Summer 2017 Investment Banking Interns - Do's and Don'ts List

Okay, I lied. This is only a don'ts list.

Keep in mind, these are just some items I picked up from my experiences throughout the years. I'm not sharing this as a person who treats interns like dicks. I'm sharing this because I love y'all, and we all are here to help you succeed. Real talk.

1. Salary

Don't talk about your damn salary or how much money you're about to drop on a watch.

2. Don't come in thinking you know everything.

I'm positive most of you know this, but can't tell you how many interns that are not invited back because they try to justify their mistakes as opposed to admitting when they are wrong and learning from them.

3. Don't be late. Ever.

If you can't handle coming to work on time, how can someone have confidence in your ability to meet deadlines? Go out, and have fun. But set 48 alarm clocks to make sure you make it in on time.

4. Getting too comfortable

One of the most important - do NOT get too comfortable too quickly with the people you are working for. Please read this 5 times over. I've seen an intern joke with a Director about throwing dollar bills at the club. The Director didn't laugh, not because he didn't get the joke, but because he couldn't believe the idiot asked him that after only working there a month.

5. Proofreading

Don't ever send an email without proofreading. I have sent some emails out to deal teams that were so bad I had to recall them.

6. Questions

Don't ask a question to your associate or fellow senior analyst unless you thoroughly researched it. However, NEVER be afraid to ask questions.

7. Respect

Don't EVER email a coworker talking badly about someone in particular. The spotlight is on you everywhere, not just internally. If an email gets out about you talking shit about a peer, this can be detrimental news for your career.

8. Check your work

MOST IMPORTANT - Double-check your fucking numbers, and have confidence in them. Please, and seriously, check every single fucking number you put down. You hear me yet? Check every little fucking number. Your numbers must foot. When numbers are questioned, you create a slippery slope for yourself, and the entire deal team. Before you know it, mistakes will pile up and no one at your firm will have confidence in the financials you put together. Please read this again so you understand how critical this is. As someone who has severely fucked up with a wrong number in a power-point deck, please trust me when I tell you it can completely fuck up your career. Long story short, I had to switch banks. But guess what? I now have confidence in every number I present.

If anybody else has things to add, please post. Good luck to all of you! Y'all got this.

Mod Note (Andy): top 50 posts of 2017, this one ranks #38 (based on # of silver bananas)

 
Best Response

Here are some Do's I would have found useful during my summer gig:

  • Show initiative even if you look like a kiss-ass
  • You always have work to do so don't fuck around - go ask an analyst if he needs help even if you're a shy person
  • If you don't understand how to complete a task, dont recreate the wheel or play dora the explorer
  • Make a conscious effort to be 100% honest when you step in that office
  • Find someone similar to you and get to know him or her outside work (preferably an analyst or associate)
  • Don't over eat during lunch or you will fall into a food coma
  • Instill excitement, passion and be grateful for your opportunity
  • assimilate with the office norm and don't stick out (e.g. go out with team for lunch and don't play gordon ramsey at your desk)
  • eat a balanced diet and get plenty of sleep
  • get that return offer
What concert costs 45 cents? 50 Cent feat. Nickelback.
 

Spell check every single file, e-mail, or whatever you send out. Especially anything in Excel. You might not get caught, but 'EBTIDA' or 'managment' and the likes will make you look bad.

Ctrl + F for double spaces. You can't find them very easily on your screen, but they will stand out on prints.

And for Pete's sake, annotate your hard plugs in Excel with page number, which annual report and the company name (last one only if not obvious).

 

There are a lot of these threads out there -- and recommend interns read them all -- but piling on:

  1. Always check your work. And when checking your work, always print out your pages, model, whatever. It is amazing how errors appear on printed paper when you couldn't see them on the screen. GET IN THIS HABIT.

  2. Related to point 1 above, since you should have printed your pages out to double-check, once you're satisfied with them, bring a clean printed copy to your analyst / associate unless they ask you to stop doing so. It's a sign of respect, and people appreciate it.

  3. Always be overly respectful internally -- to secretaries, to printing staff, etc. Those people have WAY more power than you think and can save your ass if they choose.

