Best Response

Everyone has a mess up in their career. I think what it comes down to is 1) did you lose the firm money? How much? How does this relate to the amount you've made them 2) what's your role? Are you an intern/entry level analyst that made an excel error? Forgot your firms SOP? 3) are you a small family shop or a major REIT?

I think it comes down to what's expected of you at your experience level. Entry level analyst that fudged an excel formula which skewed the model and cost you some attorney fees before you fell out of escrow? Your CFO and superiors should have vetted your work beforehand. Managing director (or any other form of BSD in the firm) forgetting to go over crucial DD docs which had delayed a project by 30-60-90 days? Still wouldn't expect them to get canned. I think you'd have to really royally FU to get close to that scenario.

 
WestCoastDeveloper:

This is a business where if you are involved in the day to day operations of managing the development project, you are going to have a lot of fire drills and fuck ups. Way too many moving parts and issues outside of your control. My advice - stick to being an excel monkey if you dont have a strong stomach.

This. You will have anxiety and sleepless nights. It's like a drug. You have to love the thrill but be able to take the downside.

 

My old boss told me a story when he was an analyst. Had fudged a number in excel put $psf/month instead of year or something for a tenant. He figured it out a couple days before closing (after they were firm). I can't imagine having to break the news to the boss. No, he didn't get fired. It's life it happens.

Personally, I appraised a property one January and had put in the previous year to start my cash flow 1/1/13 instead of 1/1/14. Normally wouldn't make a huge difference except the only tenant was in the last year of their lease at rent that was about 50% above market. I felt like a huge dummy when that review came back and they didn't understand why the value was so high. Fortunately, it was just an appraisal and not a real deal.

 

Coworker of mine called our CFO a fat cunt for requiring analysts go attend an executive networking event. Fuck up: instead of only emailing some fellow analysts, he accidently replied all on the email, so each cc'd executive saw it, including the CFO. FYI the CFO is a woman.

He got his things and left that day. Be very careful with quick email responses.

(Edit: tried making the story more clear)

 

An associate at my firm once accidentally emailed our internal investment memo to the sell-side investment bank when we were already substantially down the path and really pursuing the deal.

The principal on the deal went so crazy on the associate they literally started crying in front of everyone. They left the firm later that year and didn't finish their program. Was pretty crazy...

"If you want to succeed in this life, you need to understand that duty comes before rights and that responsibility precedes opportunity."
 

This one is pretty royal. Was told to my be an ex-GF. She worked at a sales desk at a bank.

In sales, they are constantly inputting orders from their clients and every employee makes input errors from time to time (e.g. wrong quantity). This is for the most part understandable when doing many transactions. It's usually just part of process and no big deal, but a bigger error can and does affect your bonus.

In one case, an employee got mixed up and mistook the price of a stock for the quantity in a buy order. It was because it was one of those stocks like Berkshire Hathaway with a huge stock price. Obviously this resulted in a very large loss for the bank. The employee actually had to be put on suicide watch as such an error meant he'd never again work in the industry. Note: this was in Japan where your job is a big part of your identity.

 

This may be urban legend but I heard a story about an analyst/associate at an acquisitions shop biffing an argus input on an office acquisition, hugely overinflating the max price they could pay to clear their hurdles - somehow no one else caught it (this is a little hard to believe as I have to imagine it wouldn't comp out), they were the highest bidder naturally, they eventually figured out they had grossly overpaid / lost money day 1, finally traced it to the argus runs and he got canned

Wish I had more detail to corroborate the story. This was in Orange County CA

 

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