I'm a recent graduate and I've landed a role at a well regarded boutique. We primarily deal with real estate and infrastructure assets and attract large clients. The team is super lean, with 2-3 analysts, 1 associate and 2 MDs.
I'm in my first week, and I'm being baptised by fire. The work is never ending and I feel overwhelmed at almost every second of the day. I'm trying my best in my spare time (what little I have) to learn about real estate as I have had no prior exposure to the sector. Emails roll in every 2 minutes with shit to do, MDs demand a ridiculously high standard from analysts, and I'm expected to multitask on like 4 different things at once.
This isn't a complaint post. I can't stress that enough. I'm not complaining or whining. I just want to know how I can best overcome this feeling of being overwhelmed. I'm taking the initiative to always jot down notes, go through past models and tombstones, learn the firm's style of doing things etc. It's just so much at times I feel like my breathing becomes restricted.
Pay is slightly below street, bonus is also below street (up to 15% of my base) but this boutique places well in BBs and the things I'll be doing as an analyst holds lots of responsibility, so in that regard I'm happy.
Please help with any suggestions that can help me keep a cool head to absorb the onslaught of information and work that's shoved at me on a daily basis. Thanks!
PM me i'm out
It's OK to make mistakes, ONCE. Don't make the same mistake twice. Learn from them, write down everything relevant and after a while you'll have built your own training manual . "when this happens, do this, when that happens, do that." They hired you because they saw something in you which must have included the ability to figure things out and take care of a lot of things simultaneously. If they thought you weren't up for the job, you wouldn't have the job. Don't overwhelm them, but ask appropriate questions when needed and jit it all down.
This is actually the best advice you'll get.
This.
Above post is spot on.
Come in early (like, 7am) and go through your email, make a "to do" list ordered by priority, estimate how long you think it'll take, and update it mid-morning, at lunch, and at 3-4pm if you need to, depending on how often things come in. This is also your time to go through old models, google dumb questions, and get some stuff done without anyone sending you more to do. By 9:30-10am you should have gotten through some of your work, and if you're stuck anywhere have a list of a few questions for each task's owner - go ask them when they look free. It gets better.
To build upon the to-do list idea, make it a spreadsheet where you can add things like priority, expected time, etc. and color code it. This will make your time management a lot easier.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Will take the above moving forward.
The best thing you can is put in the hours, stay organized and don’t take on too much work. Ask questions and in 2 weeks you’ll feel like you can start to add value and won’t need to be supervised all the time. It happens quickly.
You're just getting up the learning curve. You will struggle a lot, especially in your first year. By the time you hit 8 months or so, you'll start performing on your own and things will all start to make sense. By the time you hit the end of your 2nd year and beginning of your 3rd year, that's when you will essentially become self-reliant. That's why analyst programs are generally 2 years to fully get up to speed.
That was my experience at least. Take deep breaths, acknowledge you will make mistakes (and will learn from them) and keep your head down and chug along. Almost everyone feels overwhelmed in their first few months and this is completely normal.
What I would also add is give yourself space to focus on getting this under control emotionally. We are not machines, and you will likely need to take care of yourself on the weekends. Try to not get shitfaced on the weekends for a bit and try to really take care of yourself like a pro athlete (for as far as possible in IB of course).
It will help you get up to speed quicker, at which point you can engage in a normal social life again.
Great point on not getting shit faced, I dialled back my weekend agenda when I started my latest job while I was learning a new industry. Cranked it back up a bit once I found my feet 6 months in.
When you need to learn and absorb so much new information and you cant just coast on auto-pilot, it makes a huge huge difference.
Git Gud or Burn
But seriously though: - Figure out how to prioritise, - Get clear timing on all due dates / times - Build in time for additional rounds of review - Print and review everything before you hand to someone senior - Push back if you have to - it's better to not take on new work than it is to fuck everything up because you took on too much - Write down everything, carry your notebook to every meeting - Communicate - the right amount of communication is when it feels like you're over-communicating, it'll take the pressure off your seniors if they know what you're up to and your time frames to finish work are. Also, since it's likely you're going to do something wrong, even if just by not understanding clearly what they wanted, its better to know early than late (read: finding out the model is fucked at 3 pm, rather than 3 am)
As someone who has been in your shoes and felt completely overwhelmed starting in IB, I can attest that as long as you keep your head down and keep grinding it will get as you keep getting more reps. You are coming into a new situation where you are trying to gain competence on the job with no experience. This process is very stressful but as soon as you start understanding the how of doing things as well as the why, tasks get a lot easier and less stressful.
Keep grinding and know that it will get easier.
1) Don't make stupid mistakes. (details, punctuation, putting the wrong number in, etc) 2) Don't make the same smart mistake, twice. 3) Don't ask stupid questions. 4) Research before you ask a smart question. 5) Don't ask the same smart question, twice.
When you get a lot of work at once, write down everything you need to do. Once everything is written down, just do it. It's easy to get bogged down in large part by the idea of how much work you have on your plate when in reality this energy is much better spent actually cranking.
For industry knowledge, read the books youre putting together and actually understand what you're trying to tell the client. This goes along way in giving your deliverable / page / chart purpose and can do a lot for morale. Also download research primers and reports. You should be able to expense these without a problem.
This.
Get acquainted with the tools you have, or could get, that will do some of your grunt work for you. This can be high tech - software, websites, macros - or low tech - getting on friendly terms with your firm's graphics/word processing people or offshore support teams.
It's incredibly tempting to tell yourself "it will be faster if I just do it [myself / by hand / the old way / whatever]" but that will stop being true after 1 or 2 instances. Beyond that you're grossly misusing your time and not helping your career.
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