For an IBD SA, what does working on pitches/live deals entail exactly?
As a Sales intern who has nearly zero project based responsibility, I would like to know, what exactly do IBD SAs do when they work on a pitch: does it involve just researching and cutting/pasting into powerpoint presentations, or does it include modeling work as well?
As for live deals - what do the SAs do on them? It seems there's a lot of diligence work, and not a lot of modelling? Am I completely wrong? Sorry if I'm completely clueless
Summer interns do a lot of administrative work... actually, just like full-time Analysts/Associates, who also do far more administrative work than "modeling" or quantitative stuff.
Typically if an SA is working on a pitch, he'll help out with researching information and assisting the full-time Analyst with data entry, spreading comps (going through companies' filings and pulling financial information from them), but he/she usually won't do much modeling unless he/she has already 'proven' himself and/or the office is shorthanded or something else unusual comes up.
For deals, it usually works the same way - hardly any deal can finish in a matter of 2-3 months, so summer interns typically help out with research, data entry, updating buyer logs, etc. but don't get heavily involved because they are not there for very long.
Of course, there are always exceptions to this - I had one reader last year who worked at a group that was severely understaffed and he actually got to do a lot of valuation/modeling himself (which was then checked/changed by Associates etc.) rather than just providing support to everyone else. That story is definitely the exception rather than the rule, but it does happen.
No modelling @ all.
However, be vary of cutting and pasting.
Always make sure that you store links/pdf files for your sources of information since your analyst/associate would always want to check your stuff thoroughly.
Also if you organise your sources it will save your superiors plenty of time ensuring that they don't get pissed off with you if they have to wait while you dig around for your sources of info.
What about live deals? What do SAs do exactly on live deals? And how is the work any better than doing pitches, which everyone apparently hates?
Dosk17 hit the nail on the head. I'm working on 1 live deal right now, and so far all I have done is research, data entry, and updating buyer logs. My associate does all the modeling and construction of the memorandum. Other then that, I am researching a new government project relevant to our clients (I'm in an industry group).
Although, they did say I will probably be able to do some sort of valuation sometime this summer since I asked about it first day, so hopefully that actually materializes.
I would almost say, for an SA, working on pitches ends up being just as valuable as live deals. True, you can't say you "worked on a live deal", but I ran the model for a pitch we were doing (industry group) and was essentially the only analyst on the project. I agree with Dosk17 that if you make it known that you have valuation experience from school, past internship, etc. then there will be a better chance of doing that type of work. Just don't be obnoxious about it.
How many deals does a Summer analyst touch? (Originally Posted: 09/27/2011)
In a 12 week internship (not 10), how many deals does a typical summer analyst see?
Is 6-8 an obscene amount?
Obviously, very little chance of any of them closing while you are there, but is it realistic to be working on a few deals at the same time. And by the end of it, having seen up to 8 deals?
no way
Full time analysts don't even see nearly that many deals. You'll staffed on 3-4 max and a few pitches. Work on any more and there's no realistic way you're doing meaningful work on any of them.
my guess would be more like 0 to 1 live deals, and about 100x as many pitches.
(just guessing!)
Not a chance... You don't have the capacity to be taking on that many deals as a summer... as mentioned above FT analysts would hardly be staffed on that many deals concurrently, that are all requiring work during such a short duration of time.
depends on the group
something like FIG, you'd be on 1-2 at most.
Depends on where you go. I was at a well-known MM bank this summer, and was "staffed" on 6 live sell-side transactions, and did work on 8 live deals in total. I was also staffed on 2 pitches. This was a 12 week internship.
i did an SA at a boutique an did 4 deals over the summer and 3 pitches.
im @ a boutique and staffed on all the deals. Approx 8 live deals with 4 more coming in soon. We run lean though.
2 Live and 1 in negotiations as a MM SA in healthcare
I was on six live deals this past summer; however, I was also a boutique that ran a really lean operation.
the thing is
if you're doing 5-10 deals in any given summer, the work you're doing is only cursory or the deals are stupidly small / simple...
in terms of substantial experience I would rather have 2 big deals where I ran most of the process at the analyst level and explored some interesting financial / strategic opportunities than 5-6 small deals for mom and pops where I plugged-and-chugged and LBO model then slapped some logos and stock pages into a presentation
just food for thought when writing your resumes
You're not going to run any process as a SA...unless you're group is extremely understaffed or all of the other analysts are slammed and have no bandwidth at all
the boutique i'm interning at now doesn't do deals under $50 million. Most of our deals are $200 mill +. We are very close to locking down a $1 billion private capital raise as well.
cool story bro
How many pitches/deals have you worked on as an SA? (Originally Posted: 07/26/2009)
Thus far I've been assigned to 3 pitches and absolutely 0 live deals. Otherwise I've been kept busy with random BS admin work. How about you?
