What do you want in an Associate?
There's generally a good amount of MBA Associate hate here, which seems to be warranted based on some folks aptitude for excel, ppt, financial knowledge, etc. coming into the role.
All that being said, with intern season just beginning and FT hires rolling on soon, it would be great to know what characteristics the forum would want in an MBA Associate. What have MBA Associates done in the past that has been helpful for you as an Analyst, VP, MD, etc.? What skills should an incoming focus on? What has made you (god forbid) actually like and enjoy working with your MBA Associates in the past?
I’ve since left banking but the best post-MBA associates I worked with came in humble and excited to learn. Being comfortable asking the 2nd year analyst for help (and being willing to help out on some of the menial tasks in return) goes a long way in the first year or so.
Understanding that especially as a first or 2nd year associate, you aren’t above splitting work and doing shit work isn’t beneath you. Dont just throw everything onto the analyst and just be that person that just “checks” work. Get into the PPT, get into the excels. Let’s all go to bed at a reasonable time as a team.
You don’t even have to get into the excel, it would be enough to just make simple changes in PPT instead of adding comments boxes for text changes and color changes for MD comments.
My favorite associates are the ones who make the change and then send me a PDF of the comments they made afterwards, so I can look at it at a reasonable time.
I once had an associate who would make all these changes to the complicated model, then didn’t save it, then had asked me over email to make the changes he didn’t save. Drove me crazy at 3 am
One thing I would add is to send a quick note to the analyst showing the before and after and explaining why you made the edit. This way they can get a better understanding of what’s required so you can do that less and less
This is coming from A2A but I just don’t understand what the role of an analyst is if it isn’t to turn comments like that.
I have one analyst that I think gets touchy about stuff like that, look on his staffing sheet the other day he’s on a small handful of pitches. I’m on 2 sell sides, a buy side, bake-off, and as an associate you always have pitches going in the background.
I wouldn’t judge an associate off of not wanting to go into a pitch deck to make text and color edits if they’re staffed 3-4x heavier than you which is often the case here at least.
This dynamic never really ends. Do you not think my VP has me do a bunch of stuff daily that he can “do himself?”
Dropping tags on pages is actually helpful IMO and I appreciated it as an analyst.
Nothing is worse than the associate that is just a clearing house for the analyst.
Doing things you can yourself with little effort vs outsourcing it (eg, Using the search function is a solid quality)
THanks for this interesting information!
I am on the client side (corp dev at a Fortune 500 utility) so my take would probably be somewhat different but the main thing I want is for them to care about their work product. I don’t expect associates, post-MBA or promotes, to be entirely self sufficient. I expect they will need help. That’s totally fine with me. I am glad to help them if they need it. But, in return for that help, they should care. And this shows up in a variety of ways.
One is just proof reading their work product. Take the time to go over whatever you are sending me and make sure it looks good. There are no broken cells, formulas are doing what they should be, things line up on the slide, etc. We may eventually change stuff around but unless you are asking for help, or something to that effect, everything that is sent to me should be of a quality that I can present to the board.
Another is by just paying attention. If you are going to respond to an email chain asking a question, at least check that chain first to see if the answer is in there.
Basically, for me it is taking care of the small things that matters most
I wasn't a MBA associate, but I did come into banking as an associate and committed to being in the trenches with the analysts. Is it uncomfortable that younger kids are far more effective than you are initially? 100%, but if you are secure enough to acknowledge and lean into that upfront, you'll win everyone over and you'll actually develop far faster than you would by trying to extricate yourself from the junior ranks.
If the MD's job is to dictate/lead, the Director/VPs are there for quality control/execution, and the analysts are actually creating all the materials, then what is the point of having a no-experience associate if they're not willing to pick up the pen, turn comments, work on pages, and stay late? It is absolutely the easiest way to gain credibility and, equally as important, actually develop a banking skill set. Over time, you can start to step back and do more critical thinking than just processing.
