How am I going to compete with everyone else on my internship?

I've received an offer for a 6 month M&A internship where the best interns are hired full time. Having met the other candidates, my competition, I'm concerned that I might be out of my depth. A large majority of these guys studied finance at university/did a masters in finance and some have prior M&A internships.

Now I studied history at university so obviously my knowledge from school is nothing. That said, I've got fairly good accounting knowledge from my current job and have read Rosenbaum and Pearl valuation book and understand the concepts relatively well (accounting seems to be helpful for this). Despite this, I'm worried that these guys are going to be better than me because of their prior experience.

How difficult is the work at the early stages? There's no structured training programme and we're expected to hit the ground running and I don't want to be left behind. I'm planning to re-read Rosenbaum and Pearl and build a few more practice models to give myself a better understanding. What else should I be doing before I start to ensure I can compete?

 

You already got the job. Show the bosses your drive to learn. Don't be afraid to ask questions. I would say this is most important, but, yes, I would also do some practice models and read over some accounting/finance concepts. Keep in mind that you don't need to know everything. I can promise you that your peers have learned the majority of this stuff in college, but they are still going back to look up some things here and there just to refresh their memory. We're humans, not computers.

 

HR manager said they take around half the interns normally. I know a couple of senior Associates there who said the company is growing so fast that anyone who's "good enough" will be hired. No ones ever been let go/not hired due to money, it's always been because they sucked. Hence my worry of looking like I suck compared to my peers.

 
Best Response

Easy. Go to whoever assigns work and say something to the effect of, "I know things get hectic and you don't need me getting in the way looking for work (etc.). If you have any work that needs to be done, I'm your guy, if I don't know how to do it, I'll find someone to show me how, but the work will get done." Most people are approachable when you're actually trying to do good work / learn. Never complain. Ever. I learned that one the hard way, but remember that everyone is in the same boat. Every stupid task you're being assigned... the person above you has done 100x and has just been assigned to delegate it.

At the end of the day, all you're really doing is showing them that you're willing to do unglamorous work, you can be relied on and you want to get shit right (seeking help when needed). No one starts off being perfect, there's an expected learning curve and drudgery in any vocation... so you just have to be a good fit in the eager to learn / reliable category. At least that's my take... try not to be an asshole to your peers, NEVER throw someone under the bus.

Remember, worst case scenario, you've got a good internship to put on your resume.

 

I gather fit is important and I think I should be fine on that as I'm fairly social and not socially retarded. In terms of deliverables - are you able to give a small insight into what I'd actually be doing? All my searches return pitch books - do you get given other stuff to do early on or is it loads of powerpoint? Other posts mention modelling, but I'm assuming no one is expecting you to build one from the ground up (but I could be wrong), or are there small menial tasks to do with models that interns get given too?

Thanks for the reply btw

 

Sure. It really depends on what's going on in your group in terms of live stuff/pitches and how willing your anysts are to "take a risk" by trusting you with stuff but here are some examples. The first days I got simple stuff like updating charts on some slides and searching for relevant data. PIBs also. My impression was that accuracy was more important than speed so triple check your work to avoid careless mistakes. Then as people start trusting you you can get actual ownership for part of a pitch from your staffer. That'll most likely be making industry overview slides, drivers etc, perhaps company profiles if yourteam doesn't outsource that so you'll gather company financials, make charts, look into 10Ks to explain any big swings in metrics and potentially taking care of the multiples-based valuation. A popular task for interns during my summer was also spreading new comps. Towards the end, I was staffed with an associate on a book and since he was tied up on other things, he asked me to try and update the entire football field -dcf, multiples, lbo- as much as I could. We already had an old file ready to use, which he walked me through so it wasn't that difficult really. The next day I walked him through what I'd done and he changed whatever was left. Honestly whatever you do, people will go over it after so the most important is to give it your best shot. Also one last thing: you're bound to feel like you're "annoying" the analysts/associates with your questions at some point so the best thing is to complete your task as much as you can while gathering your questions on paper and then asking them all at once. Plus you'll seem more organized. Take notes all the time also. Good luck! You'll do just fine there's plenty of support

 

That said...yeah. The best thing you can do to distinguish yourself is to be very earnest(not to be confused with lacking tact), trustworthy, and demonstrate that you're a good learner. The latter is best demonstrated by showing that you can figure out problems without having your hand held and not by asking endless questions.

