How hard is it to go A2A?
Recently lateraled into an IB job as 2nd year analyst at a BB, coming from an esoteric banking group (ABS/CMBS banking). While I am lucky to have made this move, I feel a tad under qualified. I have experience working on “deals” but not the IB type, just with securitized products deals that don’t have much in common with more standard IB. While comfortable with high level valuation concepts, I don’t have the nitty gritty down (yet?). I have modeled before (in college), but to be frank, I don’t know how to build a model from scratch. Ive heard that “modeling skills” are overrated and that it’s really just a lot of plug and chug into a template - not sure how true that is. Since I am coming in as a second year, I am wondering how tough the promotion to associate will be. I understand that knowledge is built through reps, but I feel like I have 1 less year to learn how to become an associate.
I’m not sure if my expectations of myself are too high and they expect me to learn all this on the job, or if I am not qualified for the role I just secured. I am really excited about this seat and do view this is a career move (aka not looking to jump ship to buy side) as I would prefer to stay on the sell side - I enjoy sales and think at a senior level I’d like that about banking.
With everyone defecting to buy-side as an analyst, banks are looking to incentivize analysts to stay on as associates, hence the rise in 2-year promotion norms across the street. I've heard of groups where there are no A2As or 1 A2A from associate through MD. If you're decent they should want to retain you.
Maybe in your case you were put into too senior of an analyst position based on how you feel about your performance, so maybe that means an extra year as an analyst? That's probably something you would find out in a performance review, but vocalizing your desire to stay at your bank for the long term (at least through associate) should help you get some clarity on the path forward. I'm sure they would be refreshed and glad to hear that someone wants to stay on.
It’s great to hear that there is an internal push to promote, despite mass defection indicating that there may be a valid reason for it.
Regarding the seniority, maybe this is dumb, but I felt like it would have been foolish to say nah I’d rather start as a first year when they offered the second year seat. What would you do to prepare before I start? I start on April 5 (in the office, luckily).
were you an internal transfer?
otherwise how'd you move from a non-IB group to IB at another firm, and a BB at that?
I was not. I was able to move 1) through networking (crazy right?) and 2) they offered me to not lose seniority (think they really needed headcount), and since I come from a quasi IB group in ABS, that they’re more comfortable with me coming in as a somewhat “experienced” hire
I spoke to my friend who said it’s nbd... he’s in coverage and said everyone overhypes the modeling as some crazy hard shit when in reality it’s not that hard + he said 80% of the job is PPT, 15% admin, and 5% sales. Don’t know how accurate but definitely re-assuring
thanks. i'm asking because i'm in a similar group at a mid-BB looking to lateral as well.
by the way are you class of 2019 or 2020? i'm 2020 and not getting the cleanest looks from other BBs. also looking to move internally since that seems easier
also with so many people looking to lateral i assumed that BB coverage teams only looking for people with direct IB background. i guess i'm wrong on that one
I would go as far to say that literally anyone that wants to do A2A will be given the opportunity to do so in the current environment. Only differentiating factor would be whether they fast-track you after two years or make you do the standard 3.
is the standard still 3? i thought now it's a standard 2 years and a 3rd year for people who've switched groups/firms etc.
It might be 2 now - when I was doing IB they just introduced the 2 year thing for top bucket people, but with how few people stay on it might be standard now.
Generally no very hard
Definitely depends on bank and group needs. Every analyst in the class below me got offered to stay on expect one person, even 2 of the bottom bucket people got offers. I would expect 50-80% to leave for PE / HFs in July or early in the fall, but hard to say with this class.
“Generally no very hard” but your anecdote makes it sound like all but the absolute worst analyst get A2A offers
In my group, this happens to be the case unfortunately. The only reason one person didn't, was due to their attitude. Otherwise everyone would have. The VPs that have to deal with a couple of the promoted analysts are going to be miserable, they are really that bad.
Did you do any cashflow modeling on the securitization team? I'm An1 in securitization and am considering trying to switch to IB. I don't come from a math/stats/programming background so all of the structuring & analytics is done by someone else (i.e. in my view no transferrable skills to structured credit buyside). Even broader, I'm not sure there are any transferrable skills/exit opps in general, which is why I'm considering IB. How was compensation and how much less was it than people in IB? The good thing about my team is WLB is pretty good (avg 60 hrs/week), so if comp isn't that much of a discount, I might look to stay for 5+ years as I don't imagine I'd get fired before VP
Rather easy at BB firms - quite difficult at boutiques (I know someone who is 30 year sold, a 5th year analyst, at a <10 person boutique)
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