What I learned from being a Summer Analyst at an EB

Recently just ended my internship and got the return offer for a top group at a EB in NYC (EVR / MOE / LAZ / CVP / PJT). Here are a few lessons I walked away with:

- All your work as a SA is absolute bitchwork. Basically, all the things on your deal team/group that nobody wants to do (because of how tedious/repetitive they are) are gonna fall on your hands. It's incredibly frustrating, especially because these tasks are extremely boring and often have no learning value. It might just be realigning some logos, updating bios and quals, digging up random research that's probably not even gonna come up in a discussion etc. But the goal is that you just need to accept it and do it with a smile. Had multiple instances over the summer where an analyst would give me a task from one of his deals that I wasn't even staffed on and then he ended up taking all the credit for the work. Pissed me off every time but I kind of just took it as part of the job. 

- The hours aren't bad, the unpredictability is. Yes, 70-80 hour weeks suck, but given the fact that most people on this job come from prestigious schools and have hardworking backgrounds, it's not the craziest thing in the world. But what really sucked was the unpredictability. Impossible to make plans with family/friends/significant other due to the fact that you can be called in at any time. Also, seniors in my group had little respect for personal time. Even though I was at an important family wedding on a Saturday night and I communicated this a lot earlier, I got called in and had to work in the middle of the wedding for something that wasn't even that pressing or HAD to be done by the next couple of days. 

- Cultural fit matters more than technical capabilities. When I came into the job, my technical capabilities were absolutely shit. Made a ton of lack of attention to detail errors on pitch decks, models were not always properly formatted, but I seemed to get along with my immediate seniors (analyst/associate). That ended up mattering a lot more as they vouched for me. I obviously had to learn from my mistakes and not make them over and over again but those friendships with your immediate seniors really help in the long run. This is harder said than done, especially remotely, but take time off your day to schedule some chats with people on your deal team. 

- The best part of the job is learning business strategy. At least in my opinion. Yes you build technical skills, but honestly, after enough training, anybody can build out models or make pitchdecks. + Half the time these models are complete bs with assumptions not even based in reality. But the most fun part and best learning opportunity is strategizing with the clients. I sat in on calls where my MDs walked clients through complex business decisions, and just hearing about it from someone who is experienced and seen these deals time and time again is very interesting. I was luckily in that I got to sit in on a bunch of live deals rather than just pitches, which made my SA experience a lot more interesting. 

- Don't take it too seriously. Trust me - the MDs and even VPs will barely know you exist, especially when you're doing the internship too remotely. If you fuck up, don't take it too seriously. Just remember it's a job and try to learn from it. Also important that you don't build a massive ego just because you are an investment banker. Again, it's just a job. 

- Prestige doesn't matter. Everyone has a big hard-on for prestige when it comes to college or bank or group within the bank. Once you enter the industry, none of it matters. Everyone is trying to get by their day without losing their shit, and as long as you are a nice person and adding to the deal team in some way, you're gonna be set just fine for the return offer.