How does one get good at the “intern” tasks?

Im an incoming IB SA and while I’m prioritizing enjoying my remaining months having free time, I have identified two weaknesses through my work in classes and clubs I want to work on ahead of this summer:

  • Making sense of corporate puffery in finding out what a business actually does. I find myself reading about businesses in the news and through public filings, especially in software industries, where it’s actually extremely vague what the company does on a fundamental level. This usually leads to me wasting time trying to figure out something that should be obvious.

  • PowerPoint. I’m OK at making slides that look good but I think I take too long. What are the most helpful shortcuts and is PPT designed to be used mouse-free like Excel?

6 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I wouldn't worry about the first one. That comes with time (and reading research reports, particularly initiations which are more detailed). You may have to make company profiles during the summer, but this is all straight from the website and IPs.

For the second one, PPT is not possible to do with no mouse. I would get familiar with the align tool and all of its variations (align top, align middle, distribute horizontally), grouping/ungrouping, and set transparent color for logos. But generally good slide that takes time >>> ugly slide done quickly.

 

For PPT, look into making your own quick access toolbar (See M&I or Peak Frameworks). Allows you to access all the necessary ppt shortcuts much quicker and was a huge timesaver for me as an intern.

 

alt + H + G + A + whatever alignment will save you tens of hours. Also maybe get good at being concise and to the point in prose because you’ll probably be working on some decks that go to LFC or ECC for capital markets stuff

 

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