A Letter To Long-Term Interns
Dear Overqualified European Graduate,
You have worked very hard at uni, built a stacked resume with the right experiences, and generally know your shit. The market's been rough, so you've done more internships than you wanted and probably a masters degree to go with it, but hey - that's the name of the game in UK/EU.
You have finally had the courage said no to the 4rd consecutive off-cycle internship, this time at CD&R/Cinven/BX/Ardian/GSAM, which would've given you that incremental prestige you so desire and a 3.5% chance of conversion. No, instead you have made peace with a full-time job at a bank, or in a non-ideal fund.
But you're happy - your career has finally "started", even though you can barely remember the time you actually graduated from uni, and are closer to your mid 20s than you thought A1s are allowed to be.
If any of this resonates with you, please read on.
The recruitment market in Europe is absolutely fucked, with overqualified graduates gathering internships (sometimes for 2 years!) like infinity stones before actually starting their careers. While doing multiple off-cycles has it's benefits, it also takes a significant mental toll, and there's not a lot of guidance out there on how to actually settle into a real job after having done 1-2 years of interning. So here's some advice:
1. Take Vacation - People telling you to do so aren't just being nice, you actually NEED to take proper vacation if you're done multiple off-cycles and have been job-hunting continuously while doing these gigs. Defer as much as possible and go as far away as possible. Find your sanity - you'll need it.
2. Consolidate your Pensions - Chances are that every place you interned at started a pension pot for you. Make sure to move all of them to one single provider (ideally the same as your new employer) once you start your full-time job. There's £31bn of unclaimed pension amounts in the UK because people forget to do this.
3. Accept that you are Starting Fresh - Drop any arrogance you might have developed from having done 1-2 years of internships. Nobody cares and nobody will give you credit for it. The sooner you accept this, the better. Eat the humble pie and use this opportunity to learn everything from scratch - it will help solidify your foundational skills. Your experience will come in hand in many instances on the job, but don't act like you deserve a fast track or any work is beneath you because you did a fancy buyside internship.
4. Settle Down for a bit - Chances are you have spent the last several years constantly job-hunting. Even on this new job, your intention might be to immediately start thinking about the next move given your cute CV/experiences. Please - get over this mindset ASAP. This is your chance to just breathe, and do your time at one place properly. Plan to spend 2 years in this job, and at least take 1 solid year completely away from the recruitment market (to some extent this also means stop constantly networking) and put your 100% into your role. You have to bring a different mentality to a FT job, not just for your employer's benefit but also yours.
5. Find your special sauce - The good thing about your past experiences you have perspective - you know how different firms work, what you like and don't like, and have had the chance to work with various kinds of people properly unlike a summer intern. Use this - figure out directionally what skills you want in your career, which ones you lack today, and how you can work on developing them. A very high-level example is focusing on building an investor mindset while working on all your buy-side pitches, given your experience sitting in ICs during your last PE internship, if you want to get into PE again.
6. Priorities and Personal Growth - While your job probably won't leave you a lot of free time, it still has an element of stability which you haven't had for a while. This means it's your opportunity to start giving more time and attention to important aspects of your life you've been neglecting over the last few years. Make health a priority, build a routine that will last, find hobbies you can commit to, reach out to old friends, and make new ones (especially those close to your office!). Time to adult.
7. Give back - Not everyone understands how stressful it really can be doing long-term internships, unless they've done it themselves. Having to perform at an analyst/associate standard in lean teams (given they actually expect you to contribute as you're there for a while), without much training (its funny how summer interns get more training and support than off-cycles at most places), and constantly job-hunting is not easy. So make sure if someone in the same boat reaches out to you, you treat them with the same kindness you hope you received during your time.
All that said, well done to all the young grads who've been absolutely grinding over the last few years and not giving up. None of this will be in vain, and there's a lot of people rooting for you.
Congrats - now get to work.
-A
This letter offers a comprehensive and insightful guide for long-term interns transitioning into full-time roles, especially in the challenging European recruitment market. Here's a concise breakdown of the key advice:
Take Vacation: After years of interning and job-hunting, prioritize a proper break to recharge mentally and physically.
Consolidate Pensions: Avoid losing track of multiple pension pots from internships by merging them into one provider, ideally your new employer's.
Start Fresh: Let go of any entitlement from past internships. Approach your full-time role with humility and a willingness to learn.
Commit to Stability: Resist the urge to immediately job-hunt again. Dedicate at least a year to fully focus on your current role and grow within it.
Leverage Past Experiences: Use your diverse internship background to identify skills you want to develop and align them with your career goals.
Prioritize Personal Growth: Use the stability of a full-time job to focus on health, routines, hobbies, and relationships.
Give Back: Support others navigating the demanding path of long-term internships, offering guidance and kindness.
This advice is a thoughtful roadmap for those who've endured the grind of multiple internships, helping them transition successfully into the next phase of their careers.
Sources: How to deal with a recession career-wise? A few lessons learned during the previous GFC, Advice for summer and return offer rate?, Q&A: Broke into MM M&A from a non-traditional background and 2 years of networking and internships, Should I Slow Down?, World doesn’t owe you a job
Yeah... there are 27 year old A1s at my BB
well, they're still doing better than 90+% of 27yos
It’s a tough market in Europe, and the structure doesn’t make it any easier. I’ve had a couple of European guys network with me while trying to break into the U.S. job market, and they faced similar challenges here. Every few months, we’d reconnect, and they’d have a new internship—just grinding through it.
Seeing how common this is, I appreciate the value of Big 4 training in Europe even more now. At least with a chartered accountant qualification, you have some stability before joining an IB at A1 at 27. People criticize that path way too much, but it sets a solid foundation.
Out of interest how well do these off cycles pay? Does doing e.g. 4 x 6 months pay more than eg 3 years of big 4 to get ACA? Is the experience better eventually than normal summer internships? Would they eventually be the step between the summer and A1? Or weird situation where the summer converts but they don't?
But yeah, these guys love to keep all these internships many years after FT job and still have ex-BX etc in their linkedin profile hah.
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