M&A Associates - how do you handle deal stress? I’m in a niche transactional group (3rd yr), but I’ve been thrown into m&a short-term because they’re slammed & my group is slow. I am so stressed out by the timelines and massive amounts of diligence review/disclosure schedule work. How do you handle this level of stress constantly? Any recommendations for how to handle? Does it get better with experience?

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In my experience the M&A group dumps almost all of the diligence review on the tech trans group - is that not commonplace?

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Tech transactions associate here and totally agree. Many back and forth with the M&A team trying to pawn off more work to one another

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There's a fine line between deal stress and deal adrenaline, and getting to the adrenaline side is key. Sometimes it's a matter of reframing, like instead of thinking that I have to review the schedules today, it's that I get to finish reviewing the schedules today to be ready for tomorrow. Sometimes it's keeping a countdown of days until signing or closing. Trying to feel the rush makes it easier to squish down the stress and get to work.

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Super agree with this framing!

It gets better when you level up and don’t have to do the contract-level diligence/have someone more junior than you on the team. Also helps once you understand what tf is going on... then it gets fun if you are a certain kind of person (A3 for example), but if after a couple of years you would never describe a signing as “fun” then no, it will not get better from there, it will only get harder. Some people will still stick around at that point because they take some masochistic pleasure in how “hard” they work and how “hard” their job is. These people are not fun to work for. The first type are fun to work for if you are also that type. In conclusion, there are a few M&A folks/teams that actually enjoy it even though everything is insane, but otherwise no, it probably doesn’t get much better after a certain point.

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Keep your routine, even if it’s hours later than normal. If you need a glass of wine and an hour of home Reno shows when you get home, still do that after a long night at the office. It DOES get better in that you recognize deal spikes for closings. Book a massage if you can - an hour away can be made up over the weekends but will benefit your mental health even more.

Still figuring it out. And honestly it’s not even that enjoyable or rewarding... I don’t hate it, but I certainly don’t love it or enjoy it.

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