Leaving Internship
Wanted to get opinions on what to do in this situation.
So for context, I am a rising sophomore at one of the top targets in the nation (think H/Y/P/S/W). I secured an internship working at a small investment bank doing primarily capital markets work (mostly DCM but some ECM as well). The official dates of the internship are May 18th to August 20th and the pay is about $750 a month. We have a relatively small team, with one analyst, one associate, two interns (including me) and an MD.
The issue comes with the fact that I want to leave my internship at the end of July/early August to go home for the summer. While I technically signed a contract to stay until August 20th, the MD at my bank said that the end date was flexible and that I could leave as early as August 9th. However, I would still like to leave earlier - around July 30/August 1st. Another important factor is that the analyst at my bank just quit, meaning that we will be short staffed until we hire another one (MD plans to have one by late August/early September). My understanding is that she is basically intending to milk me and the other intern to avoid having to pay another person a decent wage.
My family is pushing to see me at around July 30/August 1st because I have not been home since Christmas and I start school on August 27th. This is in addition to the fact that my sister is leaving to start college on August 10th (I missed her high school graduation for this internship). I figured that with this in mind, I really should just leave the internship and spend the extra week to see my sister. The only problem is that the MD is pretty adamant that I stay the extra week, as she anticipates that we will have a number of pitchbooks to send out during this time. If anyone can help me figure out how to negotiate leaving earlier, I would greatly appreciate it. No one in my family has worked a "professional" job before so they aren't much use.
For anyone wondering, I don't go home for spring break or Thanksgiving, since the breaks are so short that it doesn't make sense for my family to buy a plane ticket for me. (we are low income).
Thanks in advance
If you're not okay with missing important dates, missing family, and not getting much time away IB is the wrong profession for you. Seems like at this point your best bet would be to bring this up early with the MD and deal with the consequences. The longer you wait to communicate, the worse it's going to get
I definitely know and am okay with missing major dates in the future as a banker - I was just questioning whether or not I have to do so now given the fact that this is my freshman summer and I am getting paid far below minimum wage.
Appreciate the advice.
I wouldn't recommend this, but if it's a small IB, and the MDs don't have a lot of legacy relationships (former MD from Goldman who knows all of the MDs there), then wait until when you want to leave and quit that day (otherwise you may get fired early). It will burn a bridge and that will suck. You can justify it by saying $750 a month at 40 hrs a week is less than $5 an hour, and he's screwing you over because he'd rather pay that than for another analyst, but ultimately this is a bad thing to do and you have to accept the consequences.
That being said, it's your freshman summer, at a small boutique, I doubt it would have an impact other than making you feel a bit guilty. Like pare said, if you're not okay with missing important dates this isn't the profession for you. If you even consider doing this during your junior SA internship, then you probably won't get a return offer, nor should you.
Edit: Didn't think of this when originally posting. I'm not sure what the background check process is like when your hired as an SA or FT analyst, but I've heard they call previous employers and I'm not sure what the damage will be, if any, if this guy says you quit early and were a terrible analyst or anything else out of spite, but there may be an impact, and it could cost you your career.
lmao
1st Draft: Quit. It won't affect you at all. 2nd Draft: Okay, it might screw over your entire career.
Haha pretty much, although I'd say 1st draft was more like quit, but it's a dick move.
Sounds like you want to make $1 million on a $100 work ethic. If you're really hungry you'll weather the storm and pay the price. If not, you'll forever be the "wannabe" Leon Black. Sorry for the tough love, but figured I'd cut through the BS.
I agree. I started late and by my own poor planning am in a much less enjoyable (although better paying) internship than you. Despite this, I'm working my ass off and missing things like graduation all the time. I wouldn't leave. I would stay and work your ass off to finish the internship.
That said, I would never go back to that place. $750 a month is stupid low.
Thanks for the feedback - will try to reiterate the fact that this is my freshman summer and that I have family obligations but if not, I'll stick it out.
I honestly would just stay and finish the internship. I only went home for Christmas once a year for the past 3 years because I took on internships that went from May-August. You're gonna need the drive if you want to break into finance FT.
If you really want to do banking as a career then you might as well get your loved ones used to disappointment early on.
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