FP&A intern —> IB / CB?
Hi all,I start a year long internship in FP&A at a big pharma (Pfizer/J&J/Roche) this June, but I want to pursue Corporate or Investment Banking.
I got a Commercial Banking internship offer this year, but chose to pursue this placement year as it will give me the opportunity to reapply for 2023 IB SA's.
My question is, how can I best leverage what I will/can learn from this experience to give my self the best chances in IB recruiting.
More specifically, I am in the EMEA Technology Operating Expenses team as a Junior P/L Analyst.Thanks for any comments.
Feels unlikely that the skills picked up will translate all that well to IB from a junior P/L analyst (esp on opex). From what I have seen in my experience in FP&A, larger orgs appear to provide less financial modeling exposure than smaller orgs, at least early on (models in the traditional sense ie. LBO/DCF). Larger orgs are typically more disaggregated so you get siloed. You will likely be working on models that someone else designed that do a very specific thing (ie. Roll up a very specific input, forecast a very specific GL item). Smaller orgs tend to have fewer resources so an FP&A analyst may have some hope to work on some M&A/project finance models or might be working on broader internal operating/valuation models.
That might/might not be exciting news for you. I would focus on making sure your excel/ppt skills are in order. Pay attention to the people who run meetings well/communicate well. If you meet former bankers (which you should in a good corp finance shop) pick their brain about their experience. Take trainings in your free time (which you certainly have more of in FP&A than in IB) to make sure you don’t have technical leaks and make sure you are networking. Since you have income for the summer this should expand your budget for these activities a little bit.
One piece of advice I have is that you should not try and turn this into an IB internship. Enjoy it for what it is. Enjoy the hours, etc. and use it as time to see if you like this type of work. Treat this as a unique experience and not a stepping stone. The only way you can spin this as an advantage or unique experience in an interview is if you embrace it and do a good job. Be where your feet are.
Hope this helps.
I really appreciate this comment. Thanks a lot.
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