I'm currently a rising sophomore at a top public, and through family connections have managed to land an internship at a small boutique Chinese bank. My main problems:
a. I don't speak fluent Chinese. It's enough to get by, but this is a massive hinderance to my work ability. b. My deal is tiny(IPO of a $20M industrial). Not sure if this is an issue or not I suppose, but it always sounds better if your deal is bigger right? c. Chinese investment banking, at least at the lower end, is very much paperwork focused and lawyer-like; we have to draft up the prospectus and that's pretty much it. The focus is on satisfying the SEC equivalent here since the government is much stronger. We also do due diligence, and I'm currently at the hotel after a site visit, but that's about it. No modeling, no word, no powerpoint. Due diligence is also just making sure nobody in management is lying, not researching the market state or something.
How do I make the best of this resume wise and work experience-wise?
It really depends on where you want to land next, a Chinese bank or an international one? To address each of your problems:
a. I see this as a huge plus! It's a great opportunity to strengthen your language. The top Chinese college students have working fluency in both Chinese and English, you should be better than them if you want to cover Chinese market in your career.
b. A deal of that size is probabaly not an A-share deal I guess, but size doesn't really matter to sophomores. The exposure to the whole process is what really matters to your future potential employers. If you took on great responsobilities in the small deal, I say it's much better than just doing ppt stuff in a big deal.
c. That really is the reality in China, you just have to accpet that. Investment banking is a labor-oriented rather than brainn-oriented job in China. Modeling has never been a crucial part of this job because it is impossible to value a Chinese firm properly, 99 out of 100 Chinese firms lie about their financial data. Try to explore some other qualities from the internship that can add on to your portfolio, e.g. negotiation.
Don't worry about the brand, none of the Chinese banks have any real reputation overseas, not even the biggest ones such as CITIC or CICC. Just learn as much as possible. I think the opportunity is good enough for a sophomore, you will have somehting great in the next summer.
Think of it this way: You're going to get a lot of great experience on how to spin your previous job responsibilities in an interview setting. Here's just a small sampling of how I imagine this could go:
Interviewer: "So walk me through the responsibilities of your last internship?"
You: I'd love to. As you can see on my resume, I was part of the deal team at a top-tier boutique Chinese bank that is a leader in the industrials space, which you probably know is an exploding market in China. Most of my responsibilities were centered around facilitating the IPO's of leading Chinese industrial companies in the U.S. market. To succeed in this challenging role, I leveraged my mastery of Chinese language to engage with C-suite company management for due diligence processes our team needed to accomplish. Many of the deals that I worked on were quite sizeable: (i.e. $140mm was our lowest [yes it's in yuan but if you don't identify the currency then it's a-ok]), and Chinese companies often times don't have the most kosher of financials, so this became a crucial process in our ability to be confident of the company's success in the demanding US marketplace. Other examples of deals that I helped close include: (list every company that did a deal with your bank in the time you were there -- reading an internal memo on the deal is classified as "work").
Interviewer: "Wow that's great! It sounds like your experience is more in-line with an open Managing Director role we have available. Would you be interested in that as well?"
You: "I agree. I feel my unique skills are well-aligned with leading your industrials team here at [insert BB here]."
Bump
Hey lakebeachadvisors, I personally think that you should try to sell yourself greatly at your future interviewers by talking about the importance of your deals.
Ducimus itaque voluptas tempora quo porro sint perspiciatis. Excepturi iusto consequuntur voluptate sit deleniti.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...