  4. Per above, double-, triple- check your work.

  5. Keep a notebook of your to-dos and mistakes. If you write down your mistakes over the course of the summer, e.g., "typo in email", it will keep them top-of-mind, and you'll be amazed how quickly you improve. (There have been a couple threads that mentioned this idea, and I wish I'd done it more consistently earlier in my career).

  6. Although you're a summer (bottom of the totem pole), be efficient with your time. If there's an internal resource group, you can ask them to pull research for you, etc. Double check with an analyst first obviously, but no need to do everything manually if there are resources to help. Same with the graphics team, etc. For logo outputs, use www.logointern.com (buddy sent this to me recently, and it's already saved me hours).

  7. Be curious. Poke around on the drive and look at old models. Study Macabacus, etc. A lot of this stuff won't be directly applicable to your day-to-day, but you'll be pleasantly surprised how it can come around to help you days or weeks later.

 
BillyAckman:
  • Keep a notebook of your to-dos and mistakes. If you write down your mistakes over the course of the summer, e.g., "typo in email", it will keep them top-of-mind, and you'll be amazed how quickly you improve. (There have been a couple threads that mentioned this idea, and I wish I'd done it more consistently earlier in my career).
  • Oh, this is key. I'm past the SA role, and I still do that. I set up an Outlook appointment once a week where I go through my notebook to review my mistakes of that week. Once a month, I review all the mistakes I made since I started at my current firm. I make mistakes like every human being, but this notebook has helped me never making the same mistake twice.

     

    Definitely print and check your work. Multiple times. I was always annoyed when summers would claim to have checked something and hand in work with blatant typos...

    Good tips re logointern and macabacus. Even VPs and more senior folks would reference Macabacus when they had a technical question.

     

    Good advice in this thread.

    One thing to always keep in mind is to take pride in whatever you do. You are a CEO of one, and your name is a brand. What do you want people to think of when they think of you? This means ensuring that your work is always the best that it can be. This means taking the extra time to proofread and double check everything. When you hand in anything to another banker, you should feel comfortable that your work could be blindly passed to a client. Your performance one day one matters, and playing catch-up in IB is a game with no winners.

    Sounds simple, but think about this the next time you work on something.

     
    1. Ask what the dress code is before, so you know what to expect.

    2. Do everything to the best of your ability

    3. Ask as many questions as you can.

    Don't screw anything up, and admit it if you do.

    "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
     

    Big fan of 5, 6 and 8

    5 - Proofread everything - MS Office may catch the spelling stuff, but not the grammar or the typos.

    6 - Do your homework, but ask questions. I am perfectly happy with an intern or junior staff member that tells me they are stuck, but here is what they have researched. It shows they did some homework and knew enough not to keep spinning their wheels. So many people waste so much time because they are afraid to raise their hand and ask.

    8 - nothing terrifies project managers / VP's / Directors, etc. than reviewing a "client ready" deck or model and seeing a bunch of errors. It gets them to thinking what else is wrong and that is not a good thing.

     

    GreenAttack, your offer is a vote of confidence from the BB. They would not have extended an offer to a sophomore if they did not believe in your ability to do the job.

    My biggest piece of advice is to make sure to participate in all SA social events when you're in NY. If your training group is hitting up a bar after training, join them. If your analyst offers to buy you lunch, join him/her. If your MD wants to grab coffee, accept. You get the idea. The kids in my analyst class who never participated had a miserable time and never really fit in or made friends.

    I am personally against taking time before an internship to do any type of training simply because the bank will give you the training making preparing beforehand a zero-sum game. That being said, if it will calm your nerves, Account Coach is a free and great resource to brush up on accounting.

     

    Agree with most of this. I would add that you should be very careful when participating in all social activities. NEVER get too drunk when participating in social events. You don't want to be the party pooper, but stay in control. Not worth potentially blowing the offer by doing or saying something stupid.

    Don't worry about lack of accounting knowledge. Especially given you're a sophomore, you won't be doing rigorous analysis from day 1. Focus on doing a good job on the tasks they give you and establish that you're reliable.

    Most likely, you'll be given very menial, seemingly mundane, tasks to start. Do them, and do them well, and say thank you. That way, you'll build trust and be given better experiences.

