Should I quit my internship? Please help.
I received an internship offer a few months ago from a small IB shop close to home. I was looking forward to gaining any experience. Oh, I'm also an incoming sophomore.
Fast forward to May, I am now being transferred to a "different" role due to deal flow being stagnant (Covid).
I took this internship over 2 others, with one being a BB PWM and the other a F500 company. Turns out, the role is just busy work, and im now technically in the marketing/sales department. Except its not even that. I literally go through email lists all day. It is absolutely mind numbing and has nothing to do with any finance at all. Even fixing PowerPoints would be a blessing. For instance, if one signs up for a subscription to the website, i am responsible for adding the email one used to a database to keep track of who signs up. (meaning if jack from GS signed up, id put him in the GS group). That is it. 8 hours a day, all day, no other work.
Should I quit? I spoke to some bankers and they told me there is a ton of work to do, they dont know why they moved me, and they would completely understand if I said fuck this and just left. I am just completing my freshman year, and would love nothing more than to hang out with old friends and follow the market freely. (And wake up later than 6:30) Again, working at a supermarket as a cashier would give more financial experience. I am quite literally doing nothing worth my time and have gotten the impression that this is what I'll be doing until I leave in late August.
Also, my current boss refuses to let me work on anything else, insisting that I continue with this till its complete. (it will never be complete, as its hundreds of thousands of emails I have to go through one by one. He wont even allow it to be automated, claiming that it would be too much of a hassle. (I cant do that, id need to go through the backend, I already asked)
Any suggestions on what to do?
Are you unpaid?
Ask the bankers for side projects after your 8 hours of the BS work is done.
Yes, completely unpaid.
I was placed outside of the "chinese wall", so I dont have any real access to the bankers other than when they go to the lounge. I was able to speak to some when we were finishing with work on Friday
this job sounds like ass, you took a summer volunteer opportunity over BB PWM
Sounds horrible - maybe just stick it out for 2 more weeks and then you can reasonably put June - July on your resume
Doesn't sound like you are picking up any valuable skills and aren't even getting paid
Its quite sad. I turned down very good offers for this in hopes of IB experience. I'm at a non target, have a 4.0 and was really optimistic for recruiting next spring, expecially with IB experience as a freshman.
Thanks for your feedback. Do you think it'll negatively effect me come recruiting time next year?
I can spin the first month of work.
I didnt do shit freshman summer and still got EB
Since you got access to the bankers, why don't you ask them directly for work? I am sure your current boss won't realize when you do 500 less emails a day
get tight with a banker, tell them how disappointed you are about what happened, and offer to work for free. analysts would love an Intern to throw work at. you are going to need one of them to stick their neck out for you so an MD can poach you from your current boss, and in a way that doesn’t seem like you went behind your boss’s head
I’d be careful quitting, never know how your relationship with this employer could impact you in the future. I also wouldn’t view it as an absolute waste of time as you’ll at least have something on your resume.
Certainly sounds like you got shafted but hey that’s life. Overall I can’t imagine a lot of people your year are doing anything this summer especially with covid.
Best of luck with it and your decision
Yes dude quit
You're unpaid and doing a job that weirdly isn't already automated. The internship or experience you have doesn't matter between Freshmen and Sophomore year as long as you can spin what you did into a reasonable story.
Hell, it might even look good if you pick up another job, unpaid or not, that is something you actually might find rewarding, and then when it comes time to interview for next summer or even for IB you can point to how you didn't feel challenged enough and all those cliche behavioral statements (if you even get asked about it)
I would try to convince them to let you move into banking. If the bankers say there is work to do, see if you can convince one of them to tell your boss to move you over there. You should also have a frank sitdown conversation with your boss- explain that you took this unpaid internship because you thought it would give you banking exposure, but you feel like you aren't getting the experience you signed up for. You can even mention quitting if want the nuclear option (though I wouldn't actually quit because something is better than nothing on an internship), but basically just reason with them that you are doing unpaid labor they might as well let you work on what you want. Also, if you have a formal offer letter or anything that mentions banking specifically, you could threaten that they breached their contract and that will likely scare them into moving you over to banking.
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