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Career Resources
It depends on the bank. I interned at a BB over the summer and interns were not supposed to work on weekends according to HR. This was more of an HR rule than actual practice because we did work on weekends as needed. My roommate worked at a different BB and had protected Saturdays. He only had to go in on one Saturday for live deal work.
Depends on the firm and on the group. Also - "protected days" can easily be unprotected with exceptions in most circumstances - your associate would usually just have to ask the staffer if they can have you. However, I have heard that some banks take them pretty seriously - others it is a PR push and nothing more.
Thank you both
I worked at a MM bank over the summer and worked every Sunday and a good amount of Saturdays, although that wasn't very common. My roommate interned for a BB and had protected weekends, which was taken seriously by members of his bank.
Had a friend at BAML, and the interns were strictly not allowed to be in the office on Saturdays/Sundays (at least in that specific group). Their cards were programmed so they couldn’t even access the building on the weekend.
They probably pay OT
I would hope so
that sound amazing that BAML would implement that
I mean, they only did it because an intern died.
can confirm saturdays are protected for SAs
Same at JP (few groups)
Mentally prepare to come in every day. I got 2 out of 8 or 9 weekends off iirc (one being July 4th weekend). Getting a day off is just upside.
This is for London MM bank in the city. I looked after 2 classes of interns when I was in banking (left as Analyst 3 for buyside).
The short answer is no for my bank but hours overall are looked at by HR. The first summer the interns in my team were a bit lazy and one out of three barely got the offer. We had no issues with hours or ‘overworking’. The second summer the interns were quite good especially one guy - intern X. He was very smart and hard working but as all interns, he was a bit slow. Midway through the internship the staffer sat me down as we had a weekly catch up for the interns and he told me that HR called him to say that intern X has worked the most for the last 5 weeks out of the whole class of interns and he should take it easy. He pulled like 100 hours 5 weeks in a row when I was doing probably 60-70 at the time. So I spoke with him to relax a little bit and go home early that day to sleep a bit. So some banks definitely monitor the hours and while there is no official rule, HR will intervene if they think it is necessary. Whether the bankers would take HRs concerns is a whole different story. Our staffer was a great guy so he protected the intern but I can totally see some staffers looking the other way.
Depends on if you're doing intern work or analyst work. At a bank that gives interns more responsibility, they'll follow a more normal analyst schedule and come in as necessary like the rest of us. Banks with more structured programs where the interns are just doing profiles and fucking around typically have rigid protections (and a lot of them care about avoiding intern overtime pay).
In my experience and at my bank though, it continues to baffle me the number of kids who don't get banking. They show up and act like their fucking protected saturdays matter. If you want big boy work, you follow a big boy schedule. You can't have it both ways because deals don't wait for your day to go fuck off.
People like you are exactly the reason why banking has such a bad reputation. Everyone understands the live situation and occasional all-nighter/100+ hr week but 95% of time the weekend (at least Sat) work can be avoided by better time management and communication.
My office (BB) enforces the Sat protection and 80hr week policy for junior banker pretty well and I don't see any deal fall apart because of that. We also strictly enforce weekend protection and off by midnight policy for interns.
Nobody is putting a gun to people's head and saying they have to work 100+ hours. People choose to come to banking knowing the commitment because they want the money, the training, the exits, whatever.
And within banking, you have to figure where along the trade-off curve you'd like to end up. That's great that you work at BAML and sure, when you have a huge payroll and the biggest analyst class on the street, you can cap hours and give people time off. I used to work at BAML and it was great to have work / life balance, but I just moved to an EB and we're much leaner and we don't have those luxuries. People have to work hours or we actually can't get deals done within the timeline necessary. But we also get paid for it. I'm okay working 100+ almost every week for a great bonus and more responsibility. I just want to be upfront about the commitment, that at least here, we expect from kids. If it's not for them, they can go join you and have their saturdays off.
What would you say is the hours / weekend work for DCM? Starting a summer there in 2 weeks and I haven't been told jackshit about what my hours are, what is expected of me etc (N.American bank in London) Emailed hr and they stated 9-5 yet former interns told me this was not the case and then never replied to my following messages regarding weekend work - any advice would be great (Y)
Do PWM BB Summer Analysts work weekends? (Originally Posted: 09/26/2017)
Im considering a career in PWM and I was just wondering if Summer Analysts at a BB PWM program get weekends off. Also what are the hours/ lifestyle like. Any input would be appreciated.
You emailed HR asking about hours?
So my contract stated start dates and EU directive work hours only (no division specific times) and I said I was looking for accommodation (said I would like further information as I am looking at price obvs closer to the office is more expensive - if i am working long hours i'm willing to pay more to reduce commute time) - as I emailed HR with this information and asked if they had any recommendations for areas to stay and if they had any further information on hours.
The DCM interns at the bank I interned at never came in on the weekend the entire summer. Their hours were like 7am-6pm.
You shouldn't be worried about hours if your doing PWM i.e. Its a cake walk hours wise. Also its three months not much "lifestyle" to that. I'm referring to the internship here, not the career. Also I'm almost positive that there's no "PWM BB Summer analyst"
All the BBs have Summer Analyst Programs in their home office
bump
Working Statutory Holidays/Long Weekends? (Intern) (Originally Posted: 04/28/2017)
I just wanted to know what the expectations are for working long weekends, specifically for summer analysts at Big 5 Banks (Canada)?
Also are weekends business formal or casual?
Thanks
I heard Moelis protects Friday-Sunday every week. That is to say, they "protect" you from having free time by making sure you're in the office every day.
In the US (would assume Canada is the same) weekends and holidays are casual (jeans, t-shirts are fine, although it still is work), but best to ask people while there. Expectation on both holidays and long weekends is that if there's work to be done you'll be working. As an intern, you shouldn't show up to sit there and do nothing, but if other members of your team are in, you should be as well, and you should check in to see the plan on that Friday.
Okay perfect thank you
How long is a summer internship? 8 or 10 weeks?
Want to get an offer? Go in for a couple hours on Saturdays and Sundays the first few weekends. Probably 2-4 PM is the sweet spot if you're in NYC. The first couple of weekends just drop in. Get a feel for whether the more senior bankers are there. After that just show up unannounced when you think they'll be there. If your team is there--they'll notice REAL fast. You won't have to do this every weekend and there probably won't be any serious work for you but you'll get MAJOR kudos.
If they make up random jobs for you to stay late--probably a stupid group and you should get out while you can.
Is this legit? I've never heard of this before. I'm starting also in a couple of weeks would be very interested on how I can stand out considering my technicals are quite average.
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