Reflection on Summer Internship

I had someone on here who was about to start an off-cycle message me for tips/advice of what its like and upon reflection theres very little stuff on here directly adressing these questions in london. So lets use this as a Q&A hub for ppl. 

Thought i would also share the advice i gave the person who messaged me. (he was asking, as a kid with a math/stats background with some coding experience, which desks to focus on) 
Anyone who disagrees/thinks i missed smth pls feel free to write it below, i'd be grateful for the input

My advice:
Technical stuff:

If you're a math guy (for context which i am not) then i recommend focusing on the exotics desks, especially the volatility and dividend futures/options desks, they are the most mathematically complex products and with your background in numbers you will grasp the fundamentals behind them quicker than kids like me that just do econ or similar shit. The guys who ran the vol desks at my place were half math/physics/comp sci ppl and half 'trade with your nose' type ppl who learnt by doing and half of them didnt even go to university, naturally i gravitated towards the latter half and they liked me more. But the other interns with your background obv went towards the first half and were received enthusiastically. All the technical stuff about vol, vol surfaces, gamma hedging etc will be great for you to apply the math background to. (If youre into that stuff read Nasim Taleb's books) These guys also love programming so that'll be sweet for you too, honestly i cant say what the kids who did know programming did because i have no clue what programming is, i couldn't code my way out of a paper bag. I also had a great time learning about total return futures, how they're priced etc because they're a product that only really took off following covid and not many people understand them. Additionally, really enjoyed the dividend futures stuff, div options were a bit tougher for me to get considering i dont have a math background but you'll be fine. For Vol stuff you should read the first half of the book Trading Volatility by Colin Bennett, one of the seniors here worked with him back in the day and says his book is gospel, its almost like required reading for the juniors here so if you could get a head start on that, that'll be such a win for you.

Some general advice:

Fundamentally you will enjoy and learn the most off the ppl who like you the most, those ppl will probs be people with similar background to you but not necessarily. I spent half my free time this summer watching UFC so i could try make conversation with the guy who runs the equity finance desk because i wanted to learn his product but he was a physics phd who thought i was retarded because i didnt do a traditional stem degree. Get the juniors to like you first and then the seniors will begin to notice then like you too. Go drinking with them as much as possible, making good conversation with them outside of the office is literally just as important, if not more, as getting the on the desk stuff correct. no matter how smart you are, if they dont like you, youre never getting a return. One of my fellow interns spent his whole summer trying to only a single guy to like him, literally watched 6 series of anime to make this guy like him and it didnt work because he got 1 drinks order wrong at the pub after close and he hated him forever after that. Now his mistake was obv getting the drinks order wrong (youll hear the phrase: if you cant get a drinks order right youll never get a trade right), but his other mistake was he dindt cut his losses and move onto a different guy when it was clear after the first week this first guy didnt like him. Also, youre gonna get hit with so mmuch info and you will not remmeber all of it, i wrote a short summary/reflection of my day every night when i got home - best advice i was ever given

Do the things that require zero talent:

1. Early is on time, on time is late

2. Be presentable clean well dressed etc

3. Ask questions all the time

4. Write shit down

5. Everything in life worth doing is worth overdoing, mediocrity is for cowards . (idk who said it first but everyone in my shop says it, theres a sign on the wall saying it)