Making a mistake as an intern
I made a mistake on some financials I was doing and I pretty much feel like shit. Is it often interns make a mistake?
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Yes, you're not expected to know everything off the bat. However, what's important is that you don't make the same mistake twice, and don't dwell on mistakes too much. Banking is rife w/ mistakes.
This.
This applies to all internships, not just banking.
Don't use it as an excuse to do poor work - your overall work should be decent. Just know that all interns make mistakes and don't kill yourself for it.
Totally fine, just learn from it.
You're probably going to get fired. No intern has ever made a mistake before.
How bad was the mistake?
It wasn't a terrible mistake. I was spreading the financials for a company and didn't realize that two of the reports weren't for the twelve months, but for eight. So I should have prorated the accounts days receivable and the accounts days payable. Not making any excuses for myself, I feel like crap, but to be fair I've never seen a financial statement in my life before this internship, I just finished high school. Was this mistake huge?
Stop being such a beta kid
i was working on a pitch with an associate and i pulled in the wrong formulas from factset on multiple pages. associate sat me down and said "ok lets work through this together since we have to get it out in 15 minutes." definitely felt like my offer was going out the window but it all worked out
Chill man you're fine...just like someone said before, don't make the same mistake twice.
what happens if you screw up an internship? (Originally Posted: 07/22/2013)
read the title
You sound like a fucking cocksucker. I don't like helping cocksuckers but I will say this...don't take it off your resume.
How did you pass 2 levels of CFA being a junior? A requirement for Level 1 is to be a senior and Level 2 to graduate...
I have two years of military experience, which contributes to the working experience that I’m required to take the test. I did not post about this because it was irrelevant to the topic.
You sound like a fucking douchebag.
I think that you should leave it on your resume. If you run into someone at another bank who used to work at your internship spot, you'd best pray that they don't remember you. It's also possible that your unsuccessful stint comes up again if you try interviewing at that firm again. But in all honesty, I think you'll be fine.
Can you make a topic about the MD reaming you out? It sounds really interesting and there have got to be some seriously funny insults/consequences/experiences/burned bridges surrounding that whole partying experience.
lol okay buddy. You have more posts than me and almost 100 fewer SB's. You also added a TON to this thread. I at least told him something of value.
People do stupid things when they're in college and people can change. He's clearly recognized and is owning up to his past mistakes and now seems to have the attitude to succeed in finance.
My advice: just write that firm off. People don't forget performances such as yours - even one trader who remembers how terrible you were will immediately ignite a shitstorm if he finds out you're recruiting for another internship there. Even if you somehow got an offer without people who remember you knowing you will have no chance of succeeding once they see you're back on the floor.
However its unlikely your reputation is so bad that people at other banks know about you so you're probably fine going through the recruiting process for other banks S&T. If you want to be very safe you could focus on IB. Bankers rarely talk to S&T since the jobs don't overlap much and for compliance reasons especially. I'd still avoid that firm though even for IBD.
I just found a similar thread. For those prospective interns who might be interested, here's the link : //www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/how-to-quit-a-internship-without-ruining…
So based on the comments so far it looks like I'm good. My old co-workers will eventually forget about me, so I got nothing to worry about.
Just to take this discussion a little bit further, consider this worst-case scenario: is there a possibility that banks might have a system of keeping records of their interns' performances, so that it's easier to do reference check in the future? I know BBs are very serious about recruiting. If I were a hiring manager I'd be damn eager to learn about how the kid fared at his last job, because it simply tells much more about the kid than his GPA and extracurriculars. Is there anyone out there who can share real-life examples on this topic? Thanks.
The story would be too long to share it here. I'll post about it some time later in a different thread.
Major Screw up during BB Internship? Can it haunt me? (Originally Posted: 08/31/2011)
hi guys,
needed some serious advice. I interned at a BB this summer, and i ended last week. 3 weeks ago, I forwarded some training material used by my BB (equities, fixed income, valuations & modelling) to 2 of my friends. the material used by the BB was published by a third party that dealt with corporate training for employees. IT was all very general except for the equities that described how the process worked at my BB (IPO process and all).
I was going through my clause, and I didnt realize that this might count as intellectual property of the company. I permanently deleted the email from my outlook, and my email a/c has not been working since I ended my internship ( Obviously since they deactivate). Do you guys think that this action might come and haunt me in terms of repercussions, and if so I should get in touch with compliance dept and let em know before they find out?
It's been almost 3 weeks since i did it, and nothing happened. I dont know whether to think everything is safe or if it might get brought up in the future once i get the offer and a more comprehensive background check is done on my email, which again i dont understand since i permanently deleted the items.
would be good to get ppls views on what might happen, and what possibly could i do.
Yes it is the company's intellectual property. I'm sure at some point you took an e-learning that explained the difference between what you can email out to the world and what you can't. Perhaps you could elaborate on why you though it was appropriate to do this in the first place?
Also just because you delete it from Outlook doesn't mean it goes away. It's all archived somewhere.
If they decided to go through every email you ever sent and looked at every attachment you ever sent, yes it would be discovered. To the question of if they will do that- my opinion is probably not but you never know.
