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My Letter To 1st-Year Analysts

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My Letter to 1st-Year Analysts

Stick with it. I know what you’re thinking — however, stick with it. It’s easier to quit something than to see it through. And this is your training ground. This is going to be the single-most-toughest thing you will be doing in your professional career.

…maybe it isn’t though (keep reading & I’ll explain)

It wasn’t easy getting into the school you went to, we all know it wasn’t easy to maintain a high GPA while leading all those clubs & activities on campus, and we all know it wasn’t easy to get to where you are today in one of the most rigorous and honored 2-year programs out there — investment banking. However, you did it specifically for the challenge. You did it because you’re an intellectually-stimulated person.

You did it because your Type-A personality led you to challenge yourself in one of the toughest professional environments out there.

And that’s why you should continue doing it.

I was an analyst myself (granted a growth equity one) hence I can say this. Those analyst years were some of the toughest years of my life, but I regret nothing. In fact, I am closer today with my mentors from those years than ever before because of how difficult my time was then — but also because of how much I learned back then.

There’s a reason they say start off with the hardest task. Everything after comes easy.

I know what you’re thinking — PPT, XLSX, ZOOM invites, transcribing notes — what are you really learning? You’re learning how to work.

Those years helped me define hard work, those were the years I learned how to function on 4 hours of sleep while typing 100WPM+ all while consistently switching between 4 screens at one time (while my Amazon Subscribe and Save was piling up in my apartment since no-one was there to use any of it). If you crush your analyst years (or get crushed) IN THEORY you will be a better, more competent, more EFFICIENT professional going forward in anything you do.

These (if done right aka finish your 2 yrs) will be the toughest years of your life.

That is until you have the Analyst—> Associate conversation

or the VP one

or try to make Partner on the private equity side of things

or join a no-name start-up and try to help them scale

or fail at your own start-up and have to explain that to your investors

or raise your own fund and pitch LPs

or have to explain to LPs why your fund returned 2.9x instead of the promised 3.0x…

Dare I go on?

Let’s correct that: This is going to be the toughest thing you’ve done to date. And it wasn’t supposed to be easy.

We knew that when we signed up. But that’s why we do it.

Interested in learning more about OfficeHours and how a Career Coach can help you? Schedule a time to connect with a Coach here or Submit your Application directly here and we’ll be in-touch!

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