3-4 pitchbooks and 3 live deals (but one deal I just helped make the model..)
0 pitches, 3 deals, and our group just got a new one at the end of the week, so probably a 4th before the internship ends. My group doesn't do much pitching at our office, but a few of the others in our group do at another office.
Working as a FT analyst, there have been times in the past year where I had 4 pitches before something went live. When I was an SA, things were pretty hot, and in my second summer I remember I was on a heavy pitch and a live deal at the same time. It was a living hell, and made me reconsider getting into the biz. After 10 days of 18-20 hours, I got sick as hell and missed two days, and didn't get an offer.
Pussy
Pretty good experience so far for me:
Did 4 equity deals. Staffed on 2 live M&A mandates - got to do the accretion dilution and combo models for 1 one of them. Created a VPP model for an MD for a pitch. 3 pitch books so far - helped with half of one and then built 2 from scratching and did all the modeling for the two books as well. That in addition to all the usual comp/odd tasks....
“If the government is going to be giving away money, it’s our fiduciary responsibility to take it on behalf of our investors,”
Jesus Christ, how the hell did you guys manage all this experience. None of my intern friends have been staffed on deals (other than maybe doing bits of research/ other bitchwork). Fuck am i screwed.
Asking this question on forum full of obsessed-wanna-be-bankers is like asking 'how many girls you slept with' on bodybuilding.com
I've been on three live deals: mostly due-diligence, expanding potential buyers list, learning company, listening to conference calls. Separately, I did a lot of research on digital media companies. My mentor (Partner) let me do some very basic and simple model (that still took a shitload of hours). I told him that this model is useless for him, he said "yup, indeed it is, but it's a great experience for you and your resume." No pitches whatsoever :(
For my PE/PWM gig I did a lot of cool stuff, but only because there were me and senior VP in satellite office. Luckily, no cold calling (or, in words of d-bag SAs with small penises, sourcing the deals), but I did a lot of bitch work like getting my boss a sandwich or buying light bulbs for the office.
Finally, there is no way in hell SA can build a real, legit, and professional financial model from 0, unless he/she had previous FT banking experience. Plugging in numbers in pre-made template, changing fonts, switching styles, and deleting empty rows/columns are not modeling.
P.S.: don't worry chuckiex, do your best and try to make experience sound pretty.
Maybe not building an entire model, but it's not that hard to build some sections of one.
been on 3 deals
closed one ( started from the middle of it, did a lot research and modeling)
one M&A deal, pitching now
one other deal for a VC backed company, doing some valuation work now
But honestly, I played such a small role in the deals.
I just created models or plug in numbers or try to squeeze in the numbers that the analysts told me to get( kind of ironic)
write up research reports for the industry
or proof reading exe summary or CIM
It's been 4 weeks for me so far. We'll see how the rest of the 6 weeks play out
No offense but if you consider a model as linking hairline assumptiuons IS, CF, BS and maybe some type of debt schedule, than I wouldn't really call it modelling... Most of the above "modelers" probably haven't even gotten as far into them as my above description, they've gutted an old one and readjusted a few lines for the new transaction (surprisingly what FT analysts do anyway)...
Don't think these guys are modelling tax implications of an asset / stock sale in an M&A or reading through credit aggrements to model out cash sweeps and margin ratchets...
Be serious...
but if you say you worked on a model on your resume, are interviewers expecting that you built it from scratch?
that's the buyside for you... BALLIN!
no, but they'll definetly treat it as such... they'll push your knowledge till you break... even an experienced guy who builds them in his sleep will break, under pressure its hard to recall EVERYTHING...
so what your saying is that if you claim to have prior modeling experience on your resume you have no chance of performing well in an interview?
