Be careful and do not openly flirt with anyone – try to keep small talk focused on topics like sports, news, etc. so it seems less like you’re extremely interested in the other person.

You could say, “And just so I know, when is the meeting or call where you’ll need this?”

I think I have a somewhat of a naturally friendly personality that may come off as flirty. Especially being female at a mainly male dominant firms, what recommendations do you have for me when I create small talk?

Additionally, is it appropriate to ask “when do you need this by”? OR what is a more tactful way to say this and find out when they need something done by?

Thanks!

That is really tough and it depends on your specific office so it’s hard to provide general advice… but maybe just take his advice and get to the point more with both males and females. And for females, maybe wait until you have had at least one business-related talk first before getting into personal matters.

A manager I managed to make friends with told me that I can come across as a bit bimbotic/ditzy at times, and that was definitely his first impression of me when he first met me :( I asked him how can I improve on this. He told me to get to the point when dealing with people and to stop making small talk with people. He told me I was pretty enough to get males to deal with me and that I didn’t need to ‘win’ them over with small talk.

How do I go about this? I want to be known as professional, not ditzy. To clarify, I have never flirted with anyone in the office and dress professionally. Even if my manager was right and I am able to get male colleagues to work with me without the small talk, how do I win over females in the office then?

If you’re going through training, yes you’re working so I’m not quite sure why you need to act like you’re working hard. Learn as much as you can during training and shadow the AVP and do the tasks assigned to you. Ask intelligent questions and get along with your team.

Yes they care about your ranking. What you need to figure out is how to get a good ranking at your firm without killing yourself

Some interviewers ask you about your ranking. Not necessarily, depending on your interview and which firm you’re applying to. Yes if you get an offer before your comp firms may not know about your ranking though they may still ask for references from your firms

From what I’ve heard at least if you recruit before your compensation day exit firms don’t even know of your ranking, but what is your take? Does not getting top bucket and landing somewhere in the middle of your group significantly reduce the number of solid firms that will reach out (or do they even know about these rankings?)

Awesome!