    I think most summers get this wrong: DO NOT try to impress people with how smart you are or how much finance you know, how cool you are, etc. Impress people by doing a good job on whatever small tasks you are given and being humble. People will notice and people talk.

     

    Somewhat curious as to how you could get through ibd interviews without ANY accounting questions but that's besides the point now. Sure, some may say you will get trained by the bank and it is not a big deal. This is (mostly) true.

    If I were you, though, I would just get a modeling course and go through it over the next 2 or 3 months. At my BB we call the SA program a 10-week sprint. Wouldn't you want to put yourself in the best position to get a return offer? Even if you end up hating the bank, people at other firms will look negatively upon you if they find out you didn't get a return offer. I say put yourself in the best position possible since the competition is absolutely fierce.

    Congratulations on getting a sophomore internship at a BB. That is a very exclusive list to join and at most firms the sophomores only make up 0-20% of the intern class.

     
    Opslivesmatter:
    If I were you, though, I would just get a modeling course and go through it over the next 2 or 3 months.

    Only do this if you have a stupid amount of free time. There is an extremely low chance that you will get a chance to work on a hands-on model. Prioritize learning Excel shortcuts if you really want to somehow prepare beforehand.

     

    I worked in investment banking in continental Europe for five years. While the pace may be a little bit slower in general, the basics still apply. Fantastic list and good contributions. Some points such as error checking are vital (Lazard, I believe, comes to mind as an extreme example of what can go wrong if the numbers aren't checked...), some points are just annoying if the intern doesn't adhere to them.

    Of the latter, especially 2) annoyed the living shite outta me. You, your bank, the entire industry has been doing something a certain way for years. In comes intern, let's call him Chad, and proudly states that "well, according to course XYZ at my university, which I took btw, we were taught to do this differently..."

    It’s the analysts way or the highway.

     

    This guy has since tried a similar thing when interviewing for a BB and got a bollocking for it; I don't think he got the job. I also read that he had tried to set up a small recruiting firm before interviewing for the BB so it looks like he wasn't able to land a FT role. So no, I don't think he is the smartest kid up and coming.

    Edit: I have just seen that is the BB story you have linked to.

     

    It takes a certain type of person to pull that off. If that worked all the time, everyone would start doing it. So props to him for having the guts to go and do it, regardless of the odds. It bothers me sometimes to even ask friends about openings at other firms, much less a total stranger worth billions haha. I don't know if its smart or not but I'll never take anything away from someone who wants it that much and is willing to hustle his ass off. Props.

    On second thought he is really treading a fine line between total douche and gutsy. I'm still not sure which side he falls on. Though the contrasting collar in the huffington post picture does provide some insight.

     

    This is great is theory and in movies but the shit just annoys the fuck out of people 99 times out of 100 in real life. I don't think you're persistent when you call my desk 40 times a day, I think you suck at allocating your resources (time).

    If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
     

    i hope t boone pickens gets flooded with thousands of annoying calls a day and realizes what a dumb mistake he's made.

    this is just annoying, and from a prospective monkey vantage point, unproductive. i applaud this kid's perseverance, but i think there comes a point that you just have to move on and try another networking channel.

    Capitalist
     

    It's risky. You hear stories of old guys who did stuff like this all the time back in the day. In an industry like finance (banking especially) I don't think it would work well. In others that aren't so closed off to outsiders, it probably works better (as seen in his success with TBP).

    MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
     
    SECfinance:
    It's risky. You hear stories of old guys who did stuff like this all the time back in the day. In an industry like finance (banking especially) I don't think it would work well. In others that aren't so closed off to outsiders, it probably works better (as seen in his success with TBP).

    This is spot on to what I advised

    Eventus stultorum magister.
     

    I think he has done it a bit much, in moderation and strategically thought out way; this could work very well. Your voice, tone, pitch, and the day and time you chose to call play a very important role in whether to classify you as "annoying" or "impressive"

    I may not be on the Jedi Council, but I sure am great with the Force. See my WSO blog posts
     

    Why the hell did he share James Morgan's email with media? I wouldn't want to hire someone who is incapable of keeping shit to themselves. The T. Boone Pickens thing is ok i guess, this just makes him seem stupid. Not to mention he looks like a fucking scumbag.

