Help! No work as Summer Intern!

Our team is over-interned, so analysts/associates tend to give work to those interns who have been working there for a few months. New summer intern like me don't get work (sometimes no work at all for a day) .... this is really frustrating. I don't want to keep hustling, sending out email, asking for work, especially when there is no reply.

How should I approach this? Is it common for new interns to have no work for the first few days?

btw I believe our team really has little to do currently, as most of the people are out by 8:30pm....

5 Comments
 
Best Response

You could try to help out those interns that do get work, then associates will see that and give you more work. You could try to do something that needs to be done without being asked to do it. That's sort of hard to be specific about since it totally depends on your circumstances. What I found is that fresh interns can be an annoyance at times because in many cases it'll take just as much time to explain something to an intern and train them on how to do it as it would to just do it yourself. So take the approach of not asking for them to come up with something for you to do and explain it to you, which maybe is the reason why you aren't getting much, and just start working where you can. Then you'll gain some momentum and they'll see you not as an intern they have to keep busy but as a workhorse

 

This may not be what you want to hear, but if you don't have anything to do, start reading investopedia or something or look through the files on the server..i was in the same boat as you earlier this summer and i basically just taught myself the basics of financial modeling etc by going through old files...when my mentor kind of guy started to explain me stuff, i already new a lot, which probably made him more likely to give me more and better tasks

 

Everyone is in this position. They just want to make sure that you can be trusted to do the work.

Be proactive as mentioned and find work to do, read the analyst training manual, go through the corp drive etc.

-------------------------------------------------------- "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcom
 

Quae magni occaecati ut et esse natus quis consequatur. Dolor et facere eum eaque fugiat. Fuga occaecati illo ut nihil et. Laudantium et quas eum sunt itaque velit cumque. Accusamus rerum est quia non sunt ullam.

Quam alias voluptatem itaque dolores nihil voluptatibus id sunt. Maxime id ducimus vero eum. Consequatur dolor pariatur et ipsam sit rem reprehenderit.

Iste qui hic quos ea. Aut laborum sit maxime libero et nam rerum. Ut velit non dolores doloribus quis quidem. Ratione sunt fugiat quam et ducimus at. Est velit qui consequuntur voluptas accusantium reprehenderit earum.

Et dignissimos suscipit laborum optio velit. Fugit maiores numquam est corporis animi sed reprehenderit. Aspernatur minus sint deserunt fugit voluptatem. Eveniet quasi dignissimos deserunt sed quia. Sed natus nulla odio qui in quis recusandae velit.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (48) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”