Analysts are typically men and women directly out of undergraduate institutions who join an investment bank for a two-year program. Top performing Analysts are often offered the chance to stay for a third year, and the most successful Analysts can be promoted after three years to the Associate level.
As Analysts are the bottom rung on the investment banking ladder, they do the bulk of the work. Broadly speaking there are three types of work that Analysts do: presentations, analysis and administrative tasks. Presentation work involves the putting together and writing of various PowerPoint presentations including marketing documents (“Pitches” or “Pitchbooks”) and documents for live transactions (for example, a presentation to management or the Board of Directors). These PowerPoint presentations get printed in color and are bound with professional looking covers for meetings with clients and prospective clients.
The second main task of an analyst is analytical work. Pretty much anything done in Excel is considered “analytical work.” Examples include entering historic company data from public documents, analyzing such data for valuation purposes and projecting a company’s financial statements (“modeling”). Administrative work, being the third type of task, involves things like scheduling and setting up conference calls and meetings, making travel arrangements and keeping a list of dealteam members up to date. While on live transactions, Analysts often refer to themselves as “glorified admins,” given all of the administrative work for which they are responsible.