Feeling useless at work
Current job: financial analyst in development at a CRE dev/investment shop (capital side)
I’ve only been here for a little over a year and I’m starting to wonder if there’s ever going to be a way to move up. Sometimes I get tasked with more “exciting” analytical things and other times it’s just reformatting documents or copying data. I am getting exposure to a lot of different aspects of CRE which I appreciate but lately I just feel like a body and like I’m not contributing anything.
My annual review is coming up soon so I want to bring up how I want to do more but I’m just not sure what else I could be doing. We are a lean shop so everyone kinda has their jobs already and I feel like the odd ball sometimes not really having a purpose. I honestly think that I am way faster/smarter than they expected me to be and struggle to find ways to keep me busy. I used to ask if there was anything for me to help people with a lot, but that just gets annoying.. I also don’t want everyone seeing me as the person to offload their mindless tasks to.
No, I don’t want to quit. I’ve job hopped a lot. This is my first CRE job that took me years to finally get my foot in the door at. We’re involved in some great projects around the US that people recognize so I at least have that going for me if/when I do decide to leave later down the road. I do enjoy my working environment but lately just seems kinda like if I wasn’t there they’d be completely fine.
What do I do? I can’t shake the feeling that they’re not going to be able to give me any “meaningful” work. On the flip side, since this is a new role in the company, it has potential to be anything I can shape it into if I can figure out what and how
Advice plz
Not sure anyone will read above, it's too long. What's the issue and what would you like advice on?
Don’t be a tool. If five paragraphs is too much for you to read, and basic human decency too much for you to muster, you're going to struggle in life.
Think you forgot to respond to the OPs question. It just looks like one big paragraph to me and, like many, we're all probably still working and not have the time to read through a long passage. Unlike your response, I've actually offered to help. Cheers
You both are highjacking a thread in an on-topic forum while contributing absolutely nothing to the conversation. I'm not sure why that's admirable to either of you, but by all means.
I just joined in, mind you. You really love to toss blame, dont you @CRE? You go back and forth with @beejay2izzay over this bullshit and now decide to finally post something useful and act like you are taking the high road. Go fuck yourself
Keep it classy, anonymous prospect!
I feel bad for you @CRE. I really do.
And, as they say, I don't think about you at all.
I'll keep helping people who ask for it and you can keep embarrassing yourself under the cover of anonymity.
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.
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.