3 Tips I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me Before Starting My Investment Banking Internship

Bankers get annoyed with interns that waste their time, take forever to get tasks done & still get them wrong.

I interned at an elite boutique in NY and was lucky enough to have an analyst mentor who shared three techniques he used to not piss off the older bankers.

I didn’t learn these things until halfway through the summer.

Learn them now & you’ll be every associate’s favorite intern & undoubtedly secure the return.

1 ) Collect Questions like Pokémon Cards

Ever work on HW in high school and your mom would barge into your room every 5min to ask you a question?

That’s how bankers feel about interns wasting their time. Don’t be that guy. Some tips:

• Let ?’s pile up before asking (unless 100% urgent)
• Have a notebook sole purpose running list of ?’s
• Ask teammates when a good time would be to run through them
• Swing by and rapid fire. Take notes

2 ) Repeat Understanding + Your Plan Using Own Words

When given something to do - be a parrot and repeat EXACTLY what your understanding of the task at hand is in your own words. Do this face-to-face (phone if need-be).

How to do this:

• Repeat your interpretation of why you’re making the PPT slide, etc.
• Explain what your plan is to tackle (they’ll chime in if they’d approach more efficiently…)
• Tell them when you plan on starting (if need to push because other more urgent tasks)
• Mention you’ll send over progress in an hour to confirm on right track
• Clarify deadline and urgency

This makes expectations crystal clear.

Important because they’re usually vague when giving initial task, forgetting you know nothing.

3 ) Ask for Examples

The amount of time I WASTED trying to make PPT slides & models from scratch is embarrassing.

Don’t waste precious time trying to re-invent the wheel.

You will learn 10x faster by leveraging examples. Banking = apprenticeship after all.

When assigned task…

• Ask if they can send you example to model your deliverable off of
• OR if they know where any would be located in the drive

Point Is - Bankers will love you for not wasting their time and producing higher quality work more efficiently if you incorporate these three tactics from week one.