Twiddling my intern thumbs all day doing jack shit - help a man out

Hey guys, third day at this "unpaid academic internship program" at an international corp, working in the Accounting/Finance team (pretty small 10 person team). I've had jack shit to do for the past two days besides sit in on a few meetings and have just been doing stock research for myself pretty much the whole day. Apparently later on they'll make me work on some basic accounting stuff. 

I want to propose a larger and more interesting project for me to do just to fill up my time and so I'll have something interesting to put on the CV and talk about. (I did something like this for a past internship where I also didn't have much work)

Any ideas for what kind of project this could look like? I thought about maybe building a pitch for a small acquisition or something but that might be too ambitious? 

Btw I'm rising freshman at a target if that's of any relevance?

5 Comments
 

Based on the forum section you chose, don't waste your time with stock pitches if you think you want to apply for IB later.
Look at corporate development or financial leadership and development job listings at similar companies/industries and create your own assignment based on listed requirements since selling an idea to your accounting/finance management will be easier. If you really want to be ambitious figure out a way to get management support to create a project that lets you visit other departments and interact across the business.

 

Voluptate quasi rerum et qui. Aut suscipit soluta quo consectetur nobis accusantium molestias dolores.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (67) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”