Are analyst hired to take notes? Thoughts

Taking notes in meetings gets you a seat in the room. Being there gives you the opportunity to observe and learn. Once you feel you know enough to contribute, you should speak up and prove you are capable of more. Always volunteer to take notes.

Agree with SM1. We had a really great analyst who took the best notes and vey quickly became essential to all meetings. He knew the material better than all of us and would catch details that we might have missed. Really smart dude; goes to show - don’t knock taking meeting minutes. It’s a real opportunity to showcase what you can do.

And make slides out of those notes

I had an associate who would make uncomfortable faces every time she was asked to take notes or work on ppt updates. She said she doesn’t want to do these kind of “petty”(she used the word) work. She in interested more in presenting to clients and all. I gave her one slide to present. Then she wanted me to babysit her and write down the talking points for her and also elaborate on the talking points for her. She also asked me to jump in anytime client asked any question off her. I ended up doing all of that “petty” work for her and she started her presentation by a statement “I was asked to present this so I am presenting....” My ED gave me a good stare during that client meeting and the rest is history....
Well, all I can say to these newly hired associates: we have all gone through the journey. Just be patient and have the curiosity and willingness to learn and build good professional relationships. It goes a long way. Lastly, be glad you are given the opportunity to learn and update your skills until you’re brought upto speed and you’re ready. Some of us were thrown to the wolves on pur 1st day at work with no formal training. Unless you prefer to learn the hard way, then that’s a different thing.

Yes, specifically meeting notes

SM1 - good perspective. See that you’re probably a lifer

It’s better to be in the room with the client learning about all the areas of the project than stuck in a cube face down in a computer. At least if you ever want to do anything beside being face down in a computer.

I’m a Manager on the brink of SM and I take notes...I’ve seen MDs take notes before too.

So yes, if you’re in a meeting and not talking or presenting, you should by default take notes. No matter what level you’re at.

I know SMs and partners that take notes. Get off your high horse as you'll learn a lot just by observing.

A1 - It was on OneNote, each tab was divided by workstreams and all the meetings were its own pages in the tabs. The first tab was “overview” and it worked as a TOC for where to find what content. It was seriously impressive. And he worked real hard to keep it updated and knew the material essentially inside out.

@EY2, you missed the point completely. Taking notes, means you’re in the room and gain exposure to topics and parts of the project / way companies work then you would normally have. It give you the opportunity to learn and truly understand the work being done. While note-taking may or may not be automated in the future is irrelevant. My point was, you should always take the opportunity to be exposed to meeting content and learn from the communication skills being used in the meetings (good and bad).

I wish, it'd make job hopping easier

SM1 has it spot on. Taking good notes is an absolutely essential skill. Even more so in interview heavy engagements where MoM can be the life and soul from which inferences are drawn and ratings are created.

If you can really take good notes and make an effort to understand the content, you'll find that you'll more or less automatically end up having both a seat and a voice at the table.

Analysts are hired to learn and grow as fast as possible even under suboptimal conditions. An analyst that slays at anything given to them is the one that gets the best future opportunities.

I still take notes for my senior partners, and wish I can go to more board meetings...even to just take notes...

Notes are a skill to learn that help with this progression - Note taking —> Slide building —> Agenda development —> Running meetings —> Owning project plans —> Owning workstreams.

From there you get Managing projects —> Managing accounts —> Owning client relationships —> True $$$$.

So yes, notes are important!

It's crazy to me when I sit in a meeting where no one is taking notes then they fail to follow through on actions while I end up filling in details for the analysts who act like the info is new. I now make sure to email a recap to document in a few short bullets so no one can tell me "no one ever told me that." Instead I remind them there was an email that they can should look for. Tell me who was hired for what? I have so much appreciation for those who take initiative and show they can handle these details so that I can trust them with more.

These worst analyst stories are a great confidence booster. Might not be awesome, but at least I’m not complete garbage

EY 2 I’m glad you don’t choose to take notes if you mention “artificially ‘intelligently’ tools”. Not a lot of people can find your notes valuable anyway. Not to mention, even today we have those AI tools available but people still take notes for obvious reasons. Just my personal opinion on this but your forward thinking self can choose to differ.

Everyone takes notes. But yes - that’s a big part of the role. You observe how meetings are run, get a feel for the client dynamics and learn about different aspects of the project - all while taking notes!