June - July vs. June - August Internship
Hi,
I’m currently interning at a boutique bank, but my work is not at all related to banking. In fact, it’s not related to anything, and there is no point of me staying. (I am also unpaid)
I have stayed till now so I can put June-July on my resume, but would that look bad?
I can stay until August, but the work I’m given is complete irrelevant and has absolutely nothing to do with any type of finance. How bad of a look is it to only have June to July on your resume for a summer?
Tbh a lot of firms are cutting their internships short (our firm is now 6 weeks) so you could just play that card and say your internship got shortened June - July.
For background checks we use a 3rd party source and all they ask is the dates worked so shouldn’t back fire on you come background check time for BB.
So you don’t think it’ll hurt? I started June 1, and plan on quitting Wed/Thursday. I’ve also been treated rather poorly, and as I’m unpaid and not gaining valuable experience, I’d rather not continue.
Dude literally in the same exact boat, I think I am gonna stop at the end of July and really just try to enjoy the rest of my summer (quarter system so i start in September). I finished recruiting for next summer so I should be good. that said I am still gonna stay productive and under take some independent projects to stay fresh on the material and have something to talk about
same situation here. what independent projects are you thinking of?
Same situation here, though I started my internship in May. The only concern i have is the background check my junior year summer firm (EB) is going to do - though the only thing my resume said when I submitted was incoming sophomore analyst summmer. 2020. I didn’t specify any dates or anything
Are you worried about this at all?
A little more context is needed. What work are you doing? A lot of interns do work that isn't modeling or working on presentations. Interns at least at my firm will do a lot of prospecting, filling out compliance forms, etc.
I would say stay till august. You never know when you'll get the opportunity to meet someone that can launch your career or you'll learn something that can change the trajectory of your career. I get it going an playing whatever call of duty that is hot right now is more fun, but even developing good habits is going to be more important in the long run. The caveat is if you can go do something that is better aka, another career opportunity, then I think you may have reason to peel off and go further your career that way.
I am going through potential companies, choosing ones that fit our area, and sending them in an email at the end of the day.
I was told I'd be working on the banking side, but it is clear that is not happening. The head of banking told me to quit.
It sucks you're in this position, but if you quit your entire summer is basically void. June-July looks pretty BS on the resume. I'd ask anyone in the bank to send any learning materials and try to learn on your own. Finish the internship in August (you're already halfway there) and try to spin it positively on your resume.
How on earth is my entire summer void?
I completely disagree. I have still done work for over a month. I also dont have much to learn. I am completely comfortable with technicals, and have completed most modeling courses.
I need real work, which I am not being given
Cool, you're seeking advice and I'm giving my two cents. Feel free to disagree but idk what kind of answer you want from WSO.
I'll just say the "I don't have much to learn" mentality won't carry you far in this industry.
What type of work are they having you do?
You're already half way through, might as well continue and finish it off if you've committed to completing a 10 week internship (or however long it is). I'm assuming you're working from home anyways, so I doubt there are huge opportunity costs you're giving up by doing it. Unless you're literally slaving away putting in 20 hour days unpaid, then complete the internship. It's not worth burning a bridge or weakening a potentially good relationship with whatever firm you're interning with. Most internships (pre junior year) don't involve any "real work" applicable to banking, so it is anyways all spinning whatever work you are given, embellishing and making it sound relevant to IB, so I don't think your situation is unique in that way at all.
As was said by an earlier poster, if the material you're working on isn't interesting to you, complete it and ask your team to share materials that are relevant so you can read up independently. Being a bit proactive on this sort of thing can go a long way.
I have begged for more work. They refuse. It is literally as if I am a slave.
That's literally the opposite of what a slave is
Do NOT quit. I've been here before - the last thing you want to do is ruin your reputation and leave on bad terms, especially if/when your future firms reach out to this place for a reference. I wanted more than anything to quit my sophomore internship (was supposed to be PE, ended up being binding decks 8 hours a day), but I toughed it out for the summer. For my FT job, the employer actually called my manager from this internship for a reference. The manager may have been a stuck-up asshole who ruined my summer, but he only spoke positively about me since I stuck around and got the work done, and showed eagerness to lean more.
I've had my fair share of boring, underwhelming internships where I've just been sitting around bored all day. I think your situation is a bit tricky since the internship is unpaid, but I would maybe give it another week or two to just squeeze out as much value as you can. Here's some tips of what I did at my past shitty internships to help my career, totally separate from the mind-numbing work I was tasked to do:
Take it from someone who's been in your shoes before - most finance internships suck. Just be happy that your hours aren't bad and that you're not getting coffee for MDs, and try to funnel this anger into something productive like technical studying or a side project.
It's a fucking internship - quitting is not the answer.
I really appreciate your answer.
I am only angry because I was told I would be interning in banking, and am completely not doing that.
How do I even talk about this to interviewers? I have a superday in 2 weeks, and my resume says I am being exposed to banking. Can I just cite Covid and lack of deal flow as reasons why this has not happened?
Just say you did research and worked through some practice models that they gave you. Nobody is going to ask you about your “deals” that you did in a sophomore internship (I’m assuming that’s what it is). Just repeating again, nobody does real work their sophomore internships. Half of the IB interns don’t do real work their junior year internships. Hell half of banking is doing things like sending around working group lists, updating internal docs for your group and doing basically administrative work. Don’t worry about it, you’re fine.
I'm still confused with what you mean by not being "exposed to banking". You are working at a bank in what is (presumably) a front office (maybe middle office role). Doing research on companies and making lists can be spun in so many different ways - "market research", "competitive landscaping," "compiling acquisition targets"... the list goes on an on. Do some high-level financial analysis on these companies and mention it- whether it's just comps, basic metrics/KPIS, or some high-level accounting analysis. You don't need to be building full-blown DCFs and LBOs to be "exposed to banking".
So many kids end up with solid junior SA offers spending their sophomore summer doing research at university or something totally unrelated to banking (I've personally seen marketing, sales, client services, NGOs, etc... all get banking jobs).
Don't spin it as a negative experience in your interviews and blame it on COVID - that's just a terrible idea. Take the tasks you've done and put a super positive spin on them, talk about how much you've learned (just make shit up ffs), and maybe at the end put a small asterisk about how COVID prevented you from getting direct deal experience, but you made up for it by taking on additional tasks like X, Y, Z...
My internship was labeled as IB Summer Analyst. Thats what I mean.
I appreciate the advice
Sounds like you are doing the type of work that interns have to do in IB internships. I have been in a job and thought that the work was useless and I would never use it again, and the second i got into IB, it was apparent that the things I were doing were EXTREMELY relevant to IB and I just didn’t realize it. I thought I knew everything then, but you learn quick that this is just how things are sometimes when you are an intern or early in your career. There are 29 year old third year analysts that are still doing shit like this. It is what it is. I think you need to change your mindset and realize that you are likely doing exactly what you were promised, but you maybe just don’t realize it yet or expected to get something different out of the opportunity. I’m sure it sucks, but I think it sounds like you may be having the wrong attitude about it and just constantly keep thinking of how you can spin the experience for your future opportunities. If you read enough job descriptions for certain groups, you will see the roles and responsibilities. I’m sure this will fit into some of those responsibilities if you spin it the right way. Good luck
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