Future SA who hasn't taken corp fin or accounting. How fucked am I?

Somehow I got an SA position at a great bank in NYC, but I'm not taking either of the mentioned courses until next year (didn't realize importance until it was too late). Is the learning curve going to be impossibly steep? Or does most SA work entail being a bitch who doesn't do much modeling?

 

the latter. however, you might get a chance to actually model near the end of the summer if you prove yourself.

if you don't prepare, you won't be able to seize that opportunity. look into pearlbaum's investment banking to get the basic idea of everything yo need.

 
black mamba22:
Somehow I got an SA position at a great bank in NYC, but I'm not taking either of the mentioned courses until next year (didn't realize importance until it was too late). Is the learning curve going to be impossibly steep? Or does most SA work entail being a bitch who doesn't do much modeling?

You are not expected to know anything finance related. On top of that, you will have a week of training which covers the basics of accounting and finance along with excel.

You will mostly be working in powerpoint, capIQ/Factset to pull data for the analysts and tying numbers on print outs.

 

expectations are low, but you don't want to be in line with expectations. you want to absolutely blow them out of the water. I suggest Wall St. Prep/Breaking Into Wall St./Training the St. (Wall St Prep is my personal choice).

If you walk in the door and can model like a pro and at any chance have a chance to prove it, it'll go a long way. You want to be getting up to speed as little as possible while on the job - do it before.

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be”
 
Best Response
nontargetPSD92:
expectations are low, but you don't want to be in line with expectations. you want to absolutely blow them out of the water. I suggest Wall St. Prep/Breaking Into Wall St./Training the St. (Wall St Prep is my personal choice).

If you walk in the door and can model like a pro and at any chance have a chance to prove it, it'll go a long way. You want to be getting up to speed as little as possible while on the job - do it before.

This makes me think you've never SA'd. The only thing that is expected of you is to show interest and work hard. Nothing else.

If you walked in and "knew how to do everything" then make a mistake, kiss your FT offer goodbye. What you think you know, you really don't have a clue. Don't even try to go this route.

 

This makes me think you've never blown anybody away.

At my HF internship, I built a proprietary valuation model for them and they were impressed enough to throw me a bonus that more than doubled my salary at the end of the internship.

I wouldn't recommend walking in and asking to build a merger model for a live deal if you just bought wall st. prep two days ago, but if you know your stuff and are willing to ask questions when you aren't confident, its better to go in with good technical preparation than with none at all.

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be”
 

Pearlbaum's book is a great start, really helped me out this summer. Like others said, expectations will probably be low but you want to blow away those expectations, so anything you can do to prepare you need to jump on it. Just curious what year are you that you have yet to take an accounting course?

 
phillymonkey90:
Pearlbaum's book is a great start, really helped me out this summer. Like others said, expectations will probably be low but you want to blow away those expectations, so anything you can do to prepare you need to jump on it. Just curious what year are you that you have yet to take an accounting course?
im a junior
 

learning curve is going to be steep for any SA. usually, there will be a training program before your internship starts. so everything you will need to know, they'll teach you. you just need to get up to speed and work hard during your internship. expectations for an SA are generally pretty low. you'll be fine. just work hard, get your hands dirty, and be available 24/7 as a resource for the other analysts/associates.

 

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