Struggling to make friends and connect with the team in Onboarding Virtually
I just started a new gig in corporate banking, I'm a few weeks into the job and I feel relatively isolated and it's been difficult to go to people for questions/advice.
My coverage group has no other analysts but me globally, and the associates haven't made it easy to connect with them at all. The associates in my group are NEVER online on Teams and have blocked out their phone numbers from their email signatures - additionally, when I reached out to them, the individuals were not interested in making any effort to get to know me better or connect with me to give me some advice when I asked if I could setup some time to talk with them and ask them questions. I didn't so much as receive a "welcome" note from them - just the MDs and VPs.
I'm currently forwarding all my questions to the VP who I directly report to, as our specific "deal-team" doesn't have any associates, but I feel bad asking the VP questions and I know they're extremely busy and don't have time for me.
How do I meet more of the analysts in other coverage groups when we're going to be working virtually for the next few months at the least, and my coverage group's associates don't have any intention on being mentors/supportive of development?
What would you guys do in my situation to ramp up quickly and not get left behind?
In my last company, whenever we had a junior, they were assigned a mentor and those two people would spend hours on the phone together screen-sharing/walking through work - I definitely did that for the juniors I trained in my previous role. It has definitely been the opposite experience at my current company.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to be a loner and an underperformer for a full year before I inevitably switch the fuck out of here to a better firm.
Bump
Why wait a year? This place sounds like a nightmare. I would start applying elsewhere ASAP.
Just came out of commercial banking into corp banking.. can’t leave after a month lol
Assuming you’re at a slightly larger firm where there are analysts who started at the same time as you, I’d just ping them quickly and ask if they have 10 minutes to connect. You could also reach out on LinkedIn and send a note that you don’t know anyone and want to briefly connected. I had a couple of people do this to me during training who didn’t intern at the bank.
I’d also start looking to lateral because you’re associates suck.
Bump
I'm in a similar boat
I have worked in teams before where everything was handled in chat rooms like Slack or Teams. No calls, more like constant messaging in sub groups. Make sure you are in all the Teams groups they are in and start engaging with people.
Phone numbers are often blocked out across companies, although I find that weird too.
We don’t even have a teams group - I asked on the first day.
Then why don't you start a Teams group? I did that for my sub team and the idea was well received.
Bump any more advice?
Sorry to hear you're in this situation, it sounds like you're trying your best to ramp up and make connections. The associates aren't actively helping, and even seem to be putting your requests on the back burner. A welcome note is the bare minimum for me, so it says something when they don't take the time to send that.
I'm not sure how helpful this is since you made the post 2 months ago, but I'm posting just in case.
It's definitely very helpful to ask the more junior folks for help since you know they have more time on their hands. It doesn't help that the most junior person you have access to is your VP.
I have a few suggestions
In order to meet other analysts
I echo the tip shared by the analyst above - just ping another analyst and say hi. Something along the lines of 'Hey, I'm x. I noticed you're also another first year here. I'd love to meet other analysts who I might be working with, are you open to a quick intro chat'.
In order to ramp up
Since you're the only analyst in this coverage group, you may need to reach out to other analysts in the same coverage group at another bank. I'm sure there's others in your position, or willing to make a friend and help out. I know it's more work but you seem ambitious and it'll take less time to find / add someone on Linkedin than it did for you to write this post.
Of course, you won't be able to ask them questions on confidential information. But at least they can point you in the right direction or answer general questions.
Does the VP know what's going on here? This isn't ideal, but it may be worth it to voice your concern to the VP if you think escalating this issue will create pressure on the associates to be more available.
Thanks for the extensive feedback. I will add that since this post, we have returned to office on a PT basis, which has helped A LOT.
I was able to connect with the other associates and a new analyst more in a single day in person than I could connect with them over the preceding 8 weeks virtually - learned about their families, travels, interests, upbringing and we joked around a bunch which felt great.
I love WFH, but I will say RTO is definitely ideal at least on a PT basis for meeting your peers in the company and ramping up.
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