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Usually you will have a mid-level banker in your office who is assigned the staffer role and oversees the junior banker work stream to make sure the staffings are distributed evenly. This isn't always possible though, like if you have an incompetent staffer who doesn't care or just due the nature of client work, you never really know which accounts will blow up when.

When you first start, staffings are handed out mostly randomly, just to give the first years some work to do. If you prove to be a strong analyst and people can rely on you, then usually you'll start getting staffed on bigger projects for the more important clients whenever they come in. But there are also times when everyone else is already busy on other projects so that important project goes to the lower performing analyst who has capacity. So in other words, random a lot of the time but you have a better chance of getting more meaningful work if you're good and people want to work with you.

 

This is spot on for how staffing generally works at my firm as well. For your question on how to get staffed on good work, it's a combination of luck and performing well. I got staffed on a few nice deals with high-performing MDs when I started, I worked really hard and now they pull me on to most of their larger, more attractive transactions. My advice would be to request a staffing with whatever MD / team is doing really solid deals and then work your ass off to continue being staffed with them.

As far as HR, I honestly don't know what they do all day at my firm.

 

This is why it is really important to 'hit the ground running' both at your internship and full-time. Assignments will be random at first (to the extent you weren't recruited by school alum, etc.) so you need to do a good job to prove yourself and position yourself for more attractive things down the line (and build your internal reputation).

To some extent would also consider this for people considering switching banks for FT when it isn't an obvious move upward. The network you build is extremely valuable and you'll be behind all the other FTers who were interns if you start somewhere new FT.

 

I think if you have a major account with recurring projects, then they'll keep the same analyst on that client to maintain continuity and efficiency, but there are many clients that you only do work for every once in a while / a new client that you're doing a one-off pitch for, so I think in general staffings are based on projects vs. clients to keep the distribution of work more even.

 

Yeah it's usually pretty random at first (you can voice preferences if you're really interested in working on a particular subsector) but over time it gets more streamlined. Once you've been on a couple of projects for a company, the coverage team will often just loop you in directly on anything new vs. go through the staffer and unless you're a complete dolt you'll be on everything (lve + BD) for that client going forward. Sometimes you'll work on some novel type of analysis or industry and for efficiency's sake you'll continue to get staffed on those types of projects (for example, I was the "convertibles" pitch guy solely because I did the first one my group had done in a while and the GCM guy kept reminding my staffer that they'd worked with me in the past).

By the end of your first year or so there will be a pretty clear pecking order among the analysts / associates and the best / most complex work will go to the best junior teams. This kind of sucks if you're really good because you'll end up overstaffed (it's like winning a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie).

Lastly, first impressions are super important so if you fuck up your first couple projects you may be relegated to shitty pitches for the rest of your stint through no fault of your own while the top analyst may continue to get great staffings despite taking her foot off the gas.

 

Is there anything that can even be done if you gave a poor impression at the start? I'm in that spot, not sure how to fix it so I can continue to learn on more difficult / unique projects for the next year. Leave in a year so not the end of the world if not fixable, but was wondering as a way to ensure I'm best prepared for my next role.

 

I think just talking to your staffer is your best bet. Just say something along the lines of how you're looking for something more challenging / want more exposure or x industry or product group, etc. In my experience the kids that got relegated to the really shitty deals were the ones who both i) were bad; and ii) did nothing about it.

People are totally willing to give you a second chance but they need to feel like you aren't going to let them down.

 

Also a lot of your experience will hinge on how seriously your staffer takes his/her job. A good staffer will know what everyone has past experience with, what they want to work on, what their capacity is, if they have vacations planned etc. They'll also push back on unreasonable MD requests (like if an MD requests a specific analyst who happens to be jammed, the staffer will refuse to put them on it). I remember one of my staffers replied to an absurd MD request (can't remember what it was, but it had a very shitty value add / hours needed ratio and would have roped in half the analysts) with "The bullpen is at capacity." which was epic. He was really well regarded in the group though so his word carried weight.

Conversely, you can have a groveling sycophant as a staffer who will acquiesce to any request no matter how inane, which can totally ruin your analyst experience. At least in my group, the staffer rotated anually so you could have a number of different experiences.

 

Hi everyone,

Upping an old topic, yet it's the most relevant one across the board.

My boutique doesn't do staffing, so you can imagine the chaos in getting things done.

I'd like to implement such staffing, can anyone share a template of a staffing sheet?

 

Most people do not want to be a staffer - it's a no win role. No one gives you props for properly staffing projects, but you get shit on by the MDs if you staff a shit junior and you get shit on by the juniors if you overload them (sometimes you don't have a choice). Additionally, juniors may treat you differently, ie not be so open about themselves in order to not invite a staffing. At my old firm, the staffers got like 10K extra at the end of the year, which is so not worth it according to every staffer I had. 

In terms of selection, it's sort of random - essentially the most senior associate became the analyst staffer and the most junior VP was the associate staffer in my past group.

 

On the flip side, it seems like a good way for Associates/VPs to get visibility with senior members of the firm and networking more broadly. Everybody knows who the staffers are and that awareness helps when it comes time for accelerated promotions, top staffings, etc. There are tons of junior bankers who the senior folks don't even know exist and while it's less of a headache for them, it hurts them in the long run if they want to stick around the firm. If the intention is to leave banking within 2-3 years, I would agree one should not want to be staffer.

 

Out of curiosity, how many live deals does a typical analyst either work on or close during his/her two year tenure at a BB bank?

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

The staffer most likely belives the "already busy" analyst will do the best job on the live deal, and doesn't believe the other analysts are ready for the project. People at all banks make judgements very quickly.

To prove yourself, do the best with the projects you receive and ask for more responsibility-but don't be annoying or whine about it. You could have pissed someone off earlier, or people might just want to see some more of your work. At this stage, what happened isn't as important as doing good work going forward.

People become IB analysts to learn about the finance industry quickly and get deal experience (in addition to the $). We don't realize that associates and senior bankers really do see us as monkeys. They're 95% focused on maximizing their comp/reputation, which means maximizing deal flow/performance. Why should they care about developing the skills of an analyst who is only there for 2 years? They will only do this if it eventually benefits them.

In industry, companies invest in new hires with the expectation that they will be with the firm for 5 or 10+ years. In banking maybe 20%-30% of analysts stay 3 years and fewer stay longer than that. So the returns for taking a chance on an analyst (especially a seemingly mediocre one) or helping him/her learn new things just aren't there. After a point, bankers will focus their development efforts on the 1 or 2 analysts who will be around for a 3rd yr/possible associate position.

Pacificali, people know who is "the best" based on what they see. That's why presentation and attention to detail is so important in this business. They also just might not like you as a person or have their own set of issues.

 

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