I am an A1 now, but the last year was very taxing simply because the accountability, expectations, and responsibilities as an associate are multifold (in comparison to an intern).
I think the first thing that A0s should keep in mind is the mega shift in their respective lives. While almost everyone would have undertaken multiple internships, however, internships are not remotely close to the pressure and change in environment that an A0 faces once he/she starts working. The biggest difference is that unlike internships, jobs don't come with an end date i.e. you will continue working for a foreseeable future (even if someone leaves law and works with another field).
For the points enlisted by you above, you will get support from your seniors in the team or otherwise as well, and they are lot of young lawyers who can respond better.
1. What are some important things to remember while starting out as an AO?
A. Just keep your head down and work hard and try to learn in each deal. Don't be lazy and try to get easy answers. Be inquisitive and ask questions if you don't understand something (ie something other than what you can understand by doing a little research yourself).
Be focussed on nutrition and sleep - they affect your mood and focus a lot and some people can leave them on the way side when there is a lot on their plate. Ideally, exercise a little bit each day. Lastly, keep your hobbies intact and realise you have to choose your battles, somethings just aren't worth fighting for. Don't make work your life no matter how much you might respect that one partner / senior who slogs aways at all hours and is very knowledgable [he / she doesn't have anything else going on in their life and no matter how much they make it seem - this work isn't moving mountains or impacting someone's life or death]. I have made many of these mistakes but now I am a reformed person - don't make these mistakes.
2. How do you keep track of multiple deals and the stages they have reached?
A. This really isn't an issue. You won't lose track of deals or the stages they have reached. If anything, deals and your work (and especially mistakes) might come in your dreams (not kidding!).
3. How do you manage time while working on multiple transactions and different tasks, especially when everything is urgent?
A. This depends on your team structure. If you are ultimately only reporting to one partner (which is the best IMO) then your priorities will be determined by them. If you're working with multiples partners then you will need to communicate well but you will also get buggered occasionally for no fault of yours since the partners will want to ostensibly keep their relationships healthy.
4. What are some general corporate etiquette to be mindful of? Things like talking to seniors, conveying bandwidth, etc.
A. Just be a normal person and everything will be fine.
5. How to make friends at office? Do they actually become friends or remain office acquaintances?
A. This depends on you and your friends. There are no hard and fast rules. I am friends with some of my former colleagues (and even some former bosses, the nicer ones).
6. Any other tips.
Let me re-emphasize: As much as possible, take the longer and more painful route while you are trying to understand something new so that you learn from that oppurtunity [so no blogs or asking a senior or a colleague - only the text of the statute or regulation or case laws and constructing your own mental map]. Even small learnings really do compound and after a few years you will be surprised how much more you know. For example, this one research that I had done when I was an A1 had helped me give a quick answer on a quasi-securitisation structure some 6-7 years later - it was painful to do that research late in the night (especially since it wasn't required, I just wanted to understand why a partner was saying something on tax) and, after all that when I took a few cases to them to disagree with what they had said earlier, that partner told me why I was wrong in 2 minutes (versus my many many hours of work - ~15/20 hrs).
If you are mindful when you work, then something as mundane as proof reading is also an opportunity to optimise - a couple of examples are below, (a) keep "match case" on and replace the defined term with the same word but highlighted, that way you can easily know when the highlighted word is incorrectly not capitalised in one or more places (this makes sense in some scenarios more than others, for example, when you converting "Clause" to "Article" when you're turning the SHA into the AOA); and (b) when converting tables from excel to work, replace double spaces with single space (it will solve half your formatting issues with those tables). You learn these seemingly small and irrelevant tricks as you go along and after a while they really speed up your work.
This finally leads me to the oft missed point. If you are a transactional lawyer then you are spending 80% of your waking hours with MS Word. You need to know that software and its shortcut keys at least as well as CAs / finance folks know MS Excel. If you do a little research (there are papers written on this subject), shortcut keys make life way faster and easier (and people will think you are a magician but that's besides the point). You don't need any classes for this. Simply google or press Alt and follow the guide which comes up on MS Word - use those shortcut keys purposefully for a few days and commit to your muscle memory. Don't be like those fools who are ten years into the profession and still drag thier mouse to the format painter each time or to create a table or to create a page break.
