Quitting after one day of interning

What a waste

Neglecting many other reasons, this could impact many others than you. If you quit, others from your school may have a tough time recruiting for the role in the future. Banks have blacklisted some schools for much less. Take it week by week and before you know it, it might grow on you or it will be ever before you know.

How do you know you won’t lose your shit on the first day of your PM internship when they hand you a bunch of assignments

Hey, I get what you're going through, about to start myself and it looks daunting. I do like IB for the work, so it is a bit different, but I would still say tough it out for a summer. It's only 10 weeks maximum, and no one really expects you to accomplish a lot as an intern. Most of your work will be relatively menial, I know it looks like most of mine will be. I would say give it your best shot. If you are really having trouble with the workload, tell your staffer. You don't care about looking bad as you already have another offer locked in, so you have more leeway than any other intern to push back a bit (obviously don't overdo it). Worst case scenario is you complete the internship, they think you're a bit lazy and you don't get a return offer which you don't care about anyways. In this scenario you have a good experience for your resume that is interesting and differentiated - this can only be a good thing.

Just my two cents as a fellow intern, but whatever you decide good luck!

If work was easy you wouldn’t get paid for it. Quitting after 1 day because you were given work is a bad look in general, and only bodes poorly for when you enter the real workforce. Take this as a relatively consequence free opportunity to learn how to deal with stressful situations. 

Woof, this is tough.  Look, ultimately, you should do whatever you want, you should prioritize yourself always, and if you're set on quitting after a singular day, then whatever just do it.

However, I couldn't possibly imagine a scenario where the day 1 assignments were so exorbitant that you just then realized IB wasn't for you.  What was the final straw? Setting up your outlook signature??

It's great that you have other opportunities but I'd be careful about the internal precedent you're setting for yourself.  Do you want to be a "quit after day 1" guy?  Do you want to be someone that runs at the first sign of adversity?  Have you ever in your life experienced the sense of accomplishment and pride that comes from gutting out difficult shit?

I'm sure you'll figure out what works for you but a brief glance at your post history implies that you put in a considerable amount of time preparing and ultimately securing this internship.  To throw that away because you can't get through 8 weeks would be a disservice to yourself and your development as a professional and as an adult.

Good luck.

This can't be real lmao. If it is, and you think you can't handle an 8 week commitment, then go the PM route because hard work ain't for you. I'm not going to sugarcoat it like everyone else did: if I were in your shoes I'd take a good, long look at myself and figure out at what point I became a pussy who quits when stressed. Toughen up buttercup because the real world won't be so nice.

Now praise me with monkey shit you apes

Before I comment anything else, can you explain what they gave you to do? I just want to make sure that you aren’t in some weird boutique sweatshop where you were asked to model day 1 of an internship

In addition to the other comments, I’ve particularly liked the phrase, “Quit because it sucks, not because it’s hard.”

Sucks is when something derails you from your goals (as a holistic concept of life goals). Hard feels sucky, but drives you towards your goals.

A simple example is working out. Running is hard and feels sucky. If you run every week, it’ll feel less sucky and you can increase the distance. If you injure yourself while running, that sucks and continuing to run hurts you worse. Then you should stop.

An 8 week internship might even suck, but given the finite nature I’d say you most likely should just stay unless there’s some severe damage it’ll cause you. You know your life better than I can.

Pm Role?  Portfolio Management?  or Product mgmt?

Either way, as someone in IB, I say quit (srs)

honestly this job is overrated, full of toxic people, and has unreasonable expectations (that far exceed any other industry outside Big Law).  Most high earners in corporate america or in tech if they did 1 day of hard IB work would also want to quit too.  It's not unreasonable to feel this way OP.

I worked from home during Covid at my parents house, and my Dad (who has worked in corporate america for 40 years at many levels of seniority) was so shocked at my working expectations he TOLD ME TO QUIT after seeing my do like 2 weeks of 3-4am nights back to back to back to back during a deal sprint.... I was like "Dad I can't quit, I joined this group a few months ago, this is my job etc..."

"I have never in my 40 years of working ever had to work this late consistently, nor have I ever had anyone below do this. Even your uncle in the Vietnam war probably got more R&R"

I never quit because I have no spine.

