Sophomore Asset Management Internship - What Should I Be Learning?

Hey everyone, I'm currently a sophomore who obtained an unpaid internship for a small local Asset Management firm. I'm working directly underneath an advisor/portfolio manager and he is teaching me a lot about asset allocation and the overall inner workings of the market. He is very knowledgeable and I believe will be a great mentor going forward. My goal is to obtain a summer analyst position at a top AM firm for the summer of my junior year (think Fidelity, BlackRock, Putnam) and my question is:

What exactly should I be learning in this internship that will put me in a good position to place well in interviews and top firms? I'm currently working on a couple projects that involves market research and diversifying portfolio's using an optimization software. Should I ask for more work centered towards modeling and excel? Or should I just continue learning as much as I can about asset management as a whole? What kind of work do most SA's do at the the top firms in AM?

Thanks!

6 Comments
 

anyone who did an SA stint at a top AM firm care to chime in? What kind of things are you asked to do on a daily basis? My guess is a lot of research?

 

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