- Sep 9, 2024
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Hi @Apyw I think you have a range of options in terms of the strategies that you can mention, but I would personally focus on some of the following:
- Estimating capacity: firstly, in order to assess whether you can deliver a high-quality work product for all of your deadlines, and to come up with a concrete plan to do so, you need to be able to estimate how long each relevant task will take you. To do that, you can ask the person who assigned you the work how long they expect it to take you to complete, but you can also use your own knowledge and the support of your supervisor or trainees who have worked on similar tasks before.
- Prioritization and flexibility: once you have a list with all the tasks, with the deadlines and the associated time it will take to complete them, you can start imputing time slots into your calendar. In doing so, you will prioritize (i) tasks which have a closer upcoming deadline; and (ii) tasks which should be prioritized for other reasons, such as importance to the client and impact on other workstreams, availability of others to work on it, and ability of firm to push back on the deadline. Should you have any doubts about (ii) or if you believe you will have to push back some deadlines or get other people to help on your work with them, you should communicate about this with your supervisor and possibly the person who assigned you the work.
- Improving efficiency: once you are ready to start working on the tasks, you want to be as efficient as you can with your time. You want to first of all not waste precious time with figuring out initial steps, so to the extent possible try to get as detailed of a list of step by step instructions from the person who assigned you the work at the moment at which they first approached you. Secondly, while you want to deliver a great work product, you do not want to waste time by being unnecessarily perfectionistic. Consider taking a look at firm resources or asking someone for a model work product for the assigned task. You can then look at it and have a broad idea of when your own work product has become 'good enough'. Finally, if you are struggling with any part of the work and cannot figure out a solution on your own in a time-efficient manner, consider approaching your supervisor or a trainee/junior associate who has done the same seat to ask for some advice.
Joking aside - Personality I rather do the test just with accommodations - In finance you don't get a pass for tests but they will give you the interview questions 24 hours before the interview
