How to train attention to detail
I’m an an1 at a PE firm with an extremely lean team, directly report to partner/directors and I keep doing dumb mistakes.
I think they consider me still a good performer since they recently converted me but almost every single time I deliver something there’s a tiny mistake that is never substantial but I fell a fucking retarded not noticing that Ebitda in two different slides has a decimal difference (usually due to rounding) or I haven’t sum a tiny line in a formula etc. Like I’ve learned my self to model quite complicated stuff (the partner is very creative) but at the end I mess up a tiny thing that requires a markup that would have been absolutely unnecessary… there isn’t a single time that I deliver something that goes straight to the committee and this frustrates me a lot!
Is this normal? (I’m the only analyst so I can’t compare myself with anyone) Do you have any tips?
Print everything out and manually check mark / circle mistakes. Tie every single number, make an index of everywhere that number appears if you have to. You have got to become so neurotic about it that you develop your own process. You just need to stop and take the time to check every single cell, every single number. Eventually it gets faster but to begin with you need to be so cautious as to not submit any mistakes. It just has to come from a place of fear and dread because then you never forget, it gets wired into you.
That is normal. You do model, and you put model into slides. Then your watch ends unless someone has a specific model question that your manager cannot answer.
It doesn't matter that everyone is nice. You have about your whole first year to get things together. Then you might get fired. You might not, but you should be afraid of being fired. Create your own fear if you have to. It will mentally exhaust you but in the long term you will be better for it. I left PE a couple of years ago and I still have people remarking how thorough my work is and how good the attention to detail is, and I started like you with very poor attention to detail. You just need such deep anxiety every time you send work.
You should be able to stop and think to yourself, did I check every single number? and confidently be able to say yes. Don't send until you are absolutely certain. For example, print out your model (format to print), and when you see one number (e.g., 2023 EBITDA), find it everywhere else and make sure they tie. Move to each number one by one. Make sure you know exactly where - all of the places - 2023 EBITDA is so you don't miss one of them.
Sharing some advice I use on/give to my Analysts:
Instead of asking them to just "go through the slides and see if there are any mistakes," I tell them to "find me at least x number of mistakes" (e.g., 100pg doc, find at least 30 mistakes). There might not be more than 5, there might even be 50, but I've noticed fewer mistakes are missed when the bar is set high. I do this myself during any final review.
For numbers on Excel, on top of what everyone's said, make it a habit to 1) graph out figures to see if there are any irregularities (it's visually easier to see if you've missed a sum) and 2) use sanity-check functions (e.g., EXACT) for every key figure to make sure everything ties.
I made mistakes. I didn’t update the terminal cap rate on a sensitivity analysis on our summary page of our deal brief (5 pager).
The VP told me to follow him to the conference room. He then asked me, “what is your role?” I said “Analyst.” “But what do you do?” “I analyze.” Then he talked about being able to trust my work, and that I can’t have mistakes.
That fear paid off while I was there, but trained me in my career. I was laid off a couple years later during the GFC.
End of the day, attention to detail is partially visual spatial intelligence, partially methodical processes and thinking, being physically and mentally in the right place, and having enough time.
The part about Time, learn to get really fast at the mundane stuff with excel hot keys, an organized mind, never recreating the wheel, and KISS (keep it simple stupid - with an eye for the big picture and why you are analyzing and for whom). With more time, you get more time to refine.
ALT + E + F
Helps open another copy of the same ppt
Useful to check numbers in one page with other pages in the deck. Particularly if you can’t print.
Sometime also email the pdf to myself and check it on iPad. You will be surprise how much of a difference it makes.
Problem with checking your work is you won’t spot the mistakes on the same screen you created it, just the way human mind works.
Fear helps, but only to an extent, I prefer methodology. My MD once said after you consider a deck finished and ready to send, take the time and check it 3 times, you may waste 30-60 mts but worth it in the long term