What makes a good junior associate? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I peruse the finance version of this site a bit and recently saw a thread of what makes a good junior banking analyst.

So what makes a good junior biglaw associate?

[frasier]

Out of interest, what is that site / how do I find it?

Is there a similar community for business school?

[RedPurpleBlue]

Out of interest, what is that site / how do I find it?

Is there a similar community for business school?

He's likely talking about Wall Street Oasis. It's basically the business version of TLS.

[Vincent Adultman]

Enthusiasm and availability.

Always answer your emails, always be willing to learn and correct your mistakes. You can even repeat mistakes a couple of times but it has to stop eventually. Always be positive and engaged. Re-read documents for typos because you can always catch those. Have a SHORT memory (discussed more below). That's literally it.

It will seem like you're failing almost every day. You probably are failing at certain tasks but not at being a good junior associate. After the first year is when people start to hope you have some substantive knowledge. Expect is maybe year three. You won't get told good job as much as you need (not because you want a medal or something but just because you'd like to calibrate how you're doing). Even if you ask for feedback it will probably be "yeah you're doing fine." So just do your job and try your best then go home to family or hobbies or pets and lick your wounds so you can get up and do it all over again.

[bobbyflayed]

Formula to a perfect associate:

(1) Never turn down work
(2) Can survive with 3-5 hours of sleep for weeks on end
(3) Have no need for human interaction outside of your office
(4) Have a low error rate even when sleep deprived
(5) Acting like you're enthused enough to blow everyone around you while also maintaining a professional demeanor
(6) Able to fuel 1-5 above solely on 180K a year and prestige

[Anonymous User]

Formula to a perfect associate:

(1) Never turn down work
(2) Can survive with 3-5 hours of sleep for weeks on end
(3) Have no need for human interaction outside of your office
(4) Have a low error rate even when sleep deprived
(5) Acting like you're enthused enough to blow everyone around you while also maintaining a professional demeanor
(6) Able to fuel 1-5 above solely on 180K a year and prestige

I.e., hate yourself.

[jd20132013]

Last two posts got it About right

That said, you can survive and cash checks for a while not meeting that standard

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

(1) attention to detail
(2) good writer
(3) invested in the case/deal (thinking about the issues and raising potential ideas with mid-level/senior associate)
(4) intelligent
(5) hard worker
(6) meets deadlines
(7) no negative blowback (complaining, blaming other people, anxious/angry about not getting appropriate credit for work done)