21. Leaving Your Mark

21. Leaving Your Mark

Whenever someone puts a document on an investment banker’s desk to be reviewed, the i-banker is required to make at least one edit on the page. It can be as simple as crossing off a comma, or as scrupulous as going through the document with a fine-toothed comb and basically reworking the whole thing. This “rule” mainly applies to associates whose job it is to check over an analyst’s work.

An associate could be MIA during my meticulous preparation of a presentation over the course of a few days. He may not even have a clue what materials I put together if he missed the initial meeting with the higher up. But when it comes time for the presentation to be shown to the higher up for a review, the associate will show up out of thin air, red pen and calculator in hand. Before I can print the final copy and show our boss, the associate will make a few useless edits like using a synonym of a word or throwing in an extra adjective. Then when we go to review the presentation with our boss the associate will be quick to mention that he only took a quick look at the presentation (AKA, he is not responsible for any mistakes I made), but that he made some changes and added a few things he thought were missing. Sneaky little bastards.

What a dog does with his pee, associates do with red pens. Marking your territory is a key element of investment banking and associates are quick to act to show their value. Sure, associate X may not have seen the document for more than five minutes, but there is no way he is going to let an analyst take credit for days of work, when X can share the credit while doing no work. Gotta avoid the firing squad at banks somehow I guess.

As an analyst, I’ve come to expect this treatment and will try to avoid the last second pee marking at all costs. When the associate stops by to ask when we are meeting our boss, I will calmly tell him the meeting has been pushed back. Then, when I noticed the associate has stepped away from his desk for a bit I will go to our boss’s office and review the document, being sure to tell him that the associate has been tied up so I decided to complete the presentation solo. Point me. Then, when the associate later asks me when the review session has been pushed back to, I will tell him our boss came by and grabbed me while the associate was away. Smooth, I know. Works like a charm.