As a second-year analyst at a BB, I’ve been grinding on deals but feel my contributions get lost in the shuffle. Heard through the grapevine that promotion committees care about specific types of deal documentation, but no one at my firm gives straight answers. How are you all structuring your deal experience summaries? What non-obvious metrics or responsibilities actually move the needle when associates get promoted? Bonus points for examples that worked for others here.
spoiler: they dont read your fancy summaries. committee wants one thing - proof your deals made rain. i wrote 12 pages about valuation models in Q1. my buddy listed 2 deals where HIS name was on fee memos. guess who got promoted? hint not me lol
wait so should i track how many pitchbooks i did? or like client convos? my staffer just says ‘keep a list’ but idk what matters more 
Focus on three elements: 1) Direct revenue impact (even if you just supported), 2) Leadership in critical junctures (client fire drills, late-stage negotiations), 3) Knowledge transfer (training juniors). One member here created a ‘decision tree’ showing how their analysis influenced final terms - that narrative got flagged in their review.
You got this! Track every win, no matter how small. Someone notices!!
Had a VP tell me once to count how many times MDs used my slides verbatim in client meetings. Started adding watermarked footnotes - ended up being the only analyst promoted that cycle. Weird metric, but it worked!
2023 internal survey of 45 promoted associates showed 83% quantified their operational impact (process improvements, reduced diligence time). Only 22% focused purely on deal volume. Recommendation: Track hours saved per deal through your workflows vs. team averages.