New Analysts

The flood of new analysts have been unleashed onto Wall Street. Various training programs have been over for a while and many have started to get acclimated to their new life. Some things I've noticed over the years that I'd like to comment on:

1) You may think you're hot stuff, but you're not. Don't go bragging about how good you are to your co-workers, it will just annoy them. That goes double when you're out with friends. Triple if your friends aren't in banking.

2) Spend wisely. Just because you're now in banking doesn't guarantee anything. Things change, people get fired. Tread lightly. That doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy yourself (definitely enjoy yourself), but always have an out in case things don't work out. I've seen too many lives devastated by this mistake.

3) Be nice to those who support you! Being an asshole to you middle office, back office, trading assitants, publication people, admins, etc. won't get you anywhere. In fact, it's the support of these people that you'll need to get things done most efficiently. Your work is only as good as those who support it. Remember that they can make your life more difficult, why incite it?

4) Remember the traits of others that train you and that you admire. You will want to shape your career and work persona toward those whom you admire.

5) Have fun! Don't just work all the time. I've seen too many bankers (not to be racist, but this is especially true of the Asian nerd variety) who don't have some fun once in a while.

6) Take risk! You'll never get noticed if you don't put yourself out there. Sometimes you'll get stuff wrong. That's okay, at least you tried.

7) Meet people. Get your name out there. Make sure that the senior people in your area know who you are. You won't regret it.

8) Band together. Make friends with people in your class and a few classes above and below you. Eventually you and your friends will be running Wall Street (it's a small small world, and everyone knows everyone, trust me). It'll pay to know as many desk-heads as possible.

9) Have patience. You won't know everything at once, and you won't be doing everything you want right from the start. It's good that you want to, but trust that it will come when you're ready.

As a newbie on Wall Street your chances of survival are fairly slim. Those who make it to be the big-shots on the Street are few and far between. We're always looking for that new guy who can come and take our place. As I always say, I'm not doing my job if I don't train you to take my post when I take the next job up. Come and get it.