Been grinding as an analyst for 18 months and realizing my networking game is holding me back. Stumbled on those ‘Day in the Life’ shadow recordings from senior bankers here. Tried mimicking how one VP structures her stakeholder check-ins, but feel like I’m missing the nuance. Anyone else used these shadow sessions to crack the code on building real rapport with deal teams? What specific tactics actually translated to promotion-worthy visibility?
shadow sessions? seriously? theyre just glorified screen recordings with the good parts edited out. pro tip: the real value is spotting what they dont show – how they recover from screwups. that one vp you mentioned? bet shes mastered the ‘oh sh-t my MD hates this’ pivot. mimic that.
you want nuance? notice when they toggle between ‘team player’ mode and ‘self-promote’ mode in meetings. spoiler: the associates getting promoted say ‘we’ in group settings and ‘I’ in 1:1s. not rocket science, just politics with extra steps
omg this is gold! could sum1 pls share which specific shadow sessions show like actual relationship building? im new here and getting lost in the archive section thxxxx
You’ve got this! Shadow sessions helped me land 3 mentor relationships last quarter. Keep practicing those conversational pivots - it clicks suddenly!
Analysis of 23 shadow session transcripts shows top performers allocate 68% of relationship-building efforts to lateral connections (associates/VPs) vs direct superiors. Recommendation: Use session timestamps to reverse-engineer their 6-month pre-promotion network maps. Focus on bridging structural holes between teams.