When the MBA managing you is incompetent
Sometime over the next two months, the recently-graduated MBAs who recently joined banks' associate programs will get into their stride. That may cause problems - especially for the analysts working beneath them.
"The analyst is the associate's right hand," says Mark Hatz, a former Goldman Sachs and Perella Weinberg Associate who now coaches people on how to get through banking interviews. "You work together on the presentations. It's a joint effort."
The problem is that associates who are straight out of an MBA course don't necessarily know much about banking beyond what they've learned at school and in the induction programme. In some cases, therefore, highly experienced analysts who've spent three years working in an actual bank find themselves being told what to do by recent graduates who are out of their depth.
"The real problem is when the new associates don't have very good modelling skills," says Heather Katsonga-Woodward, a former Goldman Sachs M&A analyst who's also turned her hand to helping people get into the industry. "The associates are supposed to help you with some of the modelling that's required to put the presentations together, but when they've just done an MBA they can lack confidence and be over-reliant on you.
"It's very frustrating," she adds. "Analysts can get very irritable. You've got all this experience and suddenly you're being managed by someone above you who doesn't really know anything."
One former Morgan Stanley VP, who asked not to be named, says problems with recently-graduated MBAs aren't always visible to the most junior analysts, who are still learning themselves. However, she suggests they're usually clear to the VPs above them. "I had a few problems with attitude," she claims. "Associates would behave as if they were still students - they'd be very passive, or refuse to take responsibility for problems that arose."
How to resolve the incompetent MBA associate issue
If you believe your recently-graduated-MBA associate to be substandard, you should work together to get through it, suggests Hatz. "You both need to remain professional, or you'll get a warning," he cautions.
Katsonga-Woodward is a bit more forthright. If you think you're working with an inept associate, she suggests that you complain to your VP, or your MD, or your staffer. But not if you're just a first year analyst. "Once they've mastered the system, analysts can actually have a lot of power," she claims. "But it usually takes at least two years until you're in that position."
Related articles:
Banking: is the lifestyle still worth it?
Lloyd Blankfein’s sons, Jonathan and Alex, didn’t stay in jobs at Goldman Sachs. Why?
