What would IB interns do virtually for a 10 week program??

I can't imagine interns being a part of a live deal and being of any help. And to add on to that, if the internship is virtual and 10 weeks at that, what type of works would interns be doing?

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Was a virtual intern last summer. Lots of firms didn't staff SAs on deals last time around, and probably won't this time around either if it's virtual again. Virtual interns are sorta useless, and as it was explained to me, "Clients wouldn't be super happy to know that random virtual interns who can't be monitored, have never worked for the firm before, and live with roommates/their families are receiving all of their MNPI." 

My summer was shortened, but we basically did training modules & had presentations from various people. It felt like being paid to go to school. It was valuable and they made it a lot of work so that it replicated the IB hours, but where it fell short was that when it came to the end of the summer, you had to sign for FT having never experienced "the real job." My guess is that this summer will be 10 weeks of mostly more of the above. 

 

Combination of both. Normally my firm has interns do a big culminating project, but last summer we were assigned teams and had pieces of a project that built on itself due every week (essentially, they tried to replicate the feel of a deal team...except that everyone on the team was either a SAn or SAssoc and had no idea what to do). My best advice would be to try and take a wholistic approach to performing well- turn in high-quality assignments, participate, be professional (camera on, look nice, try to seem engaged), network so that people can put a face to the name, and just have an outwardly positive attitude. My firm's return rate is historically very high and was even higher last year, I think because they felt like they just couldn't differentiate between people well. Friends of mine who went places where returns were rougher would tell you that for kids who didn't make the cut, it was often meaningless little things that did them in- not getting perfect grades on training assignments, not participating/speaking up in intern stuff, giving off the appearance that they didn't care a few times (not turning their camera on or not attending some "suggested but not required" sessions), not networking enough such that when it came down to it, people were like yeah idk that kid, etc. In many cases, firms even told people that those things wouldn't really matter or be evaluated- imo for these virtual internships, all of the pieces contribute to their overall perception of you. Good luck and keep your head up- these virtual, isolated internships are not a good proxy for the real thing, but it's something to do and nice to be paid to attend Zoom finance school instead of Zoom University lol 

 

Even within banks it varies a lot - I was in a team which staffed interns heavily so our easiest week was 65, and we did pull 90+ hour weeks occasionally when analysts when on holiday  (which was  week 1 - which is training). I know other teams worked 40 hours literally doing the training and time to work on their project, with limited team interaction. 

Pray you get a team that sits in the middle, some staffing, but enough time to also have downtime, understand what each deck is about, as well as work on your project. 

 

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