    He should look for a job as a telemarketer.

     

    I admire his guts but at the same time I think its a cop out. Why not spend your time learning real skills and giving yourself value? If a kid from Scranton called me every day and a kid from MIT who obviously worked his ass off those days sent in his resume, guess who I would hire?

     

    ""I love cold calling. It's the best thing in the world," Maddalone told Business Insider admitting that it's not an easy task.

    "If cold calling was easy everyone would do it."

    Maddalone, 22, was a college sophomore hanging out in his dorm room at the University of Scranton watching television when a commercial of Pickens aired. That's when the idea popped into his head."

    Dude sounds like an idiot.

     

    I get annoyed with Junior Bankers calling for position if it is too frequent.

    The best way to do it is: 1. A good intro Email + Resume 2. If nothing happened - follow-up email 3. Calling - Keep it short and professional, your chances are low but it could happen when the workload and other priorities took over

    Also, do not email Partners / MD / SVP at first, try to aim for the Associates, if your email makes "sense" and if your resume is also ok - there are chances that you'll get "something" back. It could be a straight: "we are not hiring", "let's discuss this over the phone" or "let's meet" depending on the situation.

    Hope this helps - this approach got me interviews in the past and a decent network.

    "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." 'The Great Gatsby' - F. Scott Fitzgerald
     

    What a dipshit. It sounds like he can sell himself, but has no skills. No FT job with Pickens. Washes out with Bridgewater. Still bugging executives.

    Cold call once: you tried more than 90% of people. Follow up: you are persistent, and actually care about the company. Follow up 28 more times: you are an entitled moron who can't take "no".

     

    I cold called alumni as an undergrad. We didn't have on campus recruiting for IB so it was pretty much the only route for me. It is possible to be persistent without being annoying, but you have to have a sense of tact to pull it off.

    I am wise because I know that I know nothing -Socrates
     

    They must have been trying to set an example for all the other analysts to always check their work. Shame juniors were reprimanded when the error should have been caught. The fact that the error did not change the structure of the deal makes it even more discouraging that the consequences were quite harsh.

     

    Actually quite a few bankers don't drink for medical, health, cultural or preference reasons. You usually don't notice it though because people will be cheering taking shots but not so much when you're sipping soda water.

    I've listed some ways of framing it below that I've seen in practice.

    1) Nurse a drink. Get it in a glass (no label, so no one can recognise) and sip it slowly. Most of the time you can get away with doing that all night. The only difficulty would be if people start taking shots...

    2) Get soda water, but get it in a small glass with a short straw and some ice. Maybe even get some lemon like that.

    You can also just not drink. I tend to think people who force other people to drink when they don't want to are complete tools as many reasons for not drinking are deeply personal (personal or family history of alcoholism, medication interactions, trauma experienced while drunk...). Of course, you don't want to get too personal, but here are some things I've heard people say which have shut up colleagues.

    1) Got a big race on this weekend so have to stick to water (works if you have an athletic reputation). 2) I'm on antibiotics for the next couple of weeks, so need to hold off until then... shame about the timing! 3) Been feeling off color for the last few days so gonna hold off on the drinks tonight.

    Frankly, do the first two points and you should be fine. Not drinking heavily is much better than getting sloppy around superiors. That legitimately loses people offers.

     

    Fully support @apacbuyside here.

    Not drinking is not so much a big of a deal - just do it subtle, so you would not get approached by more senior guys who might push you to drink some real stuff. What I often do is getting a gin-tonic or only tonic, so people would see that I am drinking something (not standing out like this).

    To be honest, I even had the nights where I still was sort of pushed to go for a shots competition, but even then there is a clear exit - after that, you go immediately to the toilet, get it out of yourself and drink 2-3 liters of water and then even more just before you go to sleep. You will wake up fresh, but just a bit tired.

    Most important thing, do not overthink it and just have a great time.

