3 Months in and entire Junior Team Quit Rant
Just venting here.
I hit the desk ~3 months ago and since then both associates and the senior analyst on my vertical have quit. Every single person on the team I interned with (~15 people) has left the firm.
The team has hired a new associate but they has 0 experience in the industry and don’t quite “get it” (They are a month in and still asking me where to find logos, how to build pie charts, and how to add rows/columns in excel). I get that they are an associate and don’t have to do analyst bitch work but they also don’t have a good enough grasp on the industry to bring in any ideas on how to execute anything or shell out any and any clarifying questions I ask get answered with a “you know more than me so just do your best.” and it ends up with me getting reamed by my vp and director on a weekly basis.
They are so behind (on what, I don’t know as I’m doing 95% of the work) that it leads to me getting jammed on a nightly basis by things that I could have been doing during the day. For example, senior bankers will send them an email on Monday morning asking for certain pages by Wednesday morning and they respond saying they will work with me and don’t have any questions. I get forwarded the email Tuesday night and they call me and tell me they don’t know how to do it but told the senior bankers it will be done and my entire night gets blown up. I then get pinged in the team group chat every 20-30 minutes asking how the pages are coming by my associate and the seniors love the associate because she is so good at communication. I send the deck Wednesday morning to the associate and let them know it’s ready for review (and I ping them too in our so the message doesn’t get lost and mention it on a call that I sent them). Wednesday afternoon my associate calls me and asks where the pages and I’m like wtf??? 10 minutes later my vp pings and asks where the pages are and I just send them to him and cc said associate.
They also work in a different office which I think adds to my frustration.
Thanks for listening to my rant. Any advice on what I can do in the meantime while I send out my resume and interview would be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried bringing up this issue with my vp but I don’t think he understands the extent of it and says that when said associate gets up to speed we will both have a lot less work. I don’t have time to wait for them to get up to speed, it’s been a month and the associate is still asking me what GS and JPM stand for and while I’m still very need to the industry and have a lot to learn, I really need some structure and someone to show me the ropes because after all, I’m just a first year analyst.
Not sure what type of bank you are at but have u considered looking at lateral options
Yes, I’m actively trying to lateral. In a couple of processes now
Currently an an1 contemplating lateralling. Could you elaborate on how the processes have been so far? Do they care that you might not have as much deal experience as an An1 who lateraled after a year? What are the conversations looking like?
What type bank are you at? Are you getting much traction in the lateral process?
Was wondering if you could PM me the firm name - looking for a SA 2022 position.
Whoa your group hs to be an exception, you’re saying you’re a 2021 grad and the whole anlayst team u came in with all left?
So are you guys hiring?
Yes, I can pm you the firm name
Wb summer interns
Can you pm me, thank you!
Can you PM me too? Thanks!
.
Can you PM me too?
Me too, if you don't mind.
Please PM me too!
Could you please PM me the name of your firm and location please ? Thx
Please PM! Not looking but curious which shit firm this is.
Please PM me aswell
PM me too please. Looking to get my foot in the door. Thanks!
Please PM me. Thanks.
Can you PM me as well? Also wondering what company to avoid...
Wow this tops my internal rant. Please PM me your firm when you get a chance I wanna know where you’re at haha
Could you PM the firm name? Thanks!
This chain had me laughing out loud. Could not believe my eyes and still think it might be a joke.
Bruh people on here want to work at this firm even after everyone there just quit for a reason? Why not go work for a firm that isnt shit?
I mean this really is how it is sometimes. Also you have to realize that getting your foot in the door and killing yourself is sometimes 100x better than working a average job that won't help you achieve your goals.
Not everyone gets an opportunity like this so a majority of these people will take it
I’m just curious which shit firm this is
Just leave, your VP / Directors / Senior Management won't get the message until you vote with your feet - surprised they haven't already given the amount of turnover.
Is the new associate a lateral or did they start with their class? Is it an A2A or MBA Aso?
It was an A2A associate who couldn't figure out how to add a row. Great question, MBA.
Wow, really. People amaze me everyday.
If I were you, I'd talk to some senior bankers to discuss the issues.
Analysts are typically responsible for the modelling, so if your being tasked that, it's kind of your job.
