boutique bank internship sucks
hey guys,
i'm a sophomore right now interested in IBD. I did bb pwm last summer and I'm recruiting for some stuff this summer, but I was looking for something for the spring since it's been so difficult getting bb IBD as a sophomore. long story short, i ended up finding a regional boutique that has this 9 week internship program and it's completely remote. i thought this was perfect since i'm in school and have a super tight schedule. so far it's been ridiculous busy work, and i don't think i've learned a thing. i basically format things in excel and research financial values for them (i.e., use bloomberg to find updated values for a bunch of stuff).
it's not really time consuming, but I'm not actually working on deals so i don't know how helpful it will be. i think i can spin it on my resume, and i can claim i was an "investment banking analyst", but if the internship completely sucks is it still worth it?
I'm actually wondering about this as well (sophomore too)
I have two options - doing finance at a "normal" business in my town and doing real stuff...as in doing work with the income statements/balance sheets, understanding GAAP...etc etc. OR I can try to work at a boutique firm for the "name" but may not learn as much
If anyone's got advice, let us know.
from what i've heard, some boutiques are definitely worth it. i guess my question more so was, now that i know that my boutique is tiny and isn't going to teach me anything but how to use bloomberg/factset/do bitchwork..can i spin this in a positive light during interviews? is it ok to say they wouldn't let me work on actual deals since i was a soph, but i got to understand the industry better?
What do you think IB analysts do..?
jajajaja exactly my thoughts...eventually - once you prove yourself - you might get to do more 'modeling' work. but even then, the crux of modeling entails formatting, re-formatting, unformatting, and then reformatting once more for shits and giggles.
as an intern or analyst, you are nothing more than a glorified and well-paid monkey ;)
i realize that, but i'm saying i don't get to work on any deals. at least IB analysts do bitchwork for clients..I'm just doing bitchwork for my MD. And I'm not learning much..
You can always learn skills (valuation, modelling, etc.) on your own time and mention that during your interviews (i.e. "During spare time, prepared full mock valuation for company XYZ as part of intern program" blah blah... I think M&I had an article on this...) In the meantime, work your ass off for your boss so he LIKES YOU, because as I'm sure you've heard, likability gets you far in this industry. On that note, be glad you're working with an MD instead of a lowly analyst, since his word has more weight =p
you're a sophmore and should be happy to have that. suck it up and deal with it because it will likely position you much better than your peers who only had PWM
i'm not even paid haha. i don't mind doing it, i guess what i'm scared of is that i'll get interviews next year that'll ask me a lot about what i did at the internship..and i won't have a single deal to speak of. won't they expect me to know technicals pretty well if i've worked in ibd? and the stuff my md has me do seems sooooo pointless. like esbanker said, I'm basically reformatting stuff for him. he send me a spreadsheet with numbers and asks me to update the numbers/fix the broken formulas. that's literally it.
the only way you are going to be expected to know your technicals well is if you misrepresent your experience on your resume. make your shit sound as good as possible but do not attempt to mislead them because you will get fucked on that.
You're nuts if you think they'd staff a sophomore unpaid intern on live deals right off the bat. Just do the work to your best and learn by asking lots of questions.
i guess i wasn't expecting to get staffed on live deals..i just figured ib would be more...learning. what's the benefit of having a banking experience on my resume if i hardly learned anything?
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