IBD Summer Analyst work on the weekends

I did not how to bring this up in any of my informational interviews so here it is. Do summer analysts basically work every weekend during the 10 weeks? Is the dress code casual on the weekends or does it depend on the group? How would you be supervised on the weekends and what type of work would you do on a given a weekend?

 

Yes you will work 99.9% of weekends as an SA. The dress code is very dependent on the firm, though you would be surprised at how many BBs can be business casual

I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
 

As an SA you should make an appearance on the weekends no matter what. I don't care what your firm's policy is regarding face time, you should be there even if you don't have work per se, there's always stuff you can be doing (i.e. practice modeling or read up on some materials). No one is there to supervise you per se, but don't be surprised if the staffer pops in every now and then (just to do his shit), and you better hope you're there when he's there.

Dress is usually whatever goes, but depends on firm. Typically tshirt/jeans are okay.

 

We expect our summer's there every weekend, even if its for a couple hours in the middle of the afternoon. It just doesn't look good if every analyst and other summer is there and there is one kid missing. There's no supervising, come in do your work and go home. You'll see any and everyone drop in, we have a partner that still stops in for 2 hours a day because its his day of no client meetings. We have VP's who will come around with their kid to send an email or read a book quickly. It's also casual, neat but casual. So jeans, polos, khakis, flip flops. For girls, make sure what you have on is not too revealing or tight, its still an office. It's the one conversation I hate, telling the girl who wore her bar clothes to work, to go home.

 
KB24TD21:
We expect our summer's there every weekend, even if its for a couple hours in the middle of the afternoon. It just doesn't look good if every analyst and other summer is there and there is one kid missing. There's no supervising, come in do your work and go home. You'll see any and everyone drop in, we have a partner that still stops in for 2 hours a day because its his day of no client meetings. We have VP's who will come around with their kid to send an email or read a book quickly. It's also casual, neat but casual. So jeans, polos, khakis, flip flops. For girls, make sure what you have on is not too revealing or tight, its still an office. It's the one conversation I hate, telling the girl who wore her bar clothes to work, to go home.

+1, solid

 
KB24TD21:
We expect our summer's there every weekend, even if its for a couple hours in the middle of the afternoon. It just doesn't look good if every analyst and other summer is there and there is one kid missing. There's no supervising, come in do your work and go home. You'll see any and everyone drop in, we have a partner that still stops in for 2 hours a day because its his day of no client meetings. We have VP's who will come around with their kid to send an email or read a book quickly. It's also casual, neat but casual. So jeans, polos, khakis, flip flops. For girls, make sure what you have on is not too revealing or tight, its still an office. It's the one conversation I hate, telling the girl who wore her bar clothes to work, to go home.

This is very helpful. Thanks.

 

It depends on what firm and what group you'll be working in. If you're in a capital markets or financing group, there's a good chance that you will not need to work on many weekends. Even in some industry groups, if the other analysts and interns are not busy on weekends then you should not feel pressure to show up just to be there. When in Rome...

Face time has varying importance across groups and across firms, but ultimately what matters most is not how many hours you work but rather your attitude and the quality of your work.

 

In addition to the ones you mentioned:

CS - no work between friday at 6pm through sunday at 10am (although doesn't apply to live deals).

BAML - 4 days off a month on the weekends

Barcap - mandatory block leave for 2 non-consecutive weeks over a year; no more than 12 days in the office in a row; no staffings after noon on friday

Although bottom line is that now you just have to do the same amount of work in less hours (i.e. later nights during the week)

 

MS doesn't have anything, and James Gorman's reason kind of skirts the issue in that article - many of the banks/groups have rules that say if you don't have deal work, you shouldn't be working on weekends. I don't know about int'l offices.

 

I would not. Or rather, I'd like to be able to plan. If I can plan to have a night out and then hang out and relax and catch up with some friends on a Saturday with no risk of it getting blown up, that's worth its weight in gold.

MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
 

Trust me, it's better to have a protected weekend than not. Working weekends is awful, especially when your plans got blown up by some last minute request for "market data" prior to some client's board meeting where no one is even going to look at it.

Anecdotally, one of the girls who was in my analyst class is now at a bank with one of these policies and she says it's great (though to be fair, she also said her new group's culture is a lot better too, so maybe it's a combination of factors).

 

Bankers aren't monsters. Let them know in advance and it should be fine. They'll work with you. There's obviously a slight chance that shit might totally hit the fan, and they'll need you to work that weekend. However, considering you're a summer, even this is a pretty unlikely.