In terms of deck creation, it varies by shop. Sounds like at this shop, they're happy pawning it to the analyst. Perhaps talk to some senior bankers, and say, hey man I'm going to sleep nightly at 3AM and the associate isn't really pulling their weight. I understand as an analyst I am responsible for x, y and Z, but the associate should really be trying to help out too. If you are indeed finishing past 2:30AM on a weekly basis (and are NOT on a live process), you should bring this up immediately
On top of that the senior people KNOW who is doing the work. It's clear as day. Don't forget that - everyone has left - they do not want to lose you too.
Second this. Some of this is just how it is (you will always do 95% of the work as a first year) but some is totally unacceptable, like sending emails right before the deadline. I hope you asked them why they waited so long to forward.
I would have a list of 6-8 items this associate needs to work on (communication/not giving you senior emails until a day and a half later is a good one to bring up. getting pinged a lot, or having to do all the modeling, is not) and have them in your back pocket to talk to seniors.
Lateral is really the answer but you can't leave after 3 months - nowhere legit will want you until 6-8+ months
Dude it sounds like a mess. Put all your efforts into finding a new position. Goodluck with everything.
In this environment, you should have no problems finding another gig. Keep on applying. People had great suggestions here. I can't emphasize how important it is to be vocal, and you should tell your staffer/vp what's going on. You should tell your senior people you are getting no guidance, and your associate is coming to you for help with everything. Ask your director if he can instead call you directly for deliverables so that you get the explanations from the source and don't have to deal with an incompetent associate.
The director/vp that's reaming you, I would call them and say something along the lines of: Hey, I understand your frustration, I am new to this work and also have no guidance from anyone as people have left the team and my associate is asking me for training and help with her role. What should I do in my situation as I have no one to ask questions to but I also want to make your life as easy as possible?
Saying the above is the most human thing you can say, and is also the truth. Maybe they';ll come to realize I'm being an asshole, or prove to you that they're big assholes and you should leave ASAP.
I just edited my comment, it should be more helpful!
Second this. Ask to be the go to person and be on all the emails so you see things come in right away. No need for that middle man
I made a previous post saying how MBA associates without previous tier 1 experience (MBB/high finance/biglaw) is an overpriced (and quite often inferior because they couldn't get a tier 1 job out of undergrad) analyst.
Hey bud, no need to be sorry. I posted a similar thing here called "Bad team culture: a vent".
HIGHLY suggest you LATERAL either in banking or out ASAP. You and I are in similar spots. Both your and my associates appear to be smooth-talking idiots who literally cannot get shit done. In my case the VP is too but that's not important.
Beware that you might encounter this at plenty of places. It's a common thing. Shitheads who pretend they are good at what they do sometimes do get their way.
As plenty have said here. IB attracts a lot of "look-good-on-paper" people coming from brand name schools and high GPAs. Remember the old saying that the education system is a failure because students are not prepared for the society? Well to a certain extent this is true, especially when the founding father of the IB industry is called Turnde Comments. Turning comments is essentially one of the most inefficient things in this world.
On talking to senior people, a.k.a your MD, no your VP doesn't count because s/he needs to think about his/her political capital in the team, the same does not hold true for an MD, at least to a much less extent:
I talked to my MD most recently, a typical year-end review talk, and he decided to promote me to Associate. Mind you, at my current bank --- I prefer to remain anonymous --- Associates probably get underpaid hugely compared to EB or even BB analyst pay.
Compensation aside, I spoke with my MD about the Associate, how incapable she is and how she deliberately tried to sabotage other people's reputation --- being a two-faced bitch --- and take credit from people. My MD responded by saying, taking credit is common in professional services, and somehow he needs this Associate's family connections for potential deals. I get it, connections & resources are important because that is what we rely on.
On the other hand, he sent a clear signal: from my personal growth perspective, this is NOT the place to be long-term.
Don't hesitate to do the right thing, despite the hesitance.
Definitely recommend talking to the seniors. At the end of the day if they get pissed about you talking to them that only validates your rationale to leave, and then the team is really fucked if the Associate is as useless as you say they are, so that's their problem once you lateral.
Judging by some of the earlier comments it looks like you might be able to replace the entire team that quit
change your email title in your signature to "VP"
if no one says anything, congrats, you self promoted yourself to VP from analyst
who knows maybe one of the MDs find it balsy enuogh
go big or go home
you have no one left on your team, so might as well fuck around
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