I've seen guys throw out resumes saying they ran IRR models, and LBO models and when pushed on the topics they crumbuled... when people interview you they don't sit there creating off-topic questions to be creative, they don't have time, they take what you've written and test your limits on it... Most SAs have a tendancy to exagerrate and the FT loves this because everyone knows its not as advanced as they would like to admit (i've been a victim to this in the past)... so what ends up happening is they throw topics that you have seen but you never fully understand even though you imply it in your resume... best thing you can do is be modest in your approach to it on your resume and shine during the interview and just hope they don't push for more than what you wrote...
I love ripping even FT IB analysts interviewing for buyside gigs a new one because they claim they've ran FULL LBO models but when tested on the fullness, they fail... the nature of exagerration, trying to prove that even in an interview, you haven't learned everyting you really thought you did, sort of a reality check...
While almost all banks have and expect you to use their template, you will learn this stuff alot faster if you build a model from scratch. This would entail doing it yourself before plugging into a model, obviously your scratch model will be of no use beyond learning the process.
But the benefit is, you can build your model from scratch, then use the firm's model and try to minimize any differences in output, or atleast understand the reason for the difference.
The internship is to get experience and learn as much as possible, so take full advantage. The best thing you can leave your internship with is some good bullet-points for your resume, and a USB drive full of as many models and presentations from as many different banks as possible.
Guessing that wasn't a joke.
Yeah I have no idea how an intern would pull something like this off.
If none of those tactics work, you could always take a hard drive with the files on them and smuggle them out of the building in your rectum.
If you don't have the mental capacity to get the models, you most likely don't have the capacity to do anything with the models, even if you had gotten them.
Wouldn't that work better?
^ They will definitely say no.
I can't believe how many people are actually contemplating M.H's suggestions.. these guys are so high on the idea of taking 100 page flip-books and massive models, its actually funny...
One live deal, three pitches and one potential buy-side investment.
No. of deals for summer intern? (Originally Posted: 06/05/2008)
What's considered a good number of deals a summer intern should have? Thanks!
You'll be lucky to be staffed on a live deal, much less see one close.
mm...then what does a summer intern usually put on their resume?
You'll spend the majority of the time pitching. Most likely you'll be staffed on a deal that'll likely fall through (most 'deals' do end up falling through). You'll do modeling, powerpoints, different updates depending on your group, research, etc that you can put all on your resume (whether or not you do any actual deals). Not trying to be cynical, but most SAs come in expecting to close deals.
Just to put it in perspective, I knew an analyst who had 9 closed deals on her resume at the end of her 2 yr stint, which is pretty ridiculous. Most analysts hope to get 4 or 5 deal toys on their desk by the end of their stint.
At the SA level, most of the learning you'll be doing will be on pitches, listening in on conference calls, and simply just picking things up through others' conversations.
On top of what's already mentioned, most deals require a 4 to 6 months time frame to close (can be much longer). So it's not like deals get closed left and right during a 3 months time frame, even when times are good.
Yea, you will be receiving 0 lucites/deal blocks during the course of your summer and the way deal flow is right now I wouldn't expect to see any live deal action.
Interns: Time Spent Modeling or on Live Deals (Originally Posted: 08/11/2009)
I wanted to get a sense of how other current and former interns spent their summer. I think it might be valuable to see how interns are treated elsewhere.
If you can, please provide:
I just finished my internship in IBD; here are my estimates:
Thanks in advance for your input.
pls also add time you spent paranoid about what other interns were doing
+1
+1
I was so good that I spent 100% of my time modeling for live deals. I'm sorry, but you won't even be able to compete with me in interviews. Just give up now.
thankfully i won't have to compete, since i already have an offer. this is actually a pretty legit question. the internship is over; i want to know if other interns had a different experience. isn't this sort of thing the whole purpose of having forums on a website like this?
oh, i must have forgotten, the purpose is so that everyone can act like complete douchebags behind the mask of anonymity. damn.
Lol? Is there any overlapp between point 2 and 3 I am not aware of or did you work 120% of your time?
Getting back to the topic. I completely agree with the poster. Unfortunately, there are too many jerks in this forum boosting their miserable self-esteem. To me this is a completely valid questions. If this forum is not for comparing and exchanging experience, what else is it good for?
wow, just wow.
Time outside of modeling was spent working on pitch books, random analysis / research using CapIQ, buyer contact lists, etc. (being in M&A, my bank fortunately spared me the task of comps / precedents)
Ending up getting an offer but did spend considerable time worrying about other interns
bump
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