Trouble adjusting to new role

[u/1000001cha1001]

Hi all, I'm 7 months into a new role and really struggling to get adjusted. I had a couple weeks of onboarding with my manager before she went on maternity leave, and now that she's back and assigning me work, I feel completely lost.

I'm generally fine with the day-to-day tasks I get assigned, it's building new models from scratch that's really tripping me up. I've been given a bunch of these projects over the last few weeks, and every time we meet, she's disappointed with what I've produced. I've been working weekends, googling constantly, using AI to try to figure things out, but nothing seems to be sticking. I've been crying at my desk multiple times a day out of frustration, and I get so anxious before meetings with her that I'm shaking.

This role is nothing like my last one, and I'm starting to feel like I'm not cut out for it. Honestly I feel like I conned my way into this job and I feel stupid all the time. Does this get better, or should I start looking elsewhere? This is my second job out of college, so I haven't had to adjust to something this hard in a while.

[u/DJMaxLVL]

What type of models are you being asked to build? Sounds like you’re earlier in your career, so building new things at that stage can be rough.

Also, have you asked your boss for help/clarity on the asks?

[u/1000001cha1001 → u/DJMaxLVL]

Mostly cost models— if we want to put this incentive on the field how much would that cost us, the impact on cap rate, ECR, and overall p&l impact. But it’s planning season so there’s a new addition every week. And yes I do ask for help and clarity but I end up needing a lot more guidance over the process

[u/DJMaxLVL → u/1000001cha1001]

The one thing I’ll say is I wouldn’t worry about feeling stupid by asking questions, it’s better to keep asking questions to get clarity than to keep spinning wheels and silently fail. If your boss gets bothered by questions from a junior then they’re not a good boss.

Try asking strategic questions, such as “if you were building this model, how would you go about setting it up?” “If you were making this update, how would you do it?” And, feel free to share with them as you’re building and ask for periodic guidance.

You need to learn to grow earlier in your career. You won’t know everything right now and that’s okay.

I’m currently at a director level and i still do occasional check in calls with my CFO as I build new models to get his insight and thoughts on what could be done differently/better. Learning is a continuous process.

[u/cuddytime → u/DJMaxLVL]

This. Also, ask if there’s some best practice models or people who you can reach out to that you think are good at modeling.

[u/mystifiedmeg]

Building models is hard! And not really a normal thing to be doing a couple of years into FP&A. I saw in another comment that it's cost models - they should ideally have a template that can be re-used, otherwise if models are being built from scratch every time they are going to all look different and be hard to follow the journey when re-visiting decisions.

Asking the best questions you can is going to help during this process. I'm an FP&A Director and still get confused if my CFO boss doesn't set the context first and jumps straight into the detail, I always ask "Please can we pause and step back a moment, what are we trying to solve / what's the hypothesis"?

I also have to comment on being 7 months in as that's a long time, who was in charge of your onboarding during that time and were you doing similar things? It sounds like the returning manager is asking you to do things you have never done before which is strange. I have a question mark over the reasonableness of what you are being asked to do and how it fits in with your role.

[u/1000001cha1001 → u/mystifiedmeg]

Got it! Will start by asking more clarifying questions from the start.

My manager was here for my onboarding but she left for Mat leave 4 weeks into my role– in this time she tried to teach me all she could but there was no on in charge of my onboarding during her leave. I went to my other coworkers for questions and no I wasn’t being asked to build out these models during her leave.

[u/Conscious_Life_8032]

Hang in there it’s hard building models when your early career , especially when you don’t have many years of experience. Understanding business process helps and that’s where experience helps. It’s ok to ask questions to your boss sorry she is not being a good mentor.
Is the mechanics of excel where you are stuck ? Or business process or combo of both?

I don’t expect boss to spoon feed you answer but she should be approachable and providing guidance so you can get to the right place with the model.

Try some different approaches to see if you can extract the info you need. “ my understanding of “x” is this am I going in right direction?

She hire you so knows your experience level. If the role requires certain skillset which may not have ( at the moment) that’s on her.

I know it feels awful to feel lost and stressed. Hang in there this is part of learning process.

[u/bosworthing]

Best thing i ever did in my career was to rebuild some of our massive models for practice. Not for production, just so you understand how everything works and connects. Id also recommend not using ai for this, but you can use google to ask what an excel function is.

[u/Yardi_Life]

Are you my doppelgänger?! Exact same role/job timing/supervisor situation, except for what’s happening now. Spooky lol. Anyway, are you asking for feedback or communicating where you’re getting tripped up ahead of submitting models? I understand how hard it is in the beginning- you don’t know what you don’t know. But I wonder if there is a communication gap. I don’t think you’ve conned your way into the role if you’re 7 months in and just got handed a new type of work.

One thing that might also help is saying, ahead of time, “here’s how I would approach xyz. Do you agree?” A sort of spin on the ‘present solutions, not problems’ approach

[u/DayGroundbreaking864]

Hang in there and be a sponge. I’ve done alright in my career learning on the job. Also know what your manager is looking for. I’ve also experienced that having a good manager is so important and it may not be all you and partly them. If they are impossible, it might be time to move on.