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The 10 commandments for surviving your summer internship
 

DM123's picture
CF
(Baboon, 132
 
Points)
 on 10/29/12 at 6:45pm
tablets

Moderator Note (Andy): DM123 completed an engineering degree and an MBA. He has work experience as an investment banking analyst, mid-market lending analyst, and is currently a corporate banking associate at a global investment bank. He also has co-op experience in management consulting, and in institutional fixed income money management.

When I look back to those days as a summer intern, I can’t help but recall the “rookie mistakes” that either I or my fellow summer analysts made at our first Wall Street job. Follow these 10 steps and you’ll be sure to have a successful summer placement:

    • 1. Show up to work early: the same rules don’t apply to everyone in the office. Older people are either super senior and can “do what they want”, or may have a special arrangement where they arrive a bit later because they need to drop off the kids before work. Either way, these rules don’t apply to the rookie. If most people in the office show up at 8:30am and some people show up at 9:00am – you should arrive to work at 8:15am.
      2. Be the last to leave: while many employers may claim they aren’t into face time, it’s simply not true. I’ve personally spoken to an MD on the trading floor who complained that kids these days don’t appreciate the rules anymore. In her day, NO ONE left the trading floor until every single senior person went home!
      3. Dress the part: Invest in the minimum amount of suits and dress shirts. I would argue you need 3 suits and 7 dress shirts. Don’t wear anything too trendy. A trendy tight dress shirt might look cool in the dance club but it’ll send the wrong message to the MDs: “oh he’s still a kid because he dresses like one”.
      4. Always take notes during meetings: Just because everyone else in the meeting isn’t taking notes and you can easily memorize the key takeaways without writing them down, that’s not an excuse not to take notes. You are the entry level person who is expected to write things down on behalf of everyone else. There is always one jerk who will get mad if you aren’t taking notes even though he isn’t taking notes either.
      5. Don’t flirt: I don’t care if she’s a fellow intern or an admin, do not flirt with anyone in the office. Everyone is watching! Don’t even go there.
      6. Don’t ask too many questions: Some people enjoy asking questions because they feel engaged and it helps them learn faster. Keep your questions to a minimum. The goal is to get work done, get paid and go home. If an intern can be low maintenance and still help out – great. Nobody has the time or energy to explain things to you to fulfill your curiosity.
      7. Check over ALL your numbers: In school, one or two typos gets you an 85%. At work, there is ZERO tolerance even for one typo. I have a simple trick. After completing a table in excel, I spend 10min double checking every single number to make sure it’s accurate. Even something as basic as gross margins… check the formula and make sure it’s correctly linked.
      8. Formatting is key: Especially in investment banking, formatting is very important. Make sure you use the same number of decimals, and units throughout your PPT. The expectation is nothing short of perfection.
      9. Be nice to everybody: Just because someone isn’t your actual boss doesn’t mean he isn’t part of the decision making process on whether you will be hired back. Don’t take any chances and treat everyone as if they are your actual boss.
      10. Don’t tell anyone your career plans are different than your current job: Even if you landed a tier 2 job that everyone uses as a stepping stone to something better, don’t tell people that this is your intention. Your employer needs to think that this is a perfect fit. If your actual goal is to work for a hedge fund, tell that to potential hedge fund hiring managers – don’t say anything to people in your current job. Despite what they may promise, they probably can’t and won’t help you get into a different department, or a different company.
    • See my other WSO blog posts
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    Comments

    goodL1fe's picture

    Gave you a SB. I'll

     
    Points)
     on 10/28/12 at 7:02pm

    Gave you a SB. I'll definitely be applying this to my spring and summer internship.

    Robert Clayton Dean: What is happening?
    Brill: I blew up the building.
    Robert Clayton Dean: Why?
    Brill: Because you made a phone call.

    above_and_beyond's picture

    Silver Banana for you, will

    IB
     
    Points)
     on 10/28/12 at 8:30pm

    Silver Banana for you, will be helpful for a bunch of people on here!

    CalTex Analyst's picture

    Good stuff. I'll second

    IB
    (Monkey, 40
     
    Points)
     on 10/28/12 at 9:23pm

    Good stuff. I'll second number 7 (Check over your numbers). I definitely made that mistake this past summer, but only once.

    I'm somewhat new here, but this forum helped out a lot through recruiting and not making (as many) mistakes during my SA stint so I though I'd add a few things.

    1) Never refuse any social invitation from anyone in your office even if you're tired and really just want to get some sleep or meet up with college friends.

    Make an effort to grab coffee/drinks with anyone you interact with on a day-to-day basis. Taking the time to talk to someone about the sport their kid plays or how their favorite sports team did last weekend will help when it comes to getting some leniency over that bust regarding different EVs on different pages of the pitchbook...

    2) Fit in with your Summer Analyst class.

    If the full time guys can tell you aren't meshing with your SA class, then you will be on the bottom of the list of the guys they want to bring back.

    3) Know your role.

    Don't be the guy that even mentions that "Chinese Cross-Border M&A Deal". Take the assignments that you're given and do them right. If you're working with an analyst on a deal, offer to go through and double check the comps, volunteer to knock out the PIBs (before he just tells you to do it), order his dinner off of Seamless, etc.

    Make his life easier and he'll teach you a few things and maybe even give you some entertaining stuff to work on. Mission accomplished.

    "Utter commitment to the task at hand."

    Falcon's picture

    Number 7 cannot be stressed

    CF
    (Gorilla, 512
     
    Points)
     on 10/28/12 at 11:01pm

    Number 7 cannot be stressed enough, during my first two weeks this summer during my internship, I made stupid errors and they were errors that were easily avoidable but since I was rushing to get the work done, I fucked up. After the few times, I made sure I quadruple checked my numbers, formulas, and outputs before I send it over to my manager.

    Just a sophomore looking for an opportunity to start up this dream of mine.

    bossman's picture

    Everything is true. Simple

    CF
    (Gorilla, 747
     
    Points)
     on 10/29/12 at 7:36pm

    Everything is true. Simple and useful advice.

    Do what you want not what you can!

    AgentBishop's picture

    Number 7 is the best advice

     
    Points)
     on 10/30/12 at 12:09am

    Number 7 is the best advice ever. No one will remember you for a job well done because they won't have to do anything, but they will remember you for a bad job since they will have to spend time cleaning your mess...

    Also number 9 is important but I feel like it should be re-worded. You never know if there's some weird office politics and you're caught in the middle of it so it might not be such a great idea to treat every one as your boss since they might use you for some info or something... But definitely be nice to everyone.

    Thanks for the list!

    73 good sir!

    Lao Bai's picture

    All of this is true. I have

    EN
     
    Points)
     on 10/30/12 at 7:16am

    All of this is true.

    I have to really echo #10. Nobody likes the guys who is not really interested in the current position. Remember that most people identify pretty heavily with their occupation and the quickest way to not fit in is to tell someone that you don't really enjoy something that they put most of their time/energy into.

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