How to ask for work

All of the employees in my office seem very busy a lot of the time. I have asked some people in my group to give me work but the amount they ask me to do is never enough to keep me occupied. It makes me a little anxious as everyone else always talks about how they’re overworked. I get asked to do the same sort of jobs , so I don’t know if I’m not getting work because I’m not good at the work I do. What is the best way of getting a consistent volume of work without being annoying or a nuisance?

7 Comments
 

Been in your shoes and now I'm on the other side, so I feel you... but some of the work we're doing can be difficult to just pass off to an intern. If you feel like you're being annoying, try to strike up conversation - what are you working on and then slide in the "is there anything I can help with?" You can also voice your availability with the person managing you. If all else fails, then find proactive ways to occupy your time.

 
Most Helpful

just be chill. PE intern role is tough because you absolutely aren’t necessary and absolutely not helpful unless you’ve done quite a few finance internships (mainly banking). always be willing to lend a hand tho, even w the 1 off asks. quick email saying

“hey man - i’ve got some capacity and would love to help out with whatever you’re working on. i can also spend time getting caught up on a file you’re working on so I can be helpful later on”

they’ll most likely say nothing right now but might send u the file path and you should absolutely be studying up.

I would also relish the time ur not busy - read as many old cim’s and memos as possible. look at old models and teach yourself. practice some of the more difficult analyses.

if you haven’t done this already, ask for a LT project. Maybe an industry primer or illustrative investment in a PubCo where you build a book and model yourself.

I’ve been where you are so I really empathize.

 

Interning in PE right now I understad your struggle. I agree with most of the comments above. I have experienced that as an intern I have not been hired for my brain but more for my hands, although I already have >1 year experience. It is hard as an intern to make a big difference as most people have at least >5 years experience in the field and are discussing on a way higher level than I can think. Sometimes I had to accept that there wasn't more work for me to do an just had to go home before dinner-time.

I have been taking repetitive, time-consuming tasks out of the hands of the other people. Especially in the beginning of my internship this was the case. However, I constantly showed my good intentions of wanting to take on more work and (almost) always delivered good quality. By constantly pushing to be staffed on a project I am now working on a couple potential investments. When being given tasks you should always try to see the bigger picture of why you are doing the task and what the next steps in the process are so you can be proactive.

I am not sure what kind of tasks they do give you, but for example when you get asked to start preparing a model, also build in some cases and do some market research which you can present to back up the model and scenarios. People in PE are just very busy in general and I have noticed that they do not have much time to coach the inters. But then on the other hand, they will really appreciate it when you can provide them with the analyses that they require before they have even asked you to do it.

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