 

Wait, so these are activities over a weekend, i.e. you're not missing any (M-F) workdays?

Just tell your staffer; then, send out an email the week before to deal teams to the effect of "all, wanted to let you know I'll be doing xx activity next weekend and will be in yy place due to graduation-related activities. I'll be available until xx on Friday and will be back in the office Monday morning. In addition, I'll be available via email all weekend and will have a laptop to log in remotely should any urgent work arise. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Best, DChains825"

 

depends what city you're in, but regardless of where or what you're doing, your social life is what you make of it. there's plenty of sites to see in nyc and other cities and nightlife is huge, though difficult to manage consistently if you're not 21 or don't have a fake. meet up with friends and take advantage of all the city has to offer

 

as an intern at a BB, i worked hard hours - something similar to what you mentioned above, a bit less on average if i'm being realistic, and i would also go to the office on weekends, but only for few hours

sunday would often be free, saturday until 5

now, i might have been lucky. sure there were some weeks where i would work full sunday, but that was maybe 2 out of 12 weeks or something like that

 

As a broad generalization, the workweek numbers you're quoting are heavy. Analysts generally get in around 9:00 AM (can be earlier in capital markets groups) and leave by 11:00 PM, with anywhere from a few to many hours on the weekend. Varies widely from group to group and based on market conditions (especially the latter in LevFin).

"For all the tribulations in our lives, for all the troubles that remain in the world, the decline of violence is an accomplishment we can savor, and an impetus to cherish the forces of civilization and enlightenment that made it possible."
 

All above points valid. Interns aren't expected to stay when they don't have to or come in on weekends (obv. depending on group). If you really feel bad, then go in, do some accounting exercises or what have you. Feel it out as well. Our interns aren't here now and I'd be ticked if they came in cause they now I have nothing for them and they're just trying to brown nose. However if one was staffed with me on an active deal and they (should) know that something may come up, I'd be a little dissapointed if they were no shows or at least didn't reach out even tho I'd likely ignore them.

In short, if you've been doing ad hoc/one off assignments all week, go work on your tan. If you're working on something on going, get your ass in the office and make yourself available so I can have you spread some comps and make my ppt graphs fonts don't get fucked up.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

Here's another point - at this point you probably just finished up your first week. Unless you got staffed on a live deal out the chute, they'll probably give you one offs until you've proved yourself later in the summer. So if you really don't have anything to do, and no ongoing projects / deliverables, then yeah, go work on your tan / enjoy NYC. You'll get worked plenty later in the summer.

IMHO, it's more important to be on the ball with things people ask you to do / try to make yourself available on ongoing processes than to simply sit there for face time's sake.

 

I fucking hate face time. I left at 10PM the other night because I had literally no fucking work, it was my second day on the team, and I had read EVERYTHING that I had access to. Everything, paper and electronic (GT fucked up with my access shit so I can't look through past deals and models). My team knew of the situation and suggested I leave when I was done reading through a packet.

Naturally, a VP from another team chastised me LOUDLY, in front of everyone still on our floor, for leaving early. Face time is so fucking pointless. You give me the work to do, I will pull a fucking all-nighter for you and get it done. I will jack off to Excel all day Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, whatever. But don't expect me to fake jacking off to Excel just because you like to watch.

 

def depends on group. I know I am expect to always be in on weekends but they told me to take this one off since it was first week and I hadn't been staffed yet. Went in to grab some training materials and they were happy I was there because apparently some extra work came up that I could help with. I don't think anyone is really going to knock you for coming in on weekends, but I guess just feel out your group.

While I somewhat agree above with the whole "you're young go out and live" philosophy, you also have 10 weeks to leave an impression and land an offer. A group where people would be pissed if their analyst didn't email to ask if they needed help, but intentionally ignore them if they did would be a shitty group to work in.

 

Personally I think it's unreasonable to ask for this, even if it's PWM, and even if you're just a freshman. They could replace you in two seconds with a kid who is willing not to go on vacation to get that sort of experience.

Plus, it will be a good "character-building" experience for you to learn how to manage sacrificing family/fun time for work...because if you want to go into ib, that's a skill you'll need.

 
anaismalcolm:
Personally I think it's unreasonable to ask for this, even if it's PWM, and even if you're just a freshman. They could replace you in two seconds with a kid who is willing not to go on vacation to get that sort of experience.

Plus, it will be a good "character-building" experience for you to learn how to manage sacrificing family/fun time for work...because if you want to go into ib, that's a skill you'll need.

This.

And what's this 'only PWM'? Semi-target freshman too good for it?

[quote]The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.[/quote]
 

Two options for you:

1) Don't do it. 2) If you are going to do it, wait until the Friday before the vacation. Tell your boss that you have a family emergency and you have to be away next week.

 

I had a fellow intern last summer (not PWM) who did this, and lost a lot of cred among the full timers. Did it really affect him in any tangible way? Not really cuz he wasnt trying to come back as a full time analyst. So it really depends what you wanna get out of this internship. But you will most likely be stigmatized the wrong way for taking leave during an internship.

 

@SonnyZH, do not confuse my statements as coming off as un-appreciative. I am more than ecstatic to have even found something. I based that statement off the general gist of it not being a huge deal that exists on this forum, which was created by other users, not me.

If it was a paid internship, I would miss the vacation and be fine with it. This gig is unpaid, and I am losing over 4k of an opportunity cost, which I could earn doing something else for the summer. I also have to pay money (a large amount) for my school to accept the meager half credit, which contributes to me wanting to miss a week for caribbean weather.

But by all means, continue to contribute in a condescending fashion. Have a good day

"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." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
 

I'd take the vacation. Like other people said, they might replace you, but you'll have the experience on your resume, which will still help. And then you can enjoy a couple more weeks of what will probably be your last free summer.

Vacation is clearly the winner here.

 
triplectz:
Like other people said, they might replace you, but you'll have the experience on your resume, which will still help.

Not a smart move. Background checks can make you look like a fraud if you put that on your resume. Most banks especially BB will find these things out.

 
triplectz:
I'd take the vacation. Like other people said, they might replace you, but you'll have the experience on your resume, which will still help. And then you can enjoy a couple more weeks of what will probably be your last free summer.

Vacation is clearly the winner here.

This situation seems unlikely. If they were that bothered by it, wouldn't they just say no?

In my mind, it doesn't hurt to ask. Then again, I didn't even do an internship my freshman year so I'm probably not the one to ask.

 

@triplectz, I appreciate it. The thing has been planned for over a year.

"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." -F. Scott Fitzgerald
 

Not suggesting you lie. If you worked there for the summer, you put down the months you worked there, or put "Summer 2012." It's honest, and totally fair.

And the background checks are to verify actual employment. You've worked there. You'd pass the background check. They're not going to pull your internship because you left a week early from a summer internship 2 years ago.

 
triplectz:
Not suggesting you lie. If you worked there for the summer, you put down the months you worked there, or put "Summer 2012." It's honest, and totally fair.

And the background checks are to verify actual employment. You've worked there. You'd pass the background check. They're not going to pull your internship because you left a week early from a summer internship 2 years ago.

Not sure about that. If the OP's vacation is in the middle or early on in the summer then what? Also, we really don't know how deep these background checks actually are. It is really dependent on the HR team and the circumstances. If a hiring manager feels the need to call up your old manager, then it can happen just like that. It's like a tail event where the chances are very low, but if it happens then you get f--ed.

 

Dude I asked for a few days off for the 4th of July the day after I got my internship. They were completely fine with it and even asked if I needed time off some time during the internship. Granted I'm not in NYC so people aren't as tight assed about this stuff. Talk to HR/a secretary about it, not your boss.

 

when I went to the interview for my internship at an AM, they asked me straight away if I had any holidays booked, which I had, they were completely fine with it and just fitted my dates in around it. they had absolutely no problem with it!

Although I am in London, not that should make a difference. I think it just depends on the firm

Blue Horseshoe loves Anacott Steel
 

This is a classic question asked on interviews (I think it's even mentioned in the Vault guides). There's no way to know for certain whether this will hurt you badly or not, so the answer will depend on your group.

Is this wedding later on during the internship? Maybe you can feel out the group's attitude on the issue, and ask at an appropriate time. Many would say to just suck it up, and keep working through. Play it by ear.

PLEASE DONT CHANGE EXCEL SHORTCUTS!!!
 

As an intern, you should definitely be able to go. Tell them in advance and it shouldn't be a problem. If you tell them the week before, then they would get pissed. But don't make it a four-day vacation, in and out is the policy.

Banks don't screw interns.

 

My internship starts in mid June for 10 weeks, and the wedding is during the 3rd week of July(so not too early, not too late). It's during a weekend, so I'll probably leave friday and come back sunday night. When you say tell them, who do you refer to? HR? The people in my group? Thanks.

 

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I'm not concerned with the very poor -Mitt Romney
 

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