Hey Everyone,
Things have finally slowed down a little bit - both of the deals I was on are finished and I'm on to new things and working on an entirely new deal.
This seems like a good time to talk about how the work flows in a group such as mine and the day-to-day work environment in a bulge bracket bank. The team, like most enterprises, is a hierarchy where Analysts – recent college graduates i.e. the bottom of the food chain - are accountable to their Associates, who report to Directors or Executive Directors who work under their respective Managing Director. As one climbs through the ranks, the job becomes more client relationship oriented and in a product group such as mine - MDs and EDs tend to have 2 or 3 specific industry sub-sectors that they attend to.
An MD's job is to generate ideas for their clients in, say for example, the construction equipment sector. As we are focused on High Yield, these ideas generally come from the sector. Their compensation is also based on their P&L (profit and loss), meaning, how much did your deals net the bank and how much did they cost. The higher ther P&L the better the bonus -- in that way banking truly is a meritocracy.
An MD or ED will target a client to "pitch" an idea and will request the deal team (an MD, ED or D, Assoc & Analyst) to help prepare a presentation with highlights on an opportunity for the client. We also fill it with facts about how our bank is the best and better than all the other banks.
The ED or D quarterbacks the process, setting up meetings with the client or clients and oversees the creation of the (notorious) Pitch Book materials that he/she will use to "win" business. The associate and analyst(s) put together the materials used in the Pitch which uses the full extent of your MSOffice skill set.
If the team wins the Pitch, we get "mandated" to work on the deal, and the process starts all over again -- marching orders come from the top and the analysts serve as infantry to carry them out. Even so, the process is not as bureaucratic as I would have expected and is often pretty collaborative up and down the chain of command, i.e. your MDs actually take the time to listen to your suggestions.
The analyst work culture is definitely focused on learning and MDs, EDs and Directors are happy to explain things to you because they know it is in their best interest for you to the most efficient at their job. One caveat -- if you need to ask a question, ask it but make sure you really listen to the answer. Listening attentively is the hallmark of a good analyst and asking questions just for the sake of asking questions wastes both your time and the other person's.
Also important is to always take pen, paper and calculator with you when you go to any meeting and take extremely diligent notes. Once, my deal team was asked to recall how many times oversubscribed a debt offering was, from a phone call that was two days earlier. I was the only one who remembered to write it down -- I didn't know that it was important at the time but ended up being very useful later. Also became a good way to show attention to detail - which is absolutely key in IBanking. As my associate wisely said – “there is so such thing as an almost right number."
Lastly, for those of you with a little reading time this summer and want to get some more information about how Banking is and was - here is some stuff from my reading list
1) "Monkey Business" by John Rolfe and Peter Troob
-- Famous account of Analysts at DLJ in the 90's. A little outdated, still very informative and ridiculously funny. Might scare some away from banking but still, a really honest and good read.
2) "The Accidental Investment Banker" by Johnathan A. Knee
-- Monkey Business for the upper level exectuive. John Knee's narrative features a lot more than just his personal experiences climbing the ladder at Goldman and Morgan Stanley. It also has some good history on the golden age of banking and where it has gone. Highly Recommended.
Hope everyone is having a good summer!
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