Friday, August 20, 2010

Summer

Thank goodness for first year analysts. It's still hard to believe that a year has gone by since I got out of training. It's been awesome to have the new first year analysts around to share the load.

July was definitely the worst month of my life. Because the analysts in the class above me left to go to private equity and the new analysts in the class below me were in training, my class of analysts basically had to carry the load for the month of July. In a span of a week I went from being on two live deals to being on six live deals. I'm still not sure how that's even possible, but I, along with the other analysts from my year, basically didn't sleep for a month and just cranked 24/7.

But now...now it's so much better. Even though I'm still on four live deals, just having first years around to take on new pitches and other work makes a huge difference.

Another good thing about the end of summer is that we're heading into recruiting season. This is one of my favorite times of year because I really enjoy seeing students step up and perform under pressure. Now that I'm involved in the recruiting for our firm, I feel like I have a much better idea of what is important / what works than I did when I was actually recruiting. I still can't believe that I actually got a job at my firm by sending my resume to the firm website, especially since now I'm the guy receiving the resumes from the website and I know how hard it is to really give people a good look when it's 3am and you've been working all week. But I really try to screen the resumes well because I feel like I owe it to future generations of students trying to break in the same way I did.

I'd forgotten how cathardic it is for me to write a blog of what's going on in my banking life, and I think I'm going to start writing again. Who knows if people still read this, but regardless I figure it will be good for me to have a record kept of my years in New York.

Because it's recruiting season, I'll probably be writing a lot about what made me successful in interviews, and what I feel like the best candidates do to stand out.

It's good to be writing again!

3 comments:

Cory said...

I'm reading! Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Definitely hope to see you blogging more.

Have you found/seen that the hours get a little better when you move from first-year to second-year? Do the hours improve at all when you move to third-year?

How often do you receive e-mails from current students or alumni of your university looking for jobs with your company?

Anonymous said...

hey,
I read your blog from when you were an intern
I'm not in finance, but it gives me an idea of what my boyfriend's previous life (or no life) was like in his analyst years
thanks & great job writing & concise writing style!