Freshman Wealth Management Internship - Advice?

Hi! I'm starting a wealth management internship soon, and I'll be a sophomore in the fall at a target school. Any advice/things I should do to prepare for this internship?

Thank you!

 

I started a PWM internship last Monday. Even though I'm still in high school, I'd advise you to get very familiar with Microsot Excel, if you're not already. Also, if your internship is anything like mine, be prepared to google your ass off trying to find out how to do things you've never heard of. Expect very little guidance.

 
Best Response
Patrick Mastur:

I started a PWM internship last Monday. Even though I'm still in high school, I'd advise you to get very familiar with Microsot Excel, if you're not already. Also, if your internship is anything like mine, be prepared to google your ass off trying to find out how to do things you've never heard of. Expect very little guidance.

Hey there champ, take a big step back and simmer the fuck down. The goal here isn't to vent your own frustration and bitterness and scare off the OP.

OP, most PMW internships consist of cold calling, or doing other grunt work that your FA doesn't want to do. Don't pay attention to Patrick Mustur, what he doesn't realize is that he has one of the bestPWM internships I've ever heard of, and if you're lucky your internship might be half as outstanding as his is. The fact is that PWM internships aren't really supposed to be anything grand or spectacular, and most people take them their freshman/sophomore summer if there aren't any other options available, because quite honestly the work you'll be doing is pretty monotonous.

That's sort of a generalist view of these internships, though. Since most PWM internships are more or less unstructured what you'll be doing is up to your FA. If you're lucky your FA will give you bundles of work that will challenge you and better prepare you for BB SA recruiting your sophomore/junior summer just like in Patrick Mustur's case, or it could just be filled with cold calling, filing and other boring stuff. But any internship is what you make of it, so just go into it with an open mind and make the best of it.

 
StryfeDSP:
Patrick Mastur:

I started a PWM internship last Monday. Even though I'm still in high school, I'd advise you to get very familiar with Microsot Excel, if you're not already. Also, if your internship is anything like mine, be prepared to google your ass off trying to find out how to do things you've never heard of. Expect very little guidance.

Hey there champ, take a big step back and simmer the fuck down. The goal here isn't to vent your own frustration and bitterness and scare off the OP.

OP, most PMW internships consist of cold calling, or doing other grunt work that your FA doesn't want to do. Don't pay attention to Patrick Mustur, what he doesn't realize is that he has one of the bestPWM internships I've ever heard of, and if you're lucky your internship might be half as outstanding as his is. The fact is that PWM internships aren't really supposed to be anything grand or spectacular, and most people take them their freshman/sophomore summer if there aren't any other options available, because quite honestly the work you'll be doing is pretty monotonous.

That's sort of a generalist view of these internships, though. Since most PWM internships are more or less unstructured what you'll be doing is up to your FA. If you're lucky your FA will give you bundles of work that will challenge you and better prepare you for BB SA recruiting your sophomore/junior summer just like in Patrick Mustur's case, or it could just be filled with cold calling, filing and other boring stuff. But any internship is what you make of it, so just go into it with an open mind and make the best of it.

Nobody's bitter. I'm actually learning a lot. Hard to pick up tone from text. Maybe you're the one that needs to calm down?

 

You've offered very limited information about the nature of the internship so it's hard to give you really specialized advice, but the most important cliche for you to remember at your level is "it's better to be silent and have people suspect you're an idiot than to open your mouth an prove them right."

Believe me, however smart your professors and mommy and daddy tell you you are, you're not going to reinvent the industry. Asking intelligent questions is fine, but you should be sure you display some basic understanding of the industry when you do it.

Attach yourself to people that are willing to teach you, and count to ten before you open your mouth.

 

I would try to get as much related work as possible. There will be FAs trying to give you bitch work and some that are more willing to help try to gravitate towards them.

My PWM internship was horrible. They didn't even need me there. 90% of the time they just shoved me in an office with a list of 1000s of "potential clients" and had me go down the list and call. When people ask me what I did there in interviews I don't have much to say so I just give sweeping generalizations about montoring portfolios,etc.

 

Well I went in for an orientation the other day and it seems pretty good. The work seems like it could get tedious, as everyone on WSO says, but it is actual needed work and will allow me to learn a lot about different fields. My FA had helped me out with some advice earlier as well (no connection, not alumni, etc . . .) and brought me into a significant meeting today, so looking good.

I think I'm very good about doing work well and at a good speed, not making mistakes and asking questions/clarifying when I need to. I just need to work on being more extroverted and need to learn more about finance so that I'm less lost when the FA is explaining things or in meetings, and so that I can ask more intelligent questions.

 

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