Also read a lot. You can do a lot to distinguish yourself if you're more informed than your peers...no doubt some of whom will think that merely being able to recite the names of recent deals in the news is enough. You will do it differently: use google news alerts, the NYT's "dealbook" service, bloomberg M&A announcements, and other sources to follow significant moves...particularly ones that impact your firm.

What you will do differently between now and then is always have the question "why?" in the back of your head.

For example:

Why would EA acquire King Games in spite of King Games being, at first glance, a terrible acquisition due to the highly volatile(fad cellphone games) nature of their business? Especially when EA already has a health mobile division?

Why is it that the market DROPPED in response to keeping interest rates low? And why is the fed keeping rates low in spite of massive domestic pressure to raise them?(hint: the answer has to do with the USD's reserve currency status).

Also asking "why not?" can sometimes be even more useful.

Like with king games, why would PE firms NOT be likely to have any interest?(very basic question. It has to do with how debt impacts companies).

 

Bigass_Spider I think it is important to add a caveat to your statements. Sometimes the market is as the market is and trying to come up with a reason for everything such as a daily drop is like trying to define a cause for why you like boobs. You just do.

Sometimes it's good to question why, and other times it's good to just realize that it's noise.

 

Also for specific resources.

I really like the Wall street Prep package. It's pricey but running through them gave me a massive leg up. If you're lucky your school will have access to either that or a competing product so you can use it for free.

Since you're in an M&A group I'd also make sure that you understand not just the modeling but what considers go into M&A.

Good book on valuation here: http://www.amazon.com/Valuation-Measuring-Managing-Companies-Edition/dp…

Good book on M&A concepts in practice:

http://www.amazon.com/Mergers-Acquisitions-Condensed-Practitioners-Guid…

Here's another habit that helps. I don't really listen to the radio anymore. When I'm driving somewhere I look up educational videos (or some commentary podcasts I like) on my cellphone, then plug the cellphone into my car's audio jack before I leave. You'd be surprised how much you can pick up simply by making that a habit.

 

Thanks for your reply. The books look good and will definitely get the M&A one. Funnily enough Activision King was a deal that I spoke about in my interview and gave an insight beyond what you'd read in an article - I felt he was impressed with my knowledge of the context and the business models.

 
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Thanks for your reply. The books look good and will definitely get the M&A one. Funnily enough Activision King was a deal that I spoke about in my interview and gave an insight beyond what you'd read in an article - I felt he was impressed with my knowledge of the context and the business models.

Good. If that's a strength you know you have, then make sure to build on it.

I'd be curious to know what you think about that one. On paper it doesn't look like a very good deal for EA because King games has a non-trivial risk of pulling a Rovio and fading into irrelevance as soon as the "match 3" fad ends. Perhaps EA wants to use them as a platform to prop up the mediocrity of their own mobile division?

 

First, you got the job...congrats. There will always be people you compete with that have more experience and knowledge. Your firm gave you the job for a reason....remember that. The only thing you can control is your effort now. Become a sponge and learn as much as possible. Actually talk to people and network your ass off. I'm stealing this quote, some one once said, good things come to those who wait, but only the things that are left from those who hustle. If you show that you can learn and apply what you learn, do good work, and are well liked it may not matter that you are not starting behind the ball. Show them how you can grow and flourish. My .02

 

Six-month banking internship... Are you in Europe or is this more of a regional boutique in the U.S.? If you're in the U.S. you're definitely not at a bulge bracket or elite boutique because they don't offer these types of non-traditional internships so I wouldn't overestimate the competition if that's the case.

 

Makes sense. You should go through training assuming it's a standard internship program, and close the gap fairly quickly in terms of competence. They won't let anybody do work for the firm who is still in the dark. If you have the technical basics down, as I'm sure you do, you'll be fine.

 

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