I am an A1 now, but the last year was very taxing simply because the accountability, expectations, and responsibilities as an associate are multifold (in comparison to an intern).
Its super important to keep an open mind.
For the points enlisted by you above, you will get support from your seniors in the team or otherwise as well, and they are lot of young lawyers who can respond better.
A. Just keep your head down and work hard and try to learn in each deal. Don't be lazy and try to get easy answers. Be inquisitive and ask questions if you don't understand something (ie something other than what you can understand by doing a little research yourself).
Be focussed on nutrition and sleep - they affect your mood and focus a lot and some people can leave them on the way side when there is a lot on their plate. Ideally, exercise a little bit each day. Lastly, keep your hobbies intact and realise you have to choose your battles, somethings just aren't worth fighting for. Don't make work your life no matter how much you might respect that one partner / senior who slogs aways at all hours and is very knowledgable [he / she doesn't have anything else going on in their life and no matter how much they make it seem - this work isn't moving mountains or impacting someone's life or death]. I have made many of these mistakes but now I am a reformed person - don't make these mistakes.
2. How do you keep track of multiple deals and the stages they have reached?
A. This really isn't an issue. You won't lose track of deals or the stages they have reached. If anything, deals and your work (and especially mistakes) might come in your dreams (not kidding!).
3. How do you manage time while working on multiple transactions and different tasks, especially when everything is urgent?
A. This depends on your team structure. If you are ultimately only reporting to one partner (which is the best IMO) then your priorities will be determined by them. If you're working with multiples partners then you will need to communicate well but you will also get buggered occasionally for no fault of yours since the partners will want to ostensibly keep their relationships healthy.
4. What are some general corporate etiquette to be mindful of? Things like talking to seniors, conveying bandwidth, etc.
A. Just be a normal person and everything will be fine.
5. How to make friends at office? Do they actually become friends or remain office acquaintances?
A. This depends on you and your friends. There are no hard and fast rules. I am friends with some of my former colleagues (and even some former bosses, the nicer ones).
6. Any other tips.
Let me re-emphasize: As much as possible, take the longer and more painful route while you are trying to understand something new so that you learn from that oppurtunity [so no blogs or asking a senior or a colleague - only the text of the statute or regulation or case laws and constructing your own mental map]. Even small learnings really do compound and after a few years you will be surprised how much more you know. For example, this one research that I had done when I was an A1 had helped me give a quick answer on a quasi-securitisation structure some 6-7 years later - it was painful to do that research late in the night (especially since it wasn't required, I just wanted to understand why a partner was saying something on tax) and, after all that when I took a few cases to them to disagree with what they had said earlier, that partner told me why I was wrong in 2 minutes (versus my many many hours of work - ~15/20 hrs).
If you are mindful when you work, then something as mundane as proof reading is also an opportunity to optimise - a couple of examples are below, (a) keep "match case" on and replace the defined term with the same word but highlighted, that way you can easily know when the highlighted word is incorrectly not capitalised in one or more places (this makes sense in some scenarios more than others, for example, when you converting "Clause" to "Article" when you're turning the SHA into the AOA); and (b) when converting tables from excel to work, replace double spaces with single space (it will solve half your formatting issues with those tables). You learn these seemingly small and irrelevant tricks as you go along and after a while they really speed up your work.
This finally leads me to the oft missed point. If you are a transactional lawyer then you are spending 80% of your waking hours with MS Word. You need to know that software and its shortcut keys at least as well as CAs / finance folks know MS Excel. If you do a little research (there are papers written on this subject), shortcut keys make life way faster and easier (and people will think you are a magician but that's besides the point). You don't need any classes for this. Simply google or press Alt and follow the guide which comes up on MS Word - use those shortcut keys purposefully for a few days and commit to your muscle memory. Don't be like those fools who are ten years into the profession and still drag thier mouse to the format painter each time or to create a table or to create a page break.
1. What are some important things to remember while starting out as an AO?
2. How do you keep track of multiple deals and the stages they have reached?
3. How do you manage time while working on multiple transactions and different tasks, especially when everything is urgent?
4. What are some general corporate etiquette to be mindful of? Things like talking to seniors, conveying bandwidth, etc.
5. How to make friends at office? Do they actually become friends or remain office acquaintances?
6. Any other tips.