Ultimately, if you really don't give a shit about what people think, you can come in and perpetuate the MBA-associate stereotypes: do nothing, hide behind other's work, pick up your comped-seamless dinner at 7pm on the way out the door, and tell way to many uninteresting stories about your class trip to Peru. I've seen plenty of examples of those people sticking it out and getting to VP/Director eventually. But to answer the question, the best thing you can do (initially) is think of yourself more as an Analyst than a VP, and work accordingly.
AS0/AS1 - split the work with the analysts. Take on the more complex slides. Own the model on a deal or two so you understand what goes into them.
AS1/AS2 - lead the day-to-day workstreams on the internal side. Provide thoughtful comments, but also continue to get your hands dirty.
AS2/AS3 - lead internal workstreams and be the liaison between your team + junior PE / CFO. Develop a voice on the deal
In short, be a team player. Everyone (analysts, VPs) hates the MBA Associate that push down all work to the analysts. It's obvious when it happens. I cannot trust an associate on a deal if I know they have not gotten their hands dirty - and if i don't trust you... you're useless.
I think the best associates inspire my confidence that various workstreams are proceeding smoothly. They have a rock solid understanding of the overall deal and how different tasks fit into the big picture. They dig into the weeds when needed but never lose sight of potential issues, which they proactively anticipate.
Most of these responses are from analysts that think the perfect associate is a glorified analyst that helps them churn through gruntwork. Following this advice exclusively would be professional suicide for an associate.
Associates should be helping analysts by guiding them away from unnecessary work, giving them helpful context, and skillfully managing upward. The worst associates sometimes also work the longest hours because they work alongside analysts on pointless shit that wastes huge amounts of time and effort.
Your post makes sense for an experienced associate, but what about someone fresh from MBA? Let's say in their first 6-12 months.
Man has got a point haha. Hopefully previous professional experience and that (allegedly) superior education that an MBA (allegedly) gives one, will help you understand wtf is going on around you as an Associate versus being a task monkey like an Analyst.
That is the biggest difference b/t Analyst & Associate. Analysts aren't expected to know wtf is going on fully, they focus on task completion and crank baby crank. As an Associate, if you really want to help your Analyst, yes you occasionally get in the weeds with him. Way more often though this is the trade off: The Associate pushes grunt work to Analysts to do but when a VP / MD grills the Analyst on said output, the Associate is the one whose ass is on the line to explain, understand it and convey the how and why it relates to the exercise and how that exercise relates to the deal.
That is why some people hate MBA Associates. They don't get involved in the weeds but they also won't help their Analyst when the Analyst has to answer to VP/MD and vouch for why "this is the way we should do it". If you can't do that second bit yet, as a recently graduated MBA Associate, then by all means get your ass in the weeds. Once you start gaining more deal awareness and can maintain that across multiple transactions in different phases, that is when you can stop focusing so much on being the task completion guy and be more of a broker of work streams who understands precisely what tasks must be completed for what exercises for what deals and why. In short you no longer live in the excel sheet immediately in front of you and focus a bit more on big picture of work flows and what needs to get done when.
Being able to both conduct the technical analysis and communicate the bigger picture. Also having a very thorough understanding of the financial analysis / modeling skills so you can actually check the analyst’s works. In other words, have the skills of a tier 1 analyst and have the management skills that are being refined to becoming a VP
You've presumably spent 4 years in undergrad, 4 or 5 years working in an office setting and 2 years in business school and you're asking a bunch of 20-year old's online how to get people to like you?
It really shouldn't be that hard to be a decent human being and somewhat of a team player. I think you're really overthinking this.
OP wasn’t just asking how to make analysts like them haha, the question was how to come in and be a value add from the beginning in a very competitive environment, I think it’s a great question and one that lots of mba associates would like some insight on
Take advice and guidance from 2nd or 3rd yr analysts without letting your ego and rank get in the way. They know how the gears crank at the bank and they know how seniors want stuff done for the most part. Be open to their commentary and feedback without any disdain. They can guide you to being a fantastic part of the team. Going against them or citing some asinine quote from one of your classes as a reason for challenging what they’d consider routine work is a one-way ticket to being hated and looked down upon.
Great addition. For the love of christ don't be this guy:
"Yeahhhhhh bud. Well in Business School what I learned is ______, so I'm gonna have to overrule ya on that one bud"
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