Surfing the net during downtime?

I am the only intern at a mid market boutique bank. It is a decent bank that has completed many high profile deals.

During this week there has been a lot of downtime. We were not on the midst of a deal but the senior bankers have been busy and I have been told it is the sort of work only they can do.

I have made myself fully available for any work and always offer to help.
Any work that has come my way , I have completed as soon as possible and to a high standard.

During downtime I have repeatedly gone over models and done a lot of background reading etc...

The problem is that after I did this , I got bored as there still wasnt any work and so I started to surf the net.

The other problem is that I sit next to the director and we can see each others screen.

Is it bad to be seen to surf the net?
I only look at newspapers and the sports section.

He knows that there is not a lot of work for me and mentioned that he will try to involve me more on the work next week.

So does surfing the net reflect badly on me?

 

I faced the same situation when I interned; I stuck to the WSJ homepage, I never checked sports. Besides that, if I had downtime, I would grab some Starbucks with other interns if they were free or I would organize my filing cabinet and my physical / digital folders of diff assignments. It's a good time to re-up on staying organized. Oh yeah, and I would organize my Outlook as well.

 
StryfeDSP:

I'd be too scared to go onto Reddit from work. I stick to WSO, Drudge and my e-mail for my goofing off sites. I'm still trying to test the waters to see if I can get away with going on BB Misc. My "breaks" would increase by 50% if I find out it's cool.

lol, I've been going on the Misc for the past couple days at work. Seems okay so far, inb4 I get dragged out of the back door by IT

 

inb4 you trying to explain to IT and your boss why you were commenting "no thanxs Jeff" or "that's groce Andy!" in a 8/10 cubby girls/hnnnggg/no fap thread

"Don't touch the watch." -Patrick Bateman U AWARE BRAH? bankers gonna bank \o/ Trance Crew \o/
 

Set up your own website with RSS feeds of news articles, website links, etc. I use http://www.protopage.com/ which is super easy and I love it. Some tabs I have:

World News: FT, WSJ, BBC, Reuters, AP etc.

Companies & Markets: WSJ MoneyBeat, Reuters Markets, CNBC Business, etc.

Blogs/Forums: WSO, Dealbreaker, Reformed Broker, Analyst Forum, Seeking Alpha, etc.

Misc: Barstool Sports, NHL.com, etc

Alternatively, set up a Twitter account and follow only news organizations or other legit sources. I was extremely anti-Twitter (and still am as it relates to dumb fucks sharing their opinions . . . here is an idea for anyone entrepreneurial: Twitter but with an IQ test >110 or something in order to join) but I did this and it is a great source for links to articles.

Just read as much as possible. After a while you will realize how much information your brain accumulates even if you are not reading the articles with the intention of having to recall the details later.

"Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true. But many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly—and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence." - Thomas Sowell
 

I assume you left off Dealbreaker.com because it's assumed that everyone reads that?

I also like Zero Hedge, Information Arbitrage and Clusterstock/Business Insider (though I can't stand Blodget, I read it for Carney).

  • Capt K
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 
Alphaholic:
Total opposite. I think Blodget is very sharp.

I'm not saying Blodget doesn't write some good stuff occasionally, it's more his style that I take offense to. He's often overly alarmist, sensationalist, and vindictive. I get the sense he's "writing for ratings" - penning controversial pieces to get pageviews and whip the unwashed masses into a frenzy in the comments section.

Sadly I'm afraid it's beginning to run off on Carney, who I considered my favorite reporter while he was DealBreaker.

  • Capt K
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

Exactly, DealBreaker is a no brainer. Entertaining.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 
HerSerendipity:
I really like reading the comments on dealbook. Hilarious.

Does it have to be business related?

  • Bloomberg.com
  • pehub.com
  • re-reading old LSO posts
  • Fashion Financier
  • icanhascheezburger.com
  • mymomisafob.com

I checked out mymomisafob.com

Pretty funny.

The world has changed. And we must change with it.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

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