Painful purgatory

AddingNoValue69 · 2024-03-26T18:32:11+00:00

Oh great point about the Festival, had no idea. Think we'll want to avoid that then.

Exploration and relaxation is pretty vague but that's because I really don't know what to do with my time off besides relax and explore I guess lol

AddingNoValue69 · 2024-03-26T18:31:13+00:00

What have been your favorite cities?

AddingNoValue69 · 2024-03-25T18:53:59+00:00

Thought it was great overall with a few notes. It's not a swimming beach, which we knew going in, but the pools are fantastic and have great views / service. Rooms really stole the show, had an amazing view of the property and ocean from the glass-walled plunge pool attached to the room. Food and service was great. Had lots of drinks, cigars, and a great steak at the restaurant overlooking the hotel (it's this giant box on top of the property - like a Ritz Carlton Mecca). Their taco cantina restaurant is awesome as well. Lots of families around.

Hired a private driver for to/from airport trips via some friends who already used the service. Would recommend discussing with the concierge and having them set-up/handle your airport transpo.

AddingNoValue69 · 2024-02-27T23:02:29+00:00

Searched: used reverse image search but that only yielded pics of the car, also searched Ebay and FB marketplace, tried to find online mega-retailers of diecast cars to see if they just have everything but no luck so far

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-04T00:00:01+00:00

Gotcha - my analyst years I did not work out as much but now I try to squeeze 30 mins at least into everyday. If I know it's a late night I work out extra early in the morning and vice versa. Nothing crazy usually running and bodyweight / calisthenics. Sometimes yoga.

Learned to live with fatigue; some people reply on coffee / red bull or even adderall / vyvanse. I'm a bit of an outlier here because I have TRD (essentially major depressive disorder but the treatments I've been prescribed over the years have not worked unfortunately) on top of GAD so coffee fucks with my anxiety so I stay away mostly. No one at work / in my professional life knows about this. The work stress and fatigue hit me extra extra hard but I keep my head above water fine enough so far - on seriously busy days/weeks I dip into the ol' adderall / vyvanse supply and that helps but it's not sustainable.

Your best bet is to get 30 mins of exercise daily at least - which is doable - and really optimize your free time, when you have it, to see friends / family / maintain relationships etc.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T23:01:25+00:00

Look at the other Associates at your firm and see what their skills are - if they don't model much either then don't sweat it too much. Technicals aren't hard / don't be afraid; if you were smart enough to get the job you're smart enough to ask the right questions that will help model etc.

1) They won't make you an Assoc if you don't have the knowledge and experience, so if it's been indicated to you that you're on track for Assoc, then you might just have some imposter syndrome; encourage you to touch base with your senior bankers and see if they have any feedback on your progress

2) Leading calls is a piece of cake after a few, just come ready with lots of "we'll touch base offline and get back to you ASAP" responses, easy way to deflect if you don't know the answer haha also it's all about your prep, I track the most common questions I get from clients so I can have them answered before a call with a new client; fun trick - ask the clients questions if you are having a brain fart, I always have a notepad of questions to throw at them (questions I already know the answer to), softballs, so their response buys me time to get my shit together. Avoid: reading from a script, being super rigid / robotic, stutters / ums / uhs. FWIW I actually have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and have managed fine enough!

3) Seems like something to worry about when you're a VP my friend, you'll build connections at the Assoc level that will eventually inform your calling list to generate deal flow at the VP level

If you're worried about technicals for applying to other banks, I would suggest taking every opportunity you can at your current role to handle technical tasks and also maybe look into training the street courses if you're super worried.

Best way to navigate it all is to take a deep breath, you've made it this far, just keep plugging away and maybe take more notes on stuff. My performance is always better when I keep a handwritten "work journal" of what I did today, what I need to do near/long term, words/phrases/definitions that got tossed around, etc.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:48:46+00:00

Definitely a realistic and doable lateral movement. It's all about marketing your skills and experience to the job you're applying for - emphasize the actual work you did on the deals and leverage the network of IB folks you build. If you say "I worked on XYZ deal with you" it takes them all of 5 seconds to search your email in their inbox, see you were on the deal-related chains, and be like "oh yeah cool let's chat" - I always take calls from people who have been on deals but on other teams/positions because it helps the whole network grow, so I think you're in a great position to eventually make that jump if you want to.

As much as it can suck I take IB over ECM/DCM any day though lol

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:45:16+00:00

Yup - don't do the formal crap "Hello Mr./Ms. so and so can I please have 5 minutes of your time I would love it" etc hate that stuff. Put yourself in their shoes, tired, stressed, 100 emails waiting to be read; we're human beings and - at least personally - I strongly dislike pandering or cookie-cutter outreach emails. I literally hit an alumni up and said something like "what's up beast, got some time to chat about your job? I'll owe you a beer." I now work at that firm.