     

    If you're going to pretend to drink i.e. soda waters, tonic etc and say you're drinking G&Ts or similar, you're going to have a very hard time refusing offers for a drink from your team mates, particularly if people are doing rounds. What's the culture in your team like? I went out with my team several times last summer and they never "tested" me, it was just a fun night out. If they seem like a team that will "test" you, I'd be honest rather than trying to hide it with bogus drinks or coming in hungover the next day.

    If you can't find a way out and would prefer to lie, say you're on flagyl for a gum infection. Drinking while on the majority of antibiotics isn't a major issue, flagyl on the other hand will make you violently ill. It inhibits your body's ability to breakdown alcohol and your body will look to remove it as a result.

     

    Get some type of drink with soda in it: vodka tonic, gin and tonic, rum and coke etc. That already dilutes the alcohol then order with a good amount of ice as well, then sip it and let it melt a little until its diluted even more to your preference. If you really dont want to drink that much but appear to be then thats the perfect way.

     

    ... or don't be so soft, get plastered and accept the hangover the next morning. Life will move on and I'm sure you and your team will end up having a better time.

    Perhaps this is just my repressed pledge memories speaking for me but seriously, relish such stress free moments with your colleagues and just go with the flow.

     

    Yeah, it's looking good so far chief, but I got a couple to add to the list.

    9) No fucking socks with Sperrys, it's gay

    10) Pics or it didn't happen. No one believes that you bagged HR lady unless you snap a quick one while her heads in the pillow.

    11) Wait until lunch to jerk off. It's always awkward when someone is looking for you and they finally find you walking back to your desk red faced and sweating a little.

    12) For when you break Rule 11: Don't be a fucking animal, jizz in the toilet. Other people are trying to jerk off in this handicapped stall and no one wants to see your remnants. It's a respect thing. You're not Gordon fucking Gekko. Shoot your load where it belongs. Make VP and then we can talk about wall shots.

    13) ALWAYS, start the conversation by name-dropping your frat. Sure the MD with the Ferrari taking up two parking spots out back is technically higher in status than you, but he still remembers back when he was a NF GDI and you crushed his girl's box. Automatically makes you the alpha male.

    14) No one gives a shit about your salary, don't even negotiate it. If you're truly from a top tier frat and belong there than your dad's inheritance should cover the difference.

    15) Fuck that euro shit. Polo Tees and New Balances to the clubs, anything else is gay.

    16) Fuck that suit shit. Polo Tees and New Balances to work.

    17) Cigs inside- but only on Friday's. I understand that cigs in the house is not an every day thing, but you need to respect yourself enough as an intern to understand that you're obligated to certain rights as a human being.

    18) If times are desperate and you have to dig through the trash for an empty water bottle to use as a dip spitter - take an elevator to the Back Office floor first so nobody cool sees you do it. Those guys are fags anyway.

     

    Browse through JPMs website and get to know the products. Glide paths of target date funds, smart beta strategies, and proprietary tools. Also memorize the ppt decks, you'll be doing a lot of them. Check out their insights library

    26 Broadway where's your sense of humor?
     
    1. Don't try to talk technical BS that you don't know shit about. Rather than make smart statements about strategies, ask smart questions about strategies. You'll look like a jackass if you're wrong, and maybe even if you're right.

    2. Don't assume everyone is an expert in everything. Find out what people are passionate about/interested in and guide conversations and questions in that direction. You'll likely find a lot of PM's have very different views on both JPM's strategies in general and how to apply them to clients.

    3. If you're asked to file, smile and thank the person for the opportunity.

    4. More than anything, keep your ears open, be around, and stay humble.

     

    Congratulations on the internship. Make sure that you do very well on the first few assignments given to you so that the boutique gives you more responsibility and the ability to learn more. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Learn as much as you can and get as involved as you can. Towards the end of your interview, use the WSO resume service to put together a strong resume for junior year SA. Try to spend some time this summer networking. Good luck!

     

    I just thought of one tip that I frequently use, but never hear others share. If your bank uses a share drive, create shortcuts on your desktop for frequently used folders. Then, right-click on the shortcut that is on your desktop, click on Properties, and then enter in a key (e.g. A or W) into the Shortcut key field. Now, whenever you want to access this shortcut, simply press ALT+CTRL+the shortcut key. If there is a project whose sharedrive folder you frequently access, this should save you a lot of time.

