Virtual s&t SA experience?
I'm an incoming SA in S&T at a BB. My entire program will be virtual, so I was wondering if any 2020 S&T interns could share more about their experience. Would love to know what kinds of projects you did, what hours were like, and the general structure of the program. Any tips are appreciated.
I interned virtually for summer 2020 in S&T doing tech. Wasn’t on traditional S&T projects or on traditional technology projects, but I reported directly to a trader and other SA’s in my group were regular S&T interns.
The S&T interns were expected to make a few progress presentations throughout the summer over Zoom, so keep track of all your work. While tech work was more quantifiable in terms of “the code works” or “the code does not work,” the S&T FT offers seemed more dependent on culture/personality fit + track record of completing tasks.
I also vividly remember a few Analysts joking about the SA’s making presentations “wearing full suits” and how that was just an unexpected and somewhat uncomfortable experience. As a general tip, dress up for your presentations, but remember the virtual format is more relaxed dress code and that you’ll just seem weird for “doing too much.”
Honestly don’t know the specifics of the S&T intent projects, but don’t expect them to be too dissimilar from whatever the normal expectations are when in office (besides presentation dress code).
Thanks this is super helpful! Do you mind sharing what the hours were like?
Happy to help! S&T hours seemed to start and end earlier than other roles because of the trading day. My boss (a pure trader) usually signed on around 8:30-9am before the market opened, and he was always offline by 5-6pm. Rarely, if ever, saw him online late to check emails.
The quant and dev analysts (myself included) were closer to 8-8:30am sign-on. My project work typically kept me glued to the desk until 6pm, at which point I could work at a more relaxed pace until 7-8pm. Before bed I usually responded to emails (around 11pm).
I think the traditional S&T interns had similar hours / expectations, but never asked them directly. While IB interns are 9-10am through 9-10pm (or later), S&T was more like 8-9am through 7-8pm.
I will add that my schedule eventually devolved into 9am straight through 12-2am because I fell behind on project deadlines, but the hours were 100% self imposed. Doing good work in the first half of your internship goes a long way to solidify your FT offer, so a wild goose chase like my experience turned into isn’t super necessary (hindsight 20/20).
Nobody expects interns to live like maniacs, and some people might even see an intern working extremely late as a sign of incompetence. The only reason I needed all those late hours was that I was admittedly not competent enough to complete my work by 7-8pm.
Its different, i did mine on a trading desk at a European Bank. Definitely harder to understand and reach out to people on your desk. Very hard also to meet with the other interns. But we had a small whatsapp group and would text/call each other every other day to catch up and help each other.
To meet everyone on the floor, I simply sent a BBG chat to every trader asking if i could do anything for them and/or if they had time to hop on a zoom to speak about x.
The one thing that isnt different is that we are kind of useless especially on the trading side, and by not being able to be in person and see whats going on its just worst. I was lucky that my boss was the head of the floor and just added me to all the BBG chats, all the morning calls with the teams, and had one-on-one every day to discuss what was going on in the markets. I think that for the virtual experience you just need to find a mentor that is willing to make time for you (even more than the usual).
My hours were def not like the previous comment. We had a morning call at 7am with all traders and sales so had to be on before that to catch up on the night. So I'd say from 6:30 am to 6-7pm on and then prepping for my morning news report (one of my tasks) later at night. But being on between 6am-6pm doesnt mean that you work all day, many times if theres nothing going on, by being at home, you can just chill and do whatever. Just have BBG chat and emails notification on so you can hear if you need to do anything.
Thanks for sharing. Could you also share what kind of projects/ other tasks you worked on
Sure, I code so I had some data analysis stuff to do for some traders (analyzing trades ...), did some modeling to analyze bond curves, more modeling related to FX stuff and then as part of my bank had to do the final big presentation.
All my projects, besides the big presentation, came from me asking each trader what they needed/wanted me to do. I was never given a task without asking for it. In all honesty I'm sure anyone could have done nothing at-all all summer and no one caring (they wouldn't have had an FT offer tho...)
Also did mine virtual last summer. Hours definitely varied across desks, if you were in fixed income the hours were around 6:30 - 6:30, whereas, equities started slightly later around the ballpark of 7:30/8. Projects were mostly pitches or some kind of report research. Most of the internship was just reading through material, learning the products, talking to salespeople/traders, and then completing some intern project. This might depend on the bank, but it seemed like a lot of interns would work on their projects outside of the scope of market hours (like later at night), but there was no expectation per se to be online past 7/8 pm. There can be downtime, but be prepared to be on call for 12 hours a day.
Could anyone else chime in with their experiences? What can we expect this summer ?
Can anyone else that was in a generalist program share their virtual SA experience?
Could anyone else from structuring team share what their virtual SA experience was like??Or hopefully anything heard of?
Alias non et praesentium a praesentium magnam aut. Deleniti nisi repellendus architecto asperiores quam. Aut molestias est est consequatur non. Pariatur consequuntur ducimus et vel quaerat dicta voluptate qui.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...