will they mostly be behavioral fit questions? or will they ask me more finance/accounting orientated stuff? suggestions/commments/feedback appreciated
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oh and i also have an offer for UBS operations in NYC...i wil be a junior in the fall....which would help me more in the long term....they told me I would be working on pitch books at the PWM position at ML if i get it....thanks
Neither PWM nor Ops will be a great experience if you want to get into IB. I say work your arse off to get offers for both and then pick whichever you like and feel more comfortable at. Then when you are there, see if you can get lunch with a banker that your boss in PWM/Ops knows at your bank.
ML and UBS are both on the same level in terms of prestige and PWM/Ops both really won't have much that you can offer as a banking applicant. Personally, I'd do PWM, but that's just because I think I'd find that field more interesting than risk analysis/other BS done in Ops.
^^^what kind of questions would they ask for the Merrill interview? just basic behavioral/fit questions right? the guy at Merrill told me if i did well enough he could set me up with some interviews with other people if i was interested in banking (i'm guessing previous interns who have wanted to get to the front office, have already gone this route) He also told me i would be working on a pitchbook...which seems IB-relevant.....if i get the Merrill gig, that would be a better choice right?
both are pretty terrible when it comes to banking. And I highly doubt you will be making pitchbooks at ML, and it will be Unpaid.
Questions they asked me: Why do I want this internship? What do I think I could bring? What am I proud of on my resume? Walk me through your resume.
I didn't have any questions over accounting/finance. I posted about a month ago search for it; it should be in this forum.
If by "working on a pitchbook" he means, "making photocopies of documents that will go in the pitchbook" then he is probably correct. However, by all accounts that I've heard from friends and posters here, PWM internships are really just fluff on your resume.
The best thing you will get out of this is the contacts that your boss might have. Make it be known to him- SUBTLY- that you want to get into investment banking. I'm sure that he has contacts both within Merrill and outside of it. If you impress him with your resume and work at the office, he could set up a couple of lunches or informational interviews with i-banking friends.
^^^ today i had the interview....I put down that i was in the investment banking club....out of nowhere the dude asks me if ibanking is what im interested in....so i go "yea" and then....a VP at Merrill who was a VP at JP Morgan before that...starts interviewing me.....the entire interview changed and before i knew it i realized that it was sort of like an ibanking interview in that he put me on the spot a LOT of times, sort of like to test how I work under pressure....grilling me about everything about my past....all in all he told me that he would personally look out for me and set up something for next summer if i still wanted to do ibanking.....didn't say anything as to if i got it or not....but he asked for my hours of availability for the fall...which i guess is a good sign....
There are many VPs in PWM and JP. I've seen a VP working at a JP branch location, but hopefully they will get you into ibanking.
That might not have been the best set up for getting the PWM internship. I'd imagine that they want somebody who is actually interested in the field, and actually interested in becoming a Financial Advisor, as to somebody who just wants resume padding. I know this because this same thing happened to me. They asked what I wanted to do after graduation- said I was set on banking. In my 2nd interview, interviewer told me that was one of my only knacks against me- if they ask you that, and you don't know if you're really interested, just say that you haven't decided yet, and are trying to gobble up any and all experience and exposure that you can.
Regardless, sets you up for future ventures if that guy does look out for you.
Good luck.
BTW, they too asked for my hours of availiability. All signