Need advice about current internship

I received several offers for a spring internships and chose an unpaid one at a boutique because, unlike the paid internships, the unpaid one was supposed to involve deal experience, which I thought would be good to get in before I start an MSF in the summer or fall.

Since starting in early January, I have done nothing but database work. The analyst that I work with gives me either trade show books or business cards, and I have to enter those contacts into the bank’s CRM database. During my superday, the analyst and his associate told me that I would be helping the analyst with pitching, valuation, and modeling and could be working on several deals at once.

I have no problem helping out with grunt work, but I took this internship over several paid ones because I wanted to further my knowledge of the M&A process.

How can I professionally ask for deal-related work? The analyst told me that they have no deals at the moment. I do not want to be that annoying intern, but the internship ends in a month, and I literally have nothing to put on my resume for the time spent there. This is unlike my past boutique internships that did involve grunt work, but also involved me helping an analyst or associate with deal-related items.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 
Best Response

I think you should consider getting some of the BIWS modeling courses, learn them inside and out, and clearly list that on your resume using key terms - Valuation, DCF, Merger, LBO, etc. You can even dedicate 2-3 lines of your resume to this to highlight the different models you built throughout the course.

This way you will have "Investment Banking" listed under your experience section and also list financial modeling and all of the key terms mentioned above... all of this will help your resume catch the interviewers eye.

Where are you planning on doing an MSF?

 
The Kid:
Where are you planning on doing an MSF?

Got into Vandy, Nova, LBS (MiM, though, not MSF). I am waiting on MIT, LSE (got rejected for first choice, waiting for second), and WUSTL.

 

The no deals may be true but pitches are always happening. If he the analyst isn't hopeful, go talk to the Associate. If that still doesn't cut it, talk to the VP. I'd imagine at a small shop like yours, the culture should be quite flat.

Don't view the Analyst as a god or anything. He, just like you, work for the Associate and VP. Just a word of caution however... Make sure you are doing the bitch work fast and make sure you are doing it WELL!

One way to lead into the "more responsibility" conversation is by asking for a quick sit-down feedback.

If you are not, then they won't trust you with a damn thing going forward.

This is another reason why I caution people when taking unpaid internships. Hope you turn this around.

 

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