Equity Research Interns & Incoming Full-Timers: 5 Simple Tweaks to Add Value

In finance, just being smart and working your fingers to the bone does not set you apart – because we all do that. You want to make sure you are doing the right thing and working hard the right way. Going back to that 80/20 rule: sometimes what takes 20% of your time makes 80% of the difference. With the summer approaching, I would like to offer you some simple but highly effective little tweaks that can really make your team like you.

I am mainly talking to interns as well as incoming full-timers as they are really the same in the first two months with the same goal to make the best impression possible. For interns, you need that to get a return offer. For full-timers, you need that because first impression is hard to change.

I call it “tweaks” because I am not telling you to take a U turn and change your game plan for the summer. You clearly still need to be smart and work your butt off, but you can consider the following things that few people have talked about (at least on the forum) and really don’t require too much time.

Remember: it is all about adding value.

1. Take notes WHENEVER someone teaches you something and write down EVERY instruction.

I don’t mean you need to be writing down where I went to school when I grab coffee with you. But on the job, write down where files are, detailed steps to do things, tasks assigned to you, time and location for events, specific numbers, etc. You may say, “well that’s not how I do things. I have a good memory.” I have trained a few interns and full-timers; I myself have ramped that learning curve. I guarantee you will forget something. People in research are very busy, work long hours and have little down time during the day. Some of them have the view that interns net create more work than save time. Now imagine asking them to repeat the same steps for 10min, which they could have done by themselves in 1min. You lose a chance to create value there. They could also think that you do not take their mentorship seriously.

On the flip side, if you simply take the notes, you will become that person who ‘learns fast’ or ‘gets everything down in a week.’

2. Know what the boss doesn't know.

As a newbie, it is tough to add value through contributing to stock ideas or research content, but you can add value by knowing what the senior analysts don’t know: how to submit a note, who to call when there is an issue uploading your model to the central system, where all the random files are, etc.

In the first week, walk up to your junior person on the team and say “could you please take 10min to show me where all the important files are, in case I need to find something in your absence?” That would be music to his/her ears and immediately leave a good impression. This is because what stops the junior people from delegating simple tasks is the trouble of having to show you where things are when they are tied-up. If you already know it ahead of time, you have created a lot of small chances for yourself to add value. For example, you can help your junior analysts send files to clients, upload things, submit things, call the right IT team when needed, etc.

No these are not fancy valuation modeling work that you get to talk about in your next interview, but hey, they take minimal time and I guarantee you they lead to better tasks down the road with that good first impression.

3. Earnings season – put conference call and earnings release times on people’s calendar.

Needless to say, get a list of what your team covers on day 1 and put it on your desk. Your summer will likely overlap with an earnings season, so plan ahead of time and spend 30min figuring out who reports when. For a team that covers 20 companies, I cannot tell you how helpful it would be if you could populate their calendars with the correct times for each earning release and conference call. If you don’t do it, they would have to do it themselves. Again, a small value creating thing.

You can find the information on Bloomberg. If you don’t know how to find it on Bloomberg, double press the ‘help’ button on the Bloomberg keyboard, which allows you to chat with a live assistant.

4. Send your intern events to your teammates’ calendars and remind them before you go.

I remember many instances where I needed help from my intern but could not find him/her at his/her seat and ended up waiting in vain. I am not saying you should not go to your events, but if you would let your team know, they can plan ahead of time. Don’t tell them verbally – they may forget; put things in writing. This creates the impression that you are an integral part of the team.

5. For that big presentation at the end of the summer, run your pitch through as many people as possible on the team.

I assume you have learned that the stock pitch presentation at the end of the summer would be a big part of the evaluation. I see people pull all-nighters to prepare but still do poorly because of exhaustion or an unexpected tough question at the Q&A session. Why not just run your pitch through anyone who could potentially ask you a tough question? I don’t mean just the two people on your direct team. If you cover restaurants, you can practice with the consumer hardline and the consumer apparel team. That way, you will be more confident because you know you have more or less gain approval from most people in your broader team (given that you have edited your pitch with their suggestions). Most importantly, you will be less likely to get hard questions.