Currently in analyst role and about 50% of my time is spent building/running Excel models. I am a good Excel monkey but....at what level is that reduced or eliminated? I am getting pulled into more development work which seems model heavy, but hoping to contribute on a higher level.
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In the same boat as you. Would be interested to hear others insight and experiences.
The unfortunate catch 22 with development is a vast majority of the skill sets are learned through hands on experience (generally speaking. Obviously you can have a leg up through technical training and formal education). Just need to keep being proactive with the Development team requesting tasks and supporting them where you can. Sitting in on meetings/calls is extremely beneficial.
What size firm do you work for and what does your firm do: mostly acquisitions or development? A bit confused. Seems like you're already pretty heavily Excel, but also getting pulled into development work which might be more Excel heavy than you imagined?
Regardless, I think there's other threads delineating between the different levels up to MD of a big firm but I'd expect any Analyst/Associate to be pretty Excel intensive. VP level and above I would imagine this lessens a little, but still required.
I know a VP of development at a relatively small firm that is both very client facing, does a lot with zoning boards/commissions, and walks his sites daily but is also eyeballs deep in Excel, especially when a deal is at the finish line. Similarly, I know a Partner of a fairly large REPE firm that also still gets involved in modeling on a daily (or at least weekly) basis but at a much higher level.
I don't think it is every eliminated unless you're MD at BB IB and you're the rainmaker and your job is to close deals and bring in money.
We own about 25k units and are in various stages of development of about 2k at any given time.
Same question here, I am doing analyst work in commercial banking (non-business degree, it was a foot in the door) and a posting came up that was for an IB division associate. It was unusual because:
I really want to gun for it, but don't want to make a fool of myself either.
go for it, this way you will have no regrets. dont limit yourself
Agree with ^. Go for it. Only caveat is that if it's a regional bank or even small national bank the IB division is likely not going to be on the same level as BB's. They may or may not have an analyst which may be why there was no mention of reviewing their work. you could end up effectively doing both jobs. Still good experience but not always apples to apples with the BB's. I've heard those type of jobs are getting more competitive with recent MBA's moving outside of NYC/not wanting to go into IB/appreciating work-life balance. Things to ask about when you interview.
Thank you for your reply. I am actually in Canada and its one of the Big 5's IB side. The potential of having no analysts clears up the job description a bit. Coming from a non-traditional degree background and being in retail banking, I am hoping this is my in.
It is a bit of a stretch, but I hope that showing some initiative in regards to preparing for the role and Lord willing, shine in an interview, that its my break.
Again, thanks for the insight.
My 2 cents - I think Excel is the most useful thing you could learn in your Analyst time. When you get promoted to Associate, you will need to lead deals (modeling part of it) and adjust models/assumptions. Depends on the size of the firm, MDs will talk to Associate directly more or less and you don't want to disappoint your MDs with subpar Excel skills. VPs talk to clients/external parties a lot. My VPs spend a lot of time doing due diligence for acquisition and asset management/reporting.
My experience is a good manager/director in a deal making role will be client facing and more relationship management (as the above said with municipalities, potential partnerships/new deals and also sub-contractors during construction phase). With that being said, he/she often knows excel and is very involved with the underwriting. Only difference is the analyst is the one who makes it happen, the senior role is simply interpreting the data, analyzing it and also offering a second set of eyes on the results. As for analyst to associate, it's hard to say as it really is firm by firm. Some places the associate has a team of analysts directly under them...in which case they likely are working in excel, but hopefully tweaking and adjusting a well-done model you the analyst provided them. In other shops, a director has their own associate. And that associate will also go to the "company analyst" (so do the other associates) for a little help on what would be considered grunt work for him. I look at each task and ask if it is just a simple, but time consuming item for me. If this is something that an analyst could use as a learning opportunity and it gets it off my plate, then it's a win win. So in that sense I guess yes as you go from analyst to associate you are doing less modeling.
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