Bank on Banking

Everyone knows that this job can be stressful. You’ve got to run a dozen sensitivities after building an additional construction financing tranche into your model, change and rework 27 slides of your 42-slide pitch and read through a disconnected, lawyer-drafted info memo for a conference call by later this afternoon – yes it’s happened, and much more has happened, but let’s not forget the many times where much less is happening. After that afternoon deadline, and on dozens, if not hundreds, of other occasions, you will find yourself sitting in your cube with nothing to do but nap or pick out a new pair of shoes at the Nordstrom/Neiman Marcus men’s sale.

Before you decide to open a model to a cash flow tab, resting one hand on the mouse and one hand under your head, to appear busy while actually catching a quick nap in your cube, or to set your screensaver to come on only after 6 hours and for your monitor to switch to standby after 4 hours so that you can sneak off to the bathroom or a quiet room for a relaxing snooze, consider these time-killing, more beneficial (I mean, unless you’re REALLY tired) strategies instead:

Get ahead (if you were catching up, you’d still be working)

There are usually at least a handful of projects that need to be done at some point in the future, or even better, a few projects that you think would be helpful to the team, but haven’t been formally mentioned or you haven’t been asked to complete. Examples include building some template models, a standard capabilities or project-specific pitch, a database to track some sort of pricing or transaction histories, or something as simple as cleaning up some group folders. All of these tasks are time consuming to help pass the day (in a good way), work on core skills or increase your group’s market awareness, and when mentioned to your superiors, tactfully of course, will quietly impress and show as a mark in your favor – taking the initiative if you will, which is always appreciated (if not always stated) when being generally worked like a dog.

Catch up on some market intel outside of your industry

Use this downtime as an opportunity to catch up on some news in other fields that interest you – I am a huge fan of the NYT Science section, for example. Read up on the market through the WSJ, Financial Times, Clusterstock and the Economist (to mention a few). It’s always to your benefit, both in general and as it relates to efficient and effective networking. Networking is a constant process and being well versed in fields outside of the one your group specializes in can only act to benefit your efforts – you never know who you’ll end up running into on the street, in the subway, at a meeting or even while waiting in line to grab a bite to eat.

Research some volunteer opportunities

If you’re considering business school or just simply interested in bettering yourself on a personal level, and you find yourself with a good bit of personal time lately, then volunteering is definitely a step in the right direction. There are many great volunteer opportunities in New York, California…everywhere, it’s just a matter of figuring out how best you can serve, and what activities interest you the most. Do you like tutoring – look to one of many schools seeking after-school volunteer tutors or to an association helping adults to earn a GED. Do you prefer office-related, organizational events, look to the United Way, building homes and community outreach, look to Habitat for Humanity. These are just barely a handful of options in a near endless sea of opportunities. If none of these ideas strike your fancy, then try visiting one of my favorite sites for non-profit/volunteer opportunities – idealist.org, or drop me an email for more ideas and web sites. Feel free to look just to your right as well, in the side bar, under “Giving Back” for the links to a few of my favorite volunteering sites.

Work on some grad school essays/studying for the GMAT or LSAT

If you’re considering business school and are already applying, or if you plan on going to business school but still need to take the GMAT, then I would recommend this activity as a great way to pass the time.

Few house cleaning tips for these activities: make sure there are no job-related deadlines looming, and that you’re feeling mentally sharp and ready to go (otherwise studying or writing will prove to be a waste of time).

Another point of interest to keep in mind, is that being caught studying or drafting a preliminary grad school application essay is a good way to introduce the grad school idea to your superiors, if done tactfully, since you will probably want at least a few references from them (keep an eye out for a future post on tactfully approaching issues…). Studying at work, only after making sure there is nothing else to be done that is pressing, will allow your superiors to see that you are serious about going back to school, without taking time away from your job-related responsibilities and projects.

Feel free to take the conversation up a notch, and talk about a school or two that you have taken a particular interest in (if you’ve visited or spoke with people from the school, mention that too). Let the conversation progress for a few minutes so that your superior can express their insights and opinions, and take in your interest and enthusiasm. Tackling the issue in this way will help alleviate some of the concern over how to approach your boss when it comes time to get a few letters of recommendation.

You may want to nap, but these alternatives are both better for your mind, and your career – especially considering napping is generally not a boss-approved downtime activity. As I’ve been told several times, “there’s always something that can be done,” so if you’re caught just sitting around spacing out, shopping, or sleeping at your desk, you will almost certainly be given some sort of busy work that is neither fun nor terribly important, but will, however, fill your mind-numbing activity quota for the day.