I HATE my internship...about to do something risky
So I'm about to round out the second week of my internship and its absolute shit.
I'm about to do something a bit risky and I'd appreciate some wisdom from you guys out there with more experience.
To preface this, I first signed with this bank because the offer was an exploding one. The role is BO, although I didn't know it was going to be THAT BO (now I've learned that no matter how fancy your title is, BO is BO). I subsequently received FO offers from other banks after I signed but declined them because of the fear of the consequences that reneging would bring.
Two weeks in, its not a fit...AT ALL. Its obvious why they're there and so many of them have been stuck there without any mobility. Even if I do get an offer, there is no doubt that I would decline.
At this point, I'm thinking about calling up the firms which have extended offers previously but which I declined very politely. I can't stand this BO shit. Its absolutely mind numbing and I'd much rather just take time off to travel.
What are the consequences at this point? I know that the intern class may have already been filled but I still want to call and see if I can jump.
What do you think?
The banking community is pretty small so if you renege now, you never know how this might affect you. Since this is an internship, I would just act in a professional manner and complete my requirements. I'd also keep in touch with your contacts at the other bank for next summer. Plus, interviewers are probably going to ask you what you did this summer since there's going to be a blank if you quit now. Obviously telling them you just left 2 weeks into your internship would reflect poorly on your dependability. They might question what you would do in the future in situations where your boss assigns you work you dislike.
The offers you declined are already gone most likely. It wasn't too smart to keep the BO offer at that time.
And if you didn't want to renege because of the consequences, why would you up and leave now?
Stop being a bitch and man up to your commitment. This isn't the "the bank doesn't owe me shit, I don't owe them shit" situation like others on here who have reneged for better opportunities; this is you making a decision, committing to it, and now you can't handle the consequences of your decisions.
What makes you think a FO internship wouldn't be mind numbing? Would you quit that one
I think I may have worded my sentences wrong in the heat of the moment. What I meant is that I'd much rather go on vacation since I wouldn't be gaining much from the internship itself in terms of career progression.
I completely understand the whole commitment deal, but I see little purpose in committing when I know full well that I will not return. It does me no good, and it does the business no good. I realized I made a mistake, probably a stupid one but it was the most risk averse choice I had on my plate. Lets try to keep this thread from morphing into a should I or should I not have reneged discussion.
Fact of the matter is, I have this BO shit. I don't look down on the people there, they add immense value to the bank and the business would not function without it. But its not for me. Clearly.
You're stuck until the end of the summer. Get over yourself, get the offer, and then do your best to leverage it into a FT offer at your current bank or another bank.
You should have reneged when you had the opportunity.
Would anyone advocate trying to call the other shops at this point?
Thing is, the senior guys here know me pretty well already. Not to be arrogant, but I stand out in the intern class, which isn't a hard thing to do in BO, and they've singled me out several times to attend meetings. So theres the risk there that they may know other people.
Perhaps its my emotions getting the best of me. I know in these situations its not the best time to make decisions, which is why I rely on the counsel of those who are probably better and more experienced at this than me. But this really does suck ass and is quite depressing when I start to dwell on it. BO is a dungeon, its dark back there and I just don't gel with the people like I do in FO (I've gone to various networking events at the bank already and can immediately spot the differences in drive/ambition/approach in life)
Agree with nystateofmind that you should have regegged when you received FO offers that were clearly better than your BO role.
I would reach out to your contacts where you received the FO offers and be honest. Tell them you made a mistake because you were green/naive and had the exploding offer, unsure of what to do.
However, promise them you will learn everything you can in the BO role and work hard to standout bc you do see that it is important to the entire process and fundamentals to the front office. While it will be a good experience, your true interest is in the revenue-generating groups of the FO. You hope to stay in touch when full-time recruiting begins.
First, I think it's highly unlikely that you will get a front office internship at this late stage... some people have already been doing their internships for weeks at this point!
This might be a tempting decision to make, but I think you could end up regretting it - if it backfires, you might be left with no options for the fall.
I think you should stick it out (it's only an internship... not much of a commitment) and get the FT offer as backup from them, then hopefully leverage that into a front-office offer or go back to those other banks you had offers from before.
I've had internships that were completely stupid and wastes of time as well, but keep in mind they're only internships... wasting 2 months is not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things.
...and you're in banking, but there is a very VERY simple solution to your issue.
Go walk into your bosses corner office and lay it down. Some people call it "The Truth". When you're in there, don't talk about vacation, don't talk about other banks. Talk about your position, what you were looking for out of it, what your expectations were, etc....tell them that you don't mind working super hard, tell them you want to pay your dues, but you don't see the current position being a good fit. See what they can do for you. Not everyone's a spineless puppet in these places.
It's amazing all these smart people on here never considered being up front. This is your third option, bro. They don't want to torture you. You don't want to be tortured. Playing the honesty card will keep doors open and may even open a few new ones...."hey, that guy that stands out is looking for something different."
But, again, be selectively honest. G'luck.
I've done that already with HR but have yet to discuss this with my team. I think if I went outright and said it now that it would cause some serious hell for the next 8 weeks. I don't want to jack up expectations, nor do I want them to think that I'm above their job--I'm clearly not and have something to learn from them but its certainly not a career path I'm going down.
What do you guys think? The sooner the better?