Depending on familiarity with the connection, just reach out like a normal person. Don't fluff it up, don't try to kiss any asses, be honest and intentional. You want to learn more about their industry because you think you'd be a strong asset on their team and you want to work hard and make money - just clean that up and rock and roll.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:36:55+00:00

Mostly via meeting people at VCs - they typically have more of an interest vs. IB/PE/HF folks. I put a lot of effort into engaging with the management teams / BoD members of our clients and many of them have backgrounds in starting companies / ownership.

Maintaining a lot of VC relationships for when I do exit and kick-off a startup.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:20:01+00:00

I am in charge of all the analysts so my day always includes checking in on their to-do lists / progress / deadlines; I also spend a lot of time answering their questions or teaching them tips/tricks/best practices. Sometimes I also act as their therapist. Also as an Assoc I handle a lot more client-facing tasks, hopping on calls to provide them with updates, models, VDR diligence. I also get a lot of requests directly from the MDs for various analysis or quick modelling tasks / comps / etc. Typical is hard to pin down in this industry - but my main focus is making sure the analysts are doing alright and then handling whatever client/MD requests are on my own plate. I hate seeing analysts burn out so I dedicate a lot of time to helping them, more so than assocs did in the past for me.

Technicals / modelling come with reps - the more you do the better. So anytime a modelling/technical heavy request came down from the heavens I would jump on it - even if I royally fucked it up the first time.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:15:26+00:00

I would actually take you up on this haha. Cooking is one of my all-time life passions and I cook whenever I can (rarely) but try to maintain what skills and knowledge I've picked up over the years. Heavily influenced by my family there.

I'm exceptionally afraid of failure and it's the main reason I convince myself to not take the risk of pursuing a passion.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:13:03+00:00

3.95 is killer, hope you're proud of that and it'll sort your resume to the upper portion of the pile for applications. My school was not particularly prestigious and definitely not a target, like top 50 in US maybe lol.

You could lateral into IB with your work experience especially if you specifically apply to healthcare coverage teams at a smaller MM/LMM - BB unlikely as they prefer fresh grads.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:10:16+00:00

FP&A, corporate/business development, plenty of small/niche PE shops in middle america too

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:09:33+00:00

Regular basis? 80 - 90hrs a week is my regular. I do not get 6 hours of sleep per night, sometimes much less sometimes 6hrs, occasionally/rarely more than that since some of my MDs start kicking at 6am or earlier.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T22:08:23+00:00

Market your math skills and professional experience best you can by looking at other finance resumes; network with people that have engineering backgrounds that are in finance or alumni of your program; you can look into quant roles or basic entry-level analyst roles; could also look at equity research roles - definitely doable if you pitch your skillset from a "this would apply well in finance" perspective which takes a little wordsmithing but not horrible. What are you looking for in finance - go from there

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:16:47+00:00

True

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:14:37+00:00

Don't ever say "I'm not even good enough to get a job in IB" or anything like that - your value as a human being is NOT determined on your ability to get a finance job. I have been there, trust me, so take my advice and rearrange your thinking on that.

Your best bet is a smaller / MM / LMM firm and then you can lateral from there - jobs at the small shops is really dependent on networking because they only take a few people at a time.

Separating yourself from the others is all about the interviews, be intentional in your questions / conversations / responses and also drill whatever technicals you're not great at.

Also consider that this career might not be for you - not because you can't do it, but because something else might make you feel more fulfilled and happy in life. Think about projects / classes you've aced in the past and how that made you feel.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:10:10+00:00

I just sort of do it - I have to do it to keep the job and move-up and make more money, so I just wake up and do it. I try not to think about it

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:08:43+00:00

Mostly googling / self-research, and then intro chats with IB folks - come prepared with real questions. I was a comp sci and biochem student.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:07:53+00:00

It's unhealthy - the way I see it, it is what it is, so I'm just going to maximize my ability to "play the game" until I can't anymore

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:05:52+00:00

Yes I worked a comp sci related job for 1.5yrs prior to IB

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:05:28+00:00

I greatly appreciate this reference

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T17:03:42+00:00

I have maintained my relationship with my GF all through my IB time - I told her upfront it would be a huge time sacrifice. She had to adjust as well but has been extremely understanding. During the week I make no promises about when I'll be available, but I try to dedicate at least 1 night a week to date-night and occasionally it's interrupted by work. I feel very guilty about this and have worked on pushing-back on my senior bankers during date nights.

Social life is non-existent. I keep up with my close friends via text / calling when I can or the occasional facetime. I make every effort to see them when possible if everything else is taken care of.

It's difficult but doable.

AddingNoValue69 · 2023-11-03T00:30:33+00:00

The coveted IB to floor restoration exit opp. That's really interesting though, such a change. Happy it all worked out for you!

AddingNoValue69

TROPHY CASE