From 0 Knowledge to Getting Absorbed Into my M&A Firm

Like a typical millennial, coming out of college I had perhaps a whole bunch of good junk I could throw into my resume, but no real life direction. It was literally a mosaic of random projects I've taken up, an internship in an advertising and PR company and one in the music industry. I had a top role in my org, which I thought counted for something, but I guess barely anything if you're trying to find some sort of cohesion into my skill set. I guess that's what happens when you enter college and basically tried everything.

Since I'd graduated #1 in my course, I thought I might as well try something pretty challenging like investment banking, with hardly any knowledge on the industry. I felt like I had to enter something competitive and prestigious-sounding just to maintain that good reputation I had going for me. At this point, I was feeling pretty empty. I'd imagine many fresh grads would feel this way, but I figured I had no time for self-pity and I should take an internship in IB to get my feet wet.

So here I was in my power suit about to interview for this top boutique M&A firm. They dissected my resume and probably saw the loopholes. I slipped up a few basic questions about the industry, naturally. In the end, however I was able to charm my way into getting the internship offer, luckily.

I worked my ass off the entire first month. Despite knowing nothing, I did my research, did all the robotic shit they would make interns do like type down FSes that were in PDF form or even worse, scanned copies. I would come home dead tired but stayed up after work to learn how to model and analyze FSes. I pulled out my marketing and advertising skills to whip up some kickass pitchbooks and made an effort to be generally liked with my peers.

One month later, our Associate Director takes me out to coffee, here I am panicking thinking that I screwed something up without knowing. To my relief, I was doing just fine, so much so that I got offered an analyst position a month after I got offered an internship. From zero-knowledge to analyst in one month? Not bad!

I've discovered my new love for the industry and that this is actually where I actually feel like I belong. I've been over a year in the firm and loving my job.

I'm not trying to narrate a happy-ending narrative here or anything cheesy like that. I guess the point I'm trying to drive is that sometimes you don't have it all figured out, you just have to make and take the chances you get and be passionate about what you're currently in, and you'll never know what one month can get you.