Now that I've cooled down a bit, I've kinda struck out the idea of contacting my previous firms which means I'll be stuck in here for the summer.
help! i cannot stand my internship. (Originally Posted: 06/15/2011)
I was really excited to get an internship at a big name bank my freshmen summer but i literally cannot stand this job. i have to drive an almost an hour in the worst traffic ever and then i spend at least 2-3 hours straight cold calling..where i'm constantly getting yelled at by angry people. and then when i'm not calling i get assigned the most menial tasks.
my boss keeps a spreadsheet of all of our performances and i've clearly outperformed the other interns and at times he's mentioned letting me interact with clients and such but it hasn't actually happened. i've gotten so sick of everything i get assigned i'm starting to not try/mess it up. i've only been here about 3 weeks so i'm not comfortable asking for more work..especially since i'm now messing up all the menial tasks he makes me do.
how can i actually learn from this/make it more tolerable? help!
What you can learn: that people are often awful to strangers. Hopefully this will make you more pleasant at bars, restaurants and in day to day interactions with other people. Also, this is good preparation for the menial tasks you'll be doing in just about any job you'll ever have (I still love the look on my group's interns' faces when they're told to do comps or have books printed. What did you expect you'd be doing?)
How you can make it tolerable: by focusing on the fact that you've got one year of college under your belt and don't know anything whatsoever. Be grateful for the opportunity to have a big name bank on your resume, work very hard in school this coming year and try to parlay it into a better job next summer.
Sorry if that's a bitter tonic. Maintain a positive attitude and continue to perform well and things should improve. If they don't, well at least you're not unemployed like a good amount of people your age.
I was in a similar situation a while ago when I did UBS regional PWM. Had to drive to work for an hour 4 days a week (at 730 am before class all day long at that!). While at work I did mostly menial tasks and was rarely given directions about how to do them, which led to me always screwing them up. I really hated it, although the people were nice (when they weren't getting mad at me for screwing up the menial tasks they never told me how to do). However at the end I got a BB name on my resume and in every IBD interview I had it was brought up favorably and helped me get an SA. Hang in there bud
if you dont like your job and/or cant handle the people, then quit
Severus, thank you for the input. that's comforting to hear. i guess it'll be fine in the end when it all pays off, but right now i'm practically begging for some actual work. and i'm also constantly being asked to do things but not being told how ..and messing up, and then getting laughed at. i was literally laughed at today and heard one of the senior advisors tell the other "you've just gotta walk her through every step don't you" sarcastically. & it was the first time i had actually messed something semi-significant up. it's just aggravating sometimes.
so you basically came on the internet to complain?
Instintictively, I want to tell you this
but instead, let's try this:Umm...you're a girl right? Just focus on your looks and marry a rich guy. ;)
Try to leave your house 30 minutes earlier to beat the traffic. If your commute takes an hour in traffic, by leaving earlier you might cut it down to 30 minutes. Experiment for about a week with different leaving time to figure out at what time you need to leave to beat the traffic, and then either continue showing up 1 hr earlier and being a goddamn overachiever (or going to the onsite gym, whatever), or ask your boss if it would be possible to shift your work hours, that way you wouldn't have to be stuck in traffic for an hour. (Depends on whether your company has core hours and what's the bounce around them)
Work on your cold-calling. Research different techniques, ask your boss for advice, make a couple of scripts and stick to them until you are comfortable free-styling. Respect the people you are calling: nobody wants to be woken up at 6 am, or lied to. Be nice and polite even to the people that are being obnoxious: the d-bags that love to push people over the edge and make them pissed/upset will be most disappointed by niceness, and people who just snap because they are having a bad day might feel bad, and actually give your offer some consideration afterwards. Google some articles: http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-us/resources/marketing/customer-se… Also consider quickly googling whomever you are going to call, and offering a slightly more personalized cold call. I.e. You are not calling them because your boss gave you a list of people to call, you are calling them because they are involved in the business X, and you feel that you could offer a solution Y to their problem Z. You will have a much higher yield from making people feel like you care about their problems. And if anything, it will give you an opportunity to stretch your cold-calling into a 3-4 hour session, instead of 2-3 hour, and leave you less time for the menial tasks :) Another important skill you will need to learn is stress management. Pace yourself and allow yourself to recharge and prepare for the next call. Avoid the stress that can be avoided (like traffic). It may be less stressful for you to work an extra hour a day because you showed up early, than deal with the stress and frustration of traffic.
If your boss mentioned letting you interact with the clients but hasn't let you yet, maybe there hasn't been an opportunity yet, don't freak out. Keep showing consistency and improvement in the quality of your work, and your big day will come. Get your stress level under control - regardless of what your boss promised you based on some potential he saw in the past, he is not gonna take a nervous wreck of an intern to a client meeting.
I looked over some of your past threads, and it seems that you deal with a great deal of anxieties (or maybe you only post when you are stressed). Learn to get your stress in check. Otherwise, it will kill you.
Ask your boss to put you in contact with other people in the company that could mentor you. Your boss cannot really do it, if he manages a team of interns, as that may show preferential treatment, and you might want to foster a more team-oriented, rather than competitive environment with your fellow interns. Yeah, it's nice to feel like you are the top performer and all of your peers are inferior to you, but you very quickly burn out. You are only a freshman, last thing you need is to crash and burn by your junior year.
Get your cold-calling down, and offer to help/mentor your fellow interns - that's the kind of leadership experience that you can leverage way more than how many cold calls you closed on.
Quit being a pussy.
Welcome to the world of finance
Look, it's just an internship and you're a freshman. Just know that a lot of people don't have an opportunity to put a big name on their resumes so early and it really sets you up to do something much better next summer. And really, even if you get 'more responsibility' as say an SA at an IB next summer, you're really just doing things like picking up books from print, flipping books, spreading comps for the most part.
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