I am a little new to the job and have a question around discussing your work with the PM. So, when you write a report on a security and present it to the PM, there is usually a meeting to discuss the specifics. Say you sent the report and a brokerage initiated coverage or the PM knew the security really well. Now you made a mistake in one of the segments where you failed to consider some factors due to which your EBITDA is 20-30% lower than what it should be. Or it could be any mistake - your mistake - leading to a real difference in numbers. How do the PM’s usually deal with this? How do you deal with this? Do you apologize and say you will correct it? Is it understood that this will happen sometimes? Yes, the you is me and I have a meeting coming up!
If the You is Me, then shouldn’t I be asking this question? And if the You is Me, then who are You?
Just tell them as soon as you discover the mistake. What’s your alternative? Lie/hide the truth?
you’re one lucky bastard to ahve that job…
Ohai: I will admit and perhaps apologize, but it is very embarrassing! FA: I worked very hard to have this job! I am sure luck played a part too
Tell them right away and work overnight to produce a report without the problem. If it doesn’t change the sign of the recommendation, it may not be a big deal.
find another offsetting error and you’re fine. there’s bound to be one somewhere.
justin88 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Tell them right away and work overnight to produce > a report without the problem. If it doesn’t > change the sign of the recommendation, it may not > be a big deal. ^^^^^^THIS ^^^^
jbaldyga Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > find another offsetting error and you’re fine. > there’s bound to be one somewhere. LOL
Guys this is serious sheesh… u got to kill someone else on the team make it look like a suicide with a suicide letter confessing that they were responsible for the mistake and framed you for it …
Yeah this is a good way to take out a young CEO of a major oil company, for instance.
I’ll bet everyone has made that sort of mistake. That said, when you find boxes on your desk and everyone in the office looking/not looking at you, don’t go postal.
dude your company has not bought any of this security, so what is the problem? if you can’t tell your boss that you made a mistake without getting fired, there’s a whole lot more going on than you are letting the forums know about…
hey hey…my idea for this post was that if people have had similar experiences, they can share how they dealt with it! It was just ‘how to deal with an embarrassing situation’ question…I was not suggesting that I was getting fired or anything! as justin said I will admit the mistake and send out a revised version of the report…
Its imperative that you do not make mistakes. If you are wrong, then the PM is wrong. I make a habit of always double checking everything. If you do make a mistake (no matter how small) then let them know ASAP (and then redo the report, recommendation, whatever) and hope they didn’t trade on your f*** up.
The above post is unhelpful. People always and everywhere make mistakes. Everyone knows that you should not make mistakes, but guess what, people do it everywhere. LTCM/BP/Enron etc etc ad infinitum the list is endless bsivia, you’ll be fine. Just say you were re reviewing the data and rethinking it came to the conclusion that the information you didn’t put in should be added. Get your PM to confirm this is the case and confirm that you should change the report. You may get away without even apologising. You have asked the more senior person for advice & direction, which is a mark of respect. This may score you brownie points depending on the person you deal with. You should avoid constructing the conversation to imply that you are out and out wrong to begin with. The conversation may turn that way of course, but you can control where you start from. It’s just about technique.
We work on documents as a group and we all make mistakes in our first drafts. If my boss doesn’t notice a mistake, I just fix it and don’t mention it. If he notices, I correct it as quickly as possible and let him know.