It's fine don't worry about it. Unless it was some ground breaking proprietary process (which wouldn't be distributed to trainees) and your friends were starting their own shop. It's not deal related or anything price sensitive. I used to send all the training shit to my personal email, no one ever said anything.
They probably have bigger things to flag.
thanks guys for the quick responses.
If some action was to be taken by Compliance, any idea what time horizon are we looking at? reason, i ask is because its been 3 weeks already since i did it, and im thinking they should have discovered it by now if they were to find out though obv I hope they never do lol
Coolac -
First of all, don't listen to 90% of the things that people tell you on this site. It amazes me how many times I look on here and just have no idea where people are getting their information. Then I realize, they are so arrogant that they think they know the correct answer even though they have no experience or actual knowledge and then they pass it off as if it is fact.
DO NOT WORRY. This is not worth losing another minutes sleep over, period. Even if HR found it, all they would do it go to your business manager with the information. Considering nothing you sent out is truly proprietary information (of the likes that an MD in your group would care about) he would simply ask the HR/compliance folks to stop wasting his time.
That being said, compliance/HR WILL NOT see this. Do you think that they go through every email sent on every summer analyst and associates bb/outlook? Are you kidding me? This will never be spotted by anyone. Don't lose another minute of sleep over this.
^^ That's what I said!
thanks a lot guys- much appreciated!!!!
you should be fine unless the firm you were with was going under and they are just trying to find an excuse to get rid of you. I see stuff being sent around all the time.
Okay, it's not like you distributed an OM or a CIM or anything. You emailed training material to review for yourself. You're fineee.
Well, just to clarify, I did NOT email it to myself. I fwded it to my friends and deleted the email from my outlook.
I did it 3 weeks ago, so just thinking if nothing has happened so far, and I hve already completed my internship,I wonder when will they finally take action against me if they ever decide to?
they wont. action would've been taken immediately if it were actually an issue.
Mistakes made by an oblivious intern; Undergrads take note. (Originally Posted: 06/16/2014)
In earlier blog posts, I mentioned interning during the spring semester while trying to balance school and summer applications. Well, as an ignorant intern who had little knowledge of what I had going for me, I dropped the ball multiple times that I believe every undergraduate should learn from.
Now that it’s summer time and I have no intern position at a comparable firm, I am constantly beating myself up for what I’ve passed up. The bank that I worked for was a top tier middle market bank (I was in PWM) and I was so consumed in grades (not necessarily a bad thing) but also finding something else that I let what I already had slip through my fingers.
My lesson learned: Your position is a privilege, not a right
During my spring semester, I’ve learned this over and over again. My boss was very easy going and I made obvious mistakes in terms of letting him know I was in the process of interviewing at other firms. At that point, I believe I sent him the message that I was no longer interested in working at the firm.
Another huge mistake I made was that when I was told about the opportunity of part time/full time, which was mixed with a very nice and relaxed boss, I received the wrong message that this was something I’d have to fall back on if things did not go my way. I was horribly horribly wrong. (insert face-palm here)
Furthermore, I had done excellent work while I was there. I was more competent in my work than most of the other interns before me and I contributed in a way that no one had before (I simply set up a mail merge that streamlined a process that most interns were oddly taking hours and hours to complete manually).
I had acquired a “superstar” effect as I explained how this would streamline recruitment efforts and he gave me a pat on the back for a job well done. Unfortunately, that effect was short lived when my exam schedules were crippling me. As you may expect, I picked school. This decision on my part and poor organization led me to leave the firm on poor terms. At the end, my boss told me to let him know about what I would be doing this summer and said to send him a request on linkedIn…
I’ve since sent him an e-mail and a request on linkedIn and neither have been responded to.
In the end, I’ve learned that relationships are vital if any undergraduate wishes to make it onto bigger and better things. While I aspire to be an analyst, the prestige and the potential opportunities I could have had at the company were lost.
To all undergraduates in intern positions: if you are looking for something better, make sure that your current option is not at risk. It is better to be left with something as opposed to nothing.
You sound delusional and self absorbed, looks like those traits were your downfall.
Good post, because you introspected enough to realise your mistakes and more importantly, copped up to them. Even better, you cared enough to share your bad experience on a public forum, so others might learn from it. I believe this indicates humility (which you did learn the hard way), contrary to what the guy before me said.
Keep your nose to the grindstone, don't repeat your mistakes, and hustle on. Good luck.
Have you entertained the thought he might not have been on LinkedIn & he might have been busy when your email came through?
Surprised this wasn't obvious from the start....at least you learned something, good luck getting what you want in the future.
Also, I have to take issue with the "superstar" language. Trust me, setting up a mail merge is just "above average" or "competent" intern behavior. I know of interns at a well-known prop shop that I interned at that were allowed to trade...no bs.
Edit: I know I'm going to get responses like "I really have to question how this is possible" etc etc. It's a private firm, they can do what they want.
Yeah it might have been a bit harsh, some lessons were learned.
How can any employer seriously expect a college student to give their part-time internship priority over exams? This story makes no sense
Many would....it makes perfect sense. Plenty of people manage work alongside exams. Plan in advance.
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