 18 months - should start to be proficient in core concepts
- 24 months - mastered most core concepts and start to be able to use it in uncommon / non-standard situations or on the fly in discussions without having to do all the detailed work. Feel on top of stuff and people will seek you out to work with / known as an experienced associate
- 30 months - able to start understanding how everything ties together and dip toe in legals, understand how various work streams tie together and how decisions in one impact other streams. Feel like you could take a fresh associate under your wings and show them the rope on the core concepts if required
- 36 months - ready to be VP and run most of the work streams independently or with limited oversight
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