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April 30, 2024
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Yes, the work will come. Enjoy your freedom while you have it. Soon you will look back on this post and laugh. You’ll be fine with getting up to speed.
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Ask the other associates if you can do anything and everything to help them. be very vocal about being bored
think everyone is misunderstanding what I am saying about being vocal. Just dont sit there doing nothing about a lack of work especially if others are grinding that is never a good idea.
Yes, being annoying is really a great way to help you get acclimatized to the group.
not necessarilly being annoying but if you sit there and do nothing you dont want to just wait and hope people will give you work
What specifically do you feel behind on?
Firehose will turn on soon.
Well sounds like paradise to me. Paid big $$, barely working. Investment banking is paradise.
Just wrapped up my first associate year and can assure you the work will come. There are ebbs and flows in this job- sometimes you even have a whole month where the work is 'slow'. For now, try to spend your time practicing modeling, flipping through relevant materials, etc. If you're going into the office try to grab coffee with bankers, especially senior ones you admire and connect- it pays dividends when you're staffed together or they may even staff you directly on something if they like you. Enjoy getting to bed at a reasonable hour, it'll keep you sharp for the moment your staffer asks if you have capacity which will inevitably come...
How did you enjoy your first year? What were your average hours like?
I liked it enough to not quit at the one year mark, but a lot of people in my class are leaving/have left.
I hate the average hours question because its transaction dependent. Generally, I worked 9am to 12/1am give or take some weeks with 4/5am-ers in there for crazy deals or pitches. Some weeks were like what you described- quiet-ish and loved those the most!
I'm not built to be a career banker though, my marriage couldn't last the level of unpredictability required to make this a career, plus the upside is not there as much as it used to be in my opinion. Looking forward to taking the skills and the network to something where I have more ownership and control of my time and life.
Thanks I appreciate this. Makes me feel better.
Use the time to get into a sustainable workout routine (something that you can do ~30 min a day) and grab coffee chats with as many people as possible, including contacts in other parts of the bank. Get access to your sector's ER reports and start understanding the ins and outs of the industry. Practice some modeling. Look through old decks. Enjoy your sleep. Finance is an apprenticeship model which means you will all of a sudden look back in a year and realize how much you learned, even if you feel like you are not actively learning day to day. Completely normal.
You should reach out to your staffer. The advice for enjoying the free time while you have it is spot on... After you've been through the grind a few times and have built up a reputation, but if you fall behind others early on in terms of learning and reputation building, you'll quickly get passed over for the best and most interesting staffings in favor of those who have been in the trenches and made those relationships. The best thing I ever was throw myself into everything for the first 12 months and it allowed me to be significantly more selective and have significantly more latitude by year two. Three years in and I was hand picking what I wanted to work on, not the other way around, and it's because I built up that rep for the first eighteen months and learned more in that time than most of the other associates had in three years.
Unfortunately this things are not linear, if you don't capitalize on on the first 18 months it's much harder to make up for it after that, both in terms of learning trajectory but also reputation.
This approach could work, if you’re ready to work >100h weeks for the first 12 months, which isn’t the case for everybody. Tbh I doubt you would fall behind, I think after a month you’re usually staffed already and fully on within month 3. Not necessarily a function of whether you’re good, but just pitches converting / other people leaving
This is really just a factor of the group you're in and the dealflow. Sooner or later you'll be staffed and wondering to yourself why you asked WSO about why you weren't as busy as you expected yourself to be. Just enjoy the time of not being staffed and be proactive whenever possible if anyone is looking for a free hand. Otherwise you just need to relax and roll with what you've been given.
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