     

    Definitely in favor of shortcuts, but be careful that they do not interfere with macros e.g. from the bank or CapIQ / FactSet / Bloomberg (e.g. if I do CTRL + ALT + A it auto colors the worksheet). If it does, as an alternative, in Windows Explorer right-click "Favorites" and add the shared drive locations to Favorites.

    Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
     
    Synergy_or_Syzygy:
    Definitely in favor of shortcuts, but be careful that they do not interfere with macros e.g. from the bank or CapIQ / FactSet / Bloomberg (e.g. if I do CTRL + ALT + A it auto colors the worksheet). If it does, as an alternative, in Windows Explorer right-click "Favorites" and add the shared drive locations to Favorites.

    Good tip. I learned this the hard way after I accidentally disabled CTRL+ALT+E in Boost.

     
    centralpark:

    I think there have been past threads discussing this topic. You might want to use the search function to find these.

    This. There aren't any special tips for women. No one will care or treat you different because you're a woman. I've worked with female senior bankers and female analysts, and they were treated the same as their male counterparts by both clients and senior bankers.

     

    LOL, anyone who says the IB world is now a gender equality paradise is blowing smoke at you. In reality, your male superiors will call you "honey" and/or assume you're a secretary, you'll be shut out of offsite meetings where the big deals go down (usually in the VIP room at Scores), and if you do get to party with your male peers, they'll make you dance on the bar then do jello shots off your navel. Most successful female bankers I know have a well rehearsed death glare and a black belt in some Asian martial art.

     

    I've never heard any banker call a female coworker (secretary, junior or same rank) "honey" and anyone who did say this or similar would be spoken to by HR pretty quickly. This is stupid liability behaviour which would be shut down very quickly, even by other guys who spend their time a strip clubs.

    That said, that just means that gender discrimination in the workplace is more demonstrated in actions and closed door conversations than in public utterances. The same guys who would shut down a fellow banker calling a woman "honey" will also sit in a breakout room and rate the looks of the women on their floor.

    What I think is a useful thing for female candidates to bear in mind is that you will be judged by some on your looks (to varying extents) and, in some situations, you may feel like you can use this to your advantage. BE VERY CAREFUL in doing this and, if possible, avoid doing it at all.

    A case study - a few years ago there was a very bright summer intern who was very good at the work she did. However, she was also quite good looking and shapely. Sometimes she would would wear too-short skirts and sit on co-workers desks when speaking with them, which would show off her legs.

    The downside of this approach was that it quickly pigeon-holed her into the "hot young thing" category, which means that this became the primary tag associated with her. She did good work, but that became a secondary trait. This is not a good approach to getting hired or moving upward at work, as you risk being seen primarily through the "hot young thing" lens and the value of your other traits will be overlooked.

    I've also seen HR needing to speak to female interns about appropriate workplace clothing.

    From a sociological view, you can say that men are a large part of the problem in these sort of perception issues. However, that is the nature of the workplace, even as it changes as a pretty slow pace. If you want to play in this world (and perhaps eventually change the rules), you must recognise the rules - however unfair they may be - and work out how to navigate through and around them.

    Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
     

    what a shitdick

    People tend to think life is a race with other people. They don't realize that every moment they spend sprinting towards the finish line is a moment they lose permanently, and a moment closer to their death.
     

    There's always the good kind of redistribution for this kinda shit...

    "Dude, not trying to be a dick here, but your shop looks like a frontrunner for the cover of Better Boilerrooms & Chophouses or Bucketshop Quarterly." -Uncle Eddie
     

    If I had Ferragamo loafers I'd wear them. I wouldn't talk about them, that's for damn sure, but I'd also expect nobody to call me out or give a shit that I'm wearing them unless I bragged about how much my loafers cost.

    "You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
     

    Remember, you're on WSO, anything less than a monkey shit for that and, well, you wouldn't be here

    "You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
     

    Got another one for interns: when analysts are giving another analyst a hard time, that is not an invitation for you to do the same - no matter how comfortable you feel. Every analyst is superior to you for the summer.

