Advice on EB Internship Preparation
Hey guys, I am posting here to ask for advice regarding my upcoming summer analyst role at an EB. I have reached out to the past intern class and luckily it seems return offers were pretty common due to high deal volume/expansion and culture seems to be great in my group.
I asked them specifically for what I should prepare prior to this summer, and they told me the work was not extremely hard by any means, but getting somewhat proficient in excel and powerpoint should help. Many of them emphasized powerpoint skills specifically can make an intern stand out. They mentioned getting comfortable in quick access toolbar on powerpoint, but I wanted to ask people on this forum what they think would be the most helpful regarding powerpoint skill.
Thanks in advance.
Just finished my stint and received the return. First I will say this - at first you are not going to have high-responsibility tasks (i.e., driving the model, handling tough comments, etc.) early on because you have not gained the group / firm's trust. The goal is to be doing "analyst" work or at least some analyst work by halfway through the internship (i.e., maybe not driving the model but doing large updates, not just working on profiles, etc.). Here is what I think made people who converted successful:
1) Do not make stupid mistakes. Mistakes are okay but do not misspell someone's name / fat finger a number in the model / misspell any word etc. If you do, it's okay, but you cannot do this repeatedly. It shows a lack of attention to detail.
2) Shortcuts, shortcuts, shortcuts. I came into the internship having worked several IB roles beforehand. I thought I had a good grasp on shortcuts - nope. Learn as many as you can because you will be able to work faster which will leave more time to review and check for stupid mistakes.
3) Organize. Deals, tasks, upcoming meetings and documents needed for those meetings, action items requested to be made post-meetings, etc. Keep a diligent list of outstanding action items, even if you submitted say a profile to a VP for a potential pitch, and the VP has not responded for a week, ask the analyst you worked with if you should follow up with the VP. Oftentimes the lower priority work can get lost in the shuffle or put on a backburner, so people appreciate when you follow up. It shows that you are on top of your work streams and that you would be trusted with high priority work streams.
4) Network. Enough said - get to know who you are working with and more importantly let them get to know you. People have long memories in finance, make good impressions, be helpful, and people will help you.
5) Ask good questions, never ask dumb questions. While many people say "there are no dumb questions" in academia, this does not hold true in finance. Never ask a question where you could google the answer or find the answer in previous materials, the deal folder, your email, etc. Do not waste anyone's time.
6) What you say, how you act and present yourself matters. Do not neglect this. Don't say anything controversial, keep your opinions to yourself on any political, religious, or otherwise controversial subject. Do not complain about your co workers to your co workers, etc. Just be professional
7) Grind. Enough said, at the end of the day people want to see kids who grind
This is extremely useful thank you so much for the advice. Any specific advice that helped you get better with shortcuts?
Also was networking as straightforward as everybody says? Ex. Just casually ask office members for a coffee chat?
Was the nature of the work easy to pickup and attention to detail being more difficult or was the work something you had to struggle through a lot and solve?
1) Shortcuts come through reps. There are "shortcut sheets" that list out the most useful ones, etc., so I would reference those and see which ones you neglect to use frequently. Then just use them with reps. No one is going to expect you to be "good" relative to full timers, just be "good" for an interns standard (i.e., being able to navigate PPTX and Excel without using the mouse, etc).
2) Yes, networking was easy. I would do 2 or 3 chats a week starting week 3. I wanted to develop a reputation as a hardworker / reliable intern, and get a feel of the office culture first. Then I would ask people I worked closely with to chat. I spoke with many analysts and associates, a couple VPs, and two MDs. Point being, everyone is there to get to know you, and it serves you well if an MD can speak about you as a person and not just your work product (which candidly they won't even know since your work goes through so many layers of review before reaching an MD).
3) I work in Rx, so both were difficult. Attention to detail can be difficult when you feel overwhelmed and just want to get items out for review. I highly recommend printing everything, taking two minutes away from your computer to refresh the mind, then fie minutes to review the printed output. You will catch many more formatting / alignment / spelling / numbers not tying mistakes when printing items. Re the work itself, I had strong background knowledge of RX but there was a huge learning curve. Again, just takes time. Stay late, ask GOOD questions that will help you understand, etc.
Awesome. Mind if I DM you to speak further. You have been such a big help.
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