How do I prepare myself?

I signed a SA 2021 offer with a group that is a known sweat-shop (Moelis NYC, Jefferies Houston, HL RXGS TMT & FIGPJT RSSG) across the street. Much higher than usual hours, very lean deal teams, etc. For people who interned there, how did you prepare yourself for the group, and what did you do to make sure you received a FT offer?

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I think that it is something that you won't know until you know. As in working there and seeing how you react. I am not sure there is any way to prepare for that per se. I do think sometimes the hours are slightly overblown. Example: had a former roommate who worked somewhere you mentioned. There were days where he was home before me and days where I was home before them and I don't work at a place known to be 'like that.'

Just be proud of yourself and keep your head up. You are a person just like anyone else and there is no need to try to be some superhuman who feels that they can work 100 hours a week and still be sharp or whatever. Be nice to yourself during those 10 weeks: get as much sleep as you can, drink a lot of water, try to exercise. You will be fine.

As for getting a FT offer: always maintain a positive attitude and present yourself as someone who is both hardworking and willing to take criticism/advice. Being a nice person with a positive attitude will go a long way. Anyone can be trained to run a DCF but not everyone is enjoyable to be around. 

 

A practical tip: make a lot of notes, and do so in a structured manner. I highly recommend using OneNote - use tabs for projects and use subtabs to structure your notes for a specific project or topic. This will allow you to efficiently and swiftly look up (call) notes. Making notes will help you learn things faster, require you to ask the same questions less often (you will forget things otherwise) and contribute more as you have everything written down on paper.

 

Modelling courses are very useful and will definitely give you an edge as you will be up to speed. Perhaps read up on certain deals the group has done recently, and write down some points of the deal for yourself. Could help you score some brownie points in your first weeks when you ask these points to the people that worked on that specific deal. Beside that, I think there is not much else you can do. I would recommend that once you start, make sure you get to know the whole team as soon as possible (plan meetings to catch up, can be just 15 - 30min).

 

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