Virtual SA - how to fill in the downtime?
I started my SA at an MM last week in the M&A group, and it is an understatement to say things have been slow, especially for me as an intern. I fully realize that deal flow is almost non-existent at most banks, but I genuinely feel like I'm doing nothing. My deal team also realizes this, even the analysts are really slow right now. When I got the offer last year, I was so excited and couldn't wait to contribute, even if it was just putting together some PowerPoint slides or spreading comps in excel for 80 hours a week; at least then I would still be able to help out. But I'm not even doing that right now. The deals I'm staffed on are moving nowhere. One is almost closed, so there's not much for me to do there. The other is still in the marketing stage, but management is dragging out the process due to COVID. I reach out to the analysts in my deal team throughout the day asking for work, but there isn't any, and I don't want to be annoying and keep pushing. They know I want to work and they want me to work, but so far there hasn't been anything they can assign me. Any work that arises on the deals is handled by the analysts and associated since they can deal with it much more efficiently given that this is my first IB internship.
We've been told a lot of our performance review is going to be based on our communication skills and personality, as well as a simulation project we're being assigned. I'm not worried about these aspects, I feel like I've already made a good impression on my deal team and will be reaching out to other analysts and associates soon. But I am worried that if I don't get any work soon, the banks won't be able to make a fair decision on whether I should be given a FT offer or not, or if I even want to return to banking FT. I realize that if there is no work to assign, there is no work to assign. But what should I be doing in my downtime to prove myself, while also getting a better feel for IB? I already plan on expanding my networking efforts beyond my deal team and have been working on my modeling skills quite a bit. I've started reviewing our CIMs to get more familiar with PP and the bank's preferred structure. But is there anything else? Apart from the networking, the other things aren't visible to the group, and the networking itself is just a demonstration of my interest, not my capabilities. I didn't mean for this to turn into a rant or a vent session, but I worked so hard for this opportunity, I want to make sure I'm doing whatever I can to succeed and earn a FT offer. Thanks for the help.
Man you are preaching to the choir. To be honest, even if we weren't dealing with COVID right now, there would still be times of low deal flow (just not as bad). You seem to be doing everything right so keep practicing modelling and looking over PPTs and you should be good. You have to consider that 2020 is going to be considered as just a bad year, and the hiring team will take this into account. This doesn't mean you should let you guard down or slack off, but don't be so hard on herself. Best advice would be to focus on nailing this simulation project. Best of luck.
Thank you for the advice, I admit I am being hard on myself. I’ll definitely keep doing what I’m doing and be as ready as possible if things pick up.
Ask the staffer for more work!
warzone
if you don’t mind, what is an average day in the life since you started your internship?
It's only been a week, so I definitely haven't settled into a routine yet. I log in at 8:45am to check my email and stay logged on until 7:00-9:00pm depending on if I think work might be assigned. Most days I've only had 1 or 2 small tasks assigned to me that I'm able to get through quickly. Other than that, I usually have 2-3 meetings a day regarding software overview sessions that all interns watch, some group specific meetings, or networking. Most of my day has been downtime, which I have used to get more familiar with the model and marketing material of the deals I'm on, as well as brushing up on my modeling skills; but there's still a lot of time where I feel like I'm being completely unproductive. I don't know if interns at other banks are having the same problems or not, but that's been my experience so far. My group typically has strong deal flow, so I'm hoping things pick up soon. If all else fails, I'll have my simulation project to keep me busy.
Every single word of your post has been my experience too (BB SA LDN). Somewhat heartening that there are others in my position. Doing all the things you're doing and just hoping that my eagerness to work, attitude and proactivity will be enough to make a good impression. Praying to get a chance to produce a piece of tangible work, even if it's just updating profiles (which I'm contemplating doing anyway, if even to sharpen my PPT and market data skills). Hope work has picked up a little on your end, mate!
I don't think the following suggestions are necessary to get a return per se but should be interesting and productive for you and display you're critcally thinking about what's going on:
Do you have access to models/previous proposals from the things you're staffed on? Start going through what's previously happened wrt a deal - for the closing one, look at the evolution of what your bank initially proposed to the client to how the deal actually ended up being structured. What are the changes? Why do you think those changes happened? Can you tell if there were any roadblocks in the process?
Do something similar for the models you have access to - there's probably lots of previous versions saved. What additional analyses did the team run? Why were these particularly important to the client?
Let your analyst know you're doing this and ask to set up a short window to discuss your questions a few days/a week out.
Thank you for the advice. I do have access to the models and marketing material, and have been reviewing them; although, I haven't thought to look at how they've evolved from the first draft to the finished product. I think it would definitely be more helpful than not to discuss these things with my analysts, as well as helping me better understand the deals I'm on and our clients though process. Thanks again!
How many hours do you work vs how many hours do you stay actively waiting for more work? Im starting my internship soon as well and still not sure what to expect.
Depends on what you consider waiting for work. So far, a typical day for me has been logging in at 8:45am (earlier than the analysts and associates) and logging out at 7:00pm or 9:00pm. During that time, I'm probably doing actual work for like an hour. However, I try and fill in the downtime with other productive tasks (i.e. modeling courses, reviewing old deal material, networking) and often have company sponsored meetings and group specific meetings to attend. With that said, I'm probably on my phone or browsing my computer for like 3-4 hours throughout the day before I feel comfortable calling it a night. Although I'm sure I could log off earlier and no one would care since my group is really chill, I like to stay on just in case. Keep in mind that I am in an M&A group, and M&A markets are frozen right now. If you are in a coverage group or another product group, your experience will probably be a lot different than mine. I hope this helps.
Hey, thanks for the response. Thats really interesting because I don't have many reference points, but a buddy of mine says hes working pretty long days of actual deal work at another MM. I'll be a generalist M&A intern so your experience is prob more relevant.
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