Feeling useless at work

Not sure anyone will read above, it's too long. What's the issue and what would you like advice on?

Anyhow...OP, there are a couple things going on here that are all perfectly normal and expected for someone in your position. 

First of all, you have only been there "a little over a year." If you are anything like me, and consider yourself a an achievement oriented person, this can seem like a lifetime - especially when you're young. I remember having all sorts of expectations of rapid greatness that seem cringeworthy in hindsight. In reality, you've most likely only become actually useful to your superiors as of late. It takes a while to get a good sense of things in this industry. In the meantime, someone needs to reformat the documents. It most definitely is not going to be particularly fulfilling work, but it is work that needs to be completed, and if you're the lowest guy on the totem pole, you better believe that work falls to you. 

Since your annual review is coming up and you wish to do more, you are correct that this is an ideal time to start that discussion. I can't tell you what you should be doing though because I don't know how your firm operates, what you are meant to be doing, what you are personally good at doing, what other people in the office struggle to complete, and/or what you want to be doing with your time. All of these things matter - balancing the needs of the company, the deficiencies of your co-workers, your personal strengths, and your desires. Perhaps your company has little need for you to do more. Perhaps they are waiting for you to simply do it instead of being told. 

During your review, ask the person giving it specific questions as to their expectations of you, areas you can improve, and additional tasks you can take on. At the same time, feel free to express to that person things that particularly interest you, things that you haven't been exposed to but what to learn, and in general, never be afraid to jump in and offer to take something off someone else's plate. Your boss may give you incredible insights...or tell you you're doing "well" without any specific feedback...but you don't know until you ask. 

In the meantime, keep doing what you are doing to the best of your ability and spend any unavoidable down time you may have reading, networking, and thinking of alternative ways you can better yourself. 

Analyst 2 in RE - Comm

everyone seeing me as the person to offload their mindless tasks to.

but lately just seems kinda like if I wasn't there they'd be completely fine.

First, I think anyone about a year into a company at a junior level can probably relate to the above items. In reality, you are the person to offload tasks to, and they probably could be fine without you. Guess what, that is where you are in the story, and its true for most first years! First few years, you are more learning than producing/adding value. We all did this this, first few years a of a career suck. Here is the good news, the first year is over! 

Just keep going, I think you are going to do fine. The annual review is a chance to express your desire to get more involved, but you don't need to wait for those, and to be fair, picking up "mindless tasks" may actually be part of your current value prop (clearly, I hope not all of it), I mean, mindless tasks are part of any business, and someone has to do them. 

The real goal is to find that moment of opportunity to shine and add value, perhaps something missed or passed over (often in the piles of mindless tasks), it doesn't take much, just keep your eyes out. 

A year isn't a long time and frankly, everyone feels this way sometimes.  It sucks to say it, but there are many times when the job that needs to be done is reformatting data or boring shit like that.  Real estate is way behind the curve when it comes to technology and sometimes spending some drudge work to make rent rolls more easily analyzed or whatever is actually valuable.

I think it's important you look at what your expectations are and make sure those are realistic.  You have one year of experience.  Did you expect to be negotiating GC contracts for supertall condo buildings?  Were you expecting your firm to hand you a metaphorical blank check and use of the private jet to hop across the country looking for assets to buy?  It sounds like you are getting some good experience, its just not all the time.  Which... is life.  Sometimes it's boring, sometimes you're just clocking time.

You can probably gently hint in your review about what assignments you enjoyed, but portray it as a positive ("I loved working on XYZ!") instead of a negative ("I'd prefer not to work on ABC").  If it doesn't improve, then maybe you move on.  And you're right about not being a pest about helping others - if you find you have free time, acquaint yourself with the deal docs for projects you're working on but aren't doing the things you want to be doing.  Prove you know what you're talking about, that you're putting in time and effort.  At the very least, you'll educate yourself.  And when you find things you don't understand, then you can ask for a bit of help.  I've found you get more help and more rewarding answers when you ask specific questions.  Why did we level this bid one way?  Why heat pump vs electric PTAC?  Why 50 bps of cap rate expansion on this deal, instead of 75 on the one a few streets down?  Worst case scenario, you're no worse off than now and have some additional knowledge to bring with you to the next gig.  Best case, people see you're ready for bigger challenges.

And as a piece of advice, I wouldn't focus too much on the visibility of the projects you're working on.  No hiring manager is going to care you were a junior financial analyst who worked on [insert deal here].  They'll care far more that you can soup-to-nuts project manage the boring 6 story block and plank resi building without them looking over their shoulder.

Also, fuck @beejay2izzay.  That dude is going nowhere in life if he can't be bothered to read five paragraphs, especially when he also has the time to troll more intelligent people.

Ozymandia

beejay2izzay

Lol coming from a person who resorted to swearing and abuse on your post below. Instant defeat, you crack easily under pressure ... and I'm just barely getting warmed up. You're most likely way below average analyst back in the day, mind you is probably right now, as you sit with @CRE scratching each others heads on how to open up VBA or outlook. Percy Shelley said it best. Maybe the OP should be giving you advice ... rookie

"Resorted to swearing"?  What am I, five?

But yes, I was an awful analyst during my time in IB, and have no freaking clue how to use VBA.  Didn't even know what it stood for until I just looked it up!

Which is why I moved to a career in a field where I didn't have to use it, and where I can get paid much better for a set of skills that weren't applicable to being a monkey with a keyboard.  Though considering that Roger Altman and Bob Greenhill started investment banks on the strength of their VBA abilities, maybe I should have worked harder at it...

Lol cant tell if you're being seriously lame or just lame. No one asked for your speech, Ozymandius ... they see you ramble in your rubble while you stutter with your preach. Someone, probably @CRE, admires you think you're smooth ... slicker than oil as you skid through in school, nah man ... you're more like bubblegum stuck to his shoe / your man @CRE rather spit you than chew. Enough with the jokes, you probably think I'm helluva cool (true) ... over to you dude, show some rhymes, dont be a rookie in need of re-school. Oh ... and our man, O.P., probably now feeling more useful than you! mic drop ba-bye Fylecia - lesson's over! Who's next?

OP here.. thanks to all the positive replies. I think my issue is that I don’t want to be the lowest on the totem pole forever and it’s an irrational fear that I’ll never get out from the bottom. I realize it takes time but easier said than done. Anywho, I’ll keep chugging along and pray 2021 will be my year to shine.

.

I'm taking the direct route, because you need to hear it.

You are working 1-year, that is nothing.  You likely just learned what NOI is below the line items on a P&L.  Just because you can do your job doesn't mean you can do the job above you yet.  Your(Everyone's) first 6 months with any company is really just getting the lay of the land, and adding zero value.  The older you get the less this is true, but they even said this about Vikram Pandit when he was CEO at Citi.  Nobody can gauge your ability in such a short time frame.  Also, there are tasks that have less to do with "skill" than with maturity, and those life benchmarks.  That is why you make associate at 25 and VP at 30, nobody above you trusts your decision making capabilities yet.  It is life, you'll make more money learn and move up.  For every person 30-60...30 is where they start seeing you as an adult.