Best skills to learn at internship

Hi everyone,

Started my PE internship this week and have been working a ton of hours, but learning a lot. The firm I am interning at does not have a structure internship program so I have been doing a lot of ad hoc activities such as updating some of the models, and doing plenty of market research in a particular industry.

I would say I have learned more about this industry this week than my previous F500 internship which lasted 6months.

With that being said. I wanted to see what your guys thoughts are for the best skills to learn and pickup before I start full time recruiting for investment banking/PE?

Thanks a bunch!

 

as far as research goes, learn how to dig deep quickly.

this may be obvious but anyone can get good info given enough time, do it faster and youre ahead

 

You hardly ever learn technical stuff during the internship, especially if it's only for a few months, people just don't have time to teach you and they prefer to do it themselves. Once you work there for longer and do well for the first few months you will get to do a lot more technical work. But working on pitchbooks is still experience you have to get as part of the job. Midterms reviews almost never tell you what people really think about you. If they dont like you and the way you work, they will never openly say it, they'd rather wait for you to finish your internship. You will only get to find out the real feedback when and if they give you an offer.

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user_:
I was expecting to learn lots of technical stuff, but turns out I've been doing pitch books endlessly... though good thing is that they haven't made me do any grunt work.

Also, what was your midterm review like? My friends and I didn't get much out of it. I'm supposed to be in one of the top groups at one of the top firms on the street, but my experience is clearly not what I had anticipated.

Hahaha welcome to reality! Endless pitchbooks = most investment banking = grunt work

What did you think you were going to be doing? Cranking out LBO models day in and day out? Strategizing with CEOs? And then not making presentations?

Also, what did you imagine "grunt work" was going to be? Sweeping the floor? Getting coffee?

Hate to break it to you but your experience is pretty typical and all those Power Point keyboard shortcuts you are learning are useful skills for IB analyst.

 
Best Response

Other than learning how to format documents...make sure you are understanding the big picture (deal process, valuation, strategy, negotiation) and ask a shit load of questions. you do not necessarily have to work on a model to understand this...but obviously make sure you know the theories behind valuation. this is going to help you with FT recruiting other other ventures you may take after that 2 year stint. It is true that know one wants a monkey who only known how to crunch, copy/paste, and format. People also want monkey who also know the M&A deal process, and an industry down cold and can come up with ideas and think outside the box. IB can prepare you for that, if you don't act like a bitch and complain about grunt work (99% of WSO users) there are actual valuable things you can learn that can actually transfer to other jobs in the future. Not all 22 year olds have excess to the same learning opportunities, so if you were smart I'd take your finger out of your vagina and grow some balls. and this doesn't just pertain to OP. No hard feelings bro.

but it is all up to you....act like a bitch VS. go the extra mile and take advantage of what you have sitting in front of you.

sorry, I'm hungover.

 

Listen, ask a lot of questions, don't ask the same one twice.....pay attention to details (review your work 3 times before passing it off) and network, network, network....if you do those four things it'll work out for you.

 

Did a PWM internship at a BB two semesters ago and I can tell you that the skills you learn vary drastically depending upon what firm you're at. I'd highly recommend getting very good with Excel (modeling, hot keys, not using the mouse, functionality, even VBA), as well as developing your interpersonal skills if they give you any time to listen in on client meetings or do cold calling.

-Brandon "Don" Dempster
 

I'm in PWM at the moment as well (also pretty chill here). I spend some of my "laid back" time reading the news and looking for alternative go-to-market strategies to gain new clients. Recently came up with one, didn't go through but senior leadership really liked that I was thinking about it. Also agree with Brandon, go talk to people see what their previous experiences were like. Who knows, maybe they can connect you to someone they know in areas you're interested for FT (IB by the looks of it).

 

I haven't had an IB internship yet so I can't empathize with your exact situation but I'll try to help out.

You can try taking notes on a small padfolio or little notebook. I would suggest asking the junior first if you can take notes because it might slow down their demonstration since it takes up some extra time to take notes, but it shouldn't be a problem.

Another tip is asking questions but not too many, just a few that would help you grasp a concept.

I'm not sure if this would be effective but you can be honest and say you don't understand this concept and see if they can give you some advice.

 

Hmm, are you sure you aren't in the business of thinly veiled self promotion? Wait did I say thinly? I meant not at all.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

How's your Chinese? If it's not that great and you're a native English speaker your best way to add value is likely going to be helping them to draft documents / proof read documents in English (not that glamorous, but your an intern). When my firm has interns from the U.S. that aren't fluent in Mandarin (rare), then their only use is the fact that they can help go over documents written by our Chinese associates (which is great, because otherwise I tend to get stuck with that job)... I actually like interns that can write well so much --- they allow me to focus on more important things... and that's the key to being a good intern.

Anyways, you may be Chinese or ABC and read/write Chinese well in which case you'll be much more useful as you'll be able to do more market research and so forth. That would be great, but the general theme remains the same. If you want to be a good intern at a smallish PE firm, the best thing you can do is aim to take some of the load off of the associates/analysts... that could mean doing market research online, paging through industry reports and finding important sections for the more experienced people to read, proof-reading docs, auditing financial models, consolidating data to make it more accessible/easier to view, etc... it may sound like menial labor, but it makes a difference and it's probably the most difference you can make as a college junior. Furthermore, you'll actually learn a good amount doing it.

 
International Pymp:
How's your Chinese? If it's not that great and you're a native English speaker your best way to add value is likely going to be helping them to draft documents / proof read documents in English (not that glamorous, but your an intern). When my firm has interns from the U.S. that aren't fluent in Mandarin (rare), then their only use is the fact that they can help go over documents written by our Chinese associates (which is great, because otherwise I tend to get stuck with that job)... I actually like interns that can write well so much --- they allow me to focus on more important things... and that's the key to being a good intern.

Anyways, you may be Chinese or ABC and read/write Chinese well in which case you'll be much more useful as you'll be able to do more market research and so forth. That would be great, but the general theme remains the same. If you want to be a good intern at a smallish PE firm, the best thing you can do is aim to take some of the load off of the associates/analysts... that could mean doing market research online, paging through industry reports and finding important sections for the more experienced people to read, proof-reading docs, auditing financial models, consolidating data to make it more accessible/easier to view, etc... it may sound like menial labor, but it makes a difference and it's probably the most difference you can make as a college junior. Furthermore, you'll actually learn a good amount doing it.

Thank you! This is really helpful. Honestly, I have worked at many places and really understand that is what it takes. Just ordered a couple books about modeling to read as my prep work.

Are you currently working at Beijing as well?

 

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

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