Do it OP, you have something thats probably better.

The cream always rises to the top and you’re not the cream buddy.

Stop feeding the troll. This kid’s username is literally MDofCap - “cap” being Gen Z speak for lies.

Although, just in case you’re not “capping”, you are a fucking pussy. The rest of you guys need to quit coddling this little shit and misleading him/her into thinking this kind of thing is acceptable for anything in life.

MDofCap

Always dreamed about working in IB but after working on the first day and being handed a lot of assignments, I realize this isn't for me. I know people say it's cause no one knows on the first day, but I just dread it. I have an incoming offer for a PM role and was thinking about just leaving all of my items I had on the first day and then sending my manager a text saying "I feel embarrassed but IB isn't right for me and I was in it for the money which is a terrible mindset" can someone give me a way to

this is obviously a troll

Whoa dude....

beta 

This kid lying. Internships dont start till next month

lol wut

This is tough, but I have seen this done before. Ages ago in my intern class, there was an intern who at the end of the first week of training, talked to the VP / staffer and said this wasn't for him. Proceeded to say his goodbyes to the rest of the intern class and never came back. Definitely wouldn't say it was the best look, but candidly, I respected him for knowing it wasn't for him and wanting to do something else / not waste anyone's time – didn't know him personally but don't think it was held against him in the future. 

The main takeaway is if you're certain this job isn't for you, be tactful about how you make your exit. 

Stick through it for 8 weeks because an IB internship on your resume speaks volumes. If you quit you have nothing to show for and the hard work of getting it goes down the drain. People would kill to have that internship.

Troll

If indeed this is not a troll, then the only thing I'd add is that, if you do stick it out (and for what it's worth, I think you should), it might also be the decent thing to do to socialise with HR that you won't take the offer towards the end of the internship, just so that they have that in mind when they are deciding which other interns to make offers to.

Don’t do it. Stay the course. The future will be brighter for you if you have completed this experience

I guess I will be the lone one with this opinion, but good quit.  You don't deserve the role.  Let someone who is hungry and want the opportunity to get it.  I am not going to spew back in the day nonsense, but bro 1 day.  I would say harden up, but I think that is innate and can not be taught.  I think you have an unrealistic view of what the real world will be like.  I hope some PSD person gets that role.  If you dont know what P.S.D is google Ace Greenberg or better yet I will tell you.  Poor, Smart, Deep desire to be rich.  I doubt they will complain about work load, just happy to have the opportunity.  I do really wish you luck in your future and find what you are looking for.  An honest weeks pay for an honest days work.

Quit if you want to, you are obviously blacklisted then for everyone hearing/knowing about it (which luckily for you won't be much outside of the particular bank as you are an intern).

But I honestly think someone throwing in the towel after the first day at something new, has a deeper rooted problem than "IB isn't for me". Like heck, what makes you think PM is for you? What makes you think anything that requires some effort is for you? Wouldn't hire you in any case after that if I knew...

This may cause some controversy based on everyone else' response but I did my SA stint in MF PE and while the gig was awesome and the work was great (being paid to analyse companies). But my team were all cunts from JPM/GS (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless they are in the toxic teams). So they made my time there a living hell including blaming me for their errors to seniors, forcing me to come in everyday despite them WFH, checking up on me at midnight via email to see if I was still active, screaming at me for any small errors etc. 

No way to treat an intern - if you're simply afraid of the workload, that's fine too but you need to play your cards to get the best possible EV (stick it out). However if it making you feel like shit every single day, life is too short for that bullshit and I promise in your future interviews, they will fully understand why you left. 

Get real, that’s a great opportunity. Put your head down for one summer, leave with a gold nugget on your resume, and figure out what you want to do next. Leaving after the first day is horrible, because you took some other kids spot who would have appreciated the opportunity more than you.

Go be a PM, I understand other’s advice to stick it out etc, but if this is how you dealing with being an intern IB is probably not for you.

align your trolling to when internships actually start

went through all the effort of recruiting and now don’t think it’s for u? depending on where u go to school you’re shooting ur peers in the foot.