When did you have an "I am stuck!" moment on the job

Question

Hi everyone!

I am soon to start at MBB as a junior and was curious if any of you more experienced folks remember some of your "panic mode" moments in the early days - on a project, when you simply got stuck, didn't know what to do, felt lost and how you resolved them. I am sure some of those would make for fun stories to look back on!

Or if you don't remember, what were some difficult task you faced daily (was it the modeling or the ppt).

Thanks so much and best of luck to anyone interviewing or starting jobs.

Answer 1

Hello there,

Don't hesitate to reach out to people in the Firm, whether it's your EM, your seniors (associates / senior analysts), partners, your cohorts in other projects, experts (internal & external), DGL (your internal mentor / evaluator), and others.

The core of development in MBB is direct coaching on the job.
Hence, it is expected that you'll get stuck sometimes while getting your boots dirty, and it's completely normal to ask for help.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Answer 2

Hi there,

If you get stuck with a case specific problem, talk to your case manager for advice/guidance sooner rather than later. Because case work is very fast-paced and your manager connot afford to have a team member stuck and not making progress for more than a day (even less tolerance for short cases like DD). They would appreiciate when a newbie ask for help earlier.

If you get stuck with other issues, talk to your buddy, peers and/or mentor. The easiest option maybe is to talk to your peers first, e.g. those who are 1-2 years ahead of you. They might have just gone through the same pain not long ago and still have their memory vivid.

Best,

Emily

Answer 3

Hi,

The short advice is - talk to others:

Talk to your manager - he will help you a lot caching and guiding
Talk to the other people in your team and learn from them
Talk to the teams who previously worked on that client
Talk to the client (But be accurate here)
Talk to your mentor
Talk to the other people at the office

Believe me, everyone has the same issues

Best