     

    I covered real estate, energy and financials myself so I cant help there.As long as your math/concept skills are up to track you'll be fine. Many firms use their own proprietary models in my experience. "Academically speaking" tech firms dont have much in the way of tangibles and stable history so there is more focus on forecasts and comp analysis.

    Good luck & congrats on getting the job btw

    __________
     

    Genuinely try to respect everything on this list, but if you mess one of them up don't run around like a chicken with its head cut off and sulk that you aren't getting a return offer. Everyone makes mistakes no matter how high or low you are and the last thing you want is for people to think you completely shut down at the first sign of a screw up.

     

    Good list. Have a some additions;

    1. No one cares who your dad is, who you think you are, etc.

    2. Learn to take a joke. Taking yourself seriously is good practice. Too seriously can be a problem

    3. As an employee you need to learn to say 'no' sometimes, but as an Intern? Don't ever say no unless someone asks if you're sick of the work

    4. So far you haven't learned anything in life/college that can add value to the banking process. You're there because of potential to someday add value

    5. Keep your mouth shut. Talking about deals--even outside your deal team--is generally frowned upon. Some companies are giving you material nonpublic information. Hell, the fact you may be working on a potential carveout of a core revenue line for a public major is probably material nonpublic. This includes talking to girls at bars. I know cases in NYC where people had loose lips and it resulted in far worse than being fired/laid off. Fair warning

    6. Talking down to admins/HR/support (read back office) is a very quick way to ensure you won't be invited back

    7. Navy or charcoal suits. White or light blue button downs. Non-luxury ties (Hermes, Ferragamo, Charvet, etc.). Black belt/shoes (penny or cap toes. No borges). No brown anything other than maybe a wallet. No flashy/graduation gift watches (Rolex, Audemars Piguet, A Lange Sohne, etc.). No ironic socks. Just buy a ton of navy and black gold toes and be done with it

    8. Being relatable and knowing how to tell a story can make up for technical shortfalls (even at the intern level)

     

    Generally good points, although I really don't get the fashion advice in #7. I summered at a large middle-market bank as a junior intern and I'm currently working as an equity research associate at a bulge bracket right now, and nobody cares about brown shoes/belts/whatever. In fact, probably a third of my office wears brown shoes on a daily basis, and nobody ever wears a tie. Why do people on WSO always make such a big deal out of this?

     

    Could have made this more believable and said debit card. Could have made it even more believable if you just hadn't used CC and said lost the cash.

    But cool story bro.

    The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
     

    Credit cards in the UK have pins, would also explain the "mates"

    "After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
     

    These are just a few suggestions:

    1. If there are older people from your school who you met as part of the recruiting process grab coffee with them once or twice during the summer.
    2. Get to know other summers in different groups (not just the kids in your group) socially. They will be a big resource to you throughout your career.
    3. Ask to grab lunch once during the summer with any VPs / associates you work for (after you've shown that you do good work and you have a good rapport)

    In the bullpen with analysts and associates, DONT be the loud summer. Get to know the lay of the land before taking shots on goal.

     

    Surprised no one said this yet, do not complain about anything, to anyone. There will most likely be days a superior shits on you or hangs you out to dry in front of someone else. If anyone remembers you complaining even once you will be labeled as a Negative Nancy for the rest of your internship and guaranteed no offer. Smart interns can even broadcast your complaints and bring you down to get themselves ahead. A bank can easily replace you with someone who will be grateful for the work. One of my peers was always complaining about some of the less exciting parts of our entry-level analyst job and now all he gets is more of the bitch work.

     

    Strong agree. Even when people pretend to be sympathetic never complain. Saw many associates who managed their careers for years by subtly shitting on their classmates. Never did an ounce of real work. Don't give them ammunition to rat on you.

     

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    Sed quidem sed et dolores saepe nihil incidunt. Omnis odit consequatur rerum quidem ipsum recusandae. Reprehenderit aliquid quas voluptates exercitationem. Voluptatem possimus odio modi excepturi animi rerum. Harum odit delectus numquam et neque quo.

     

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    What concert costs 45 cents? 50 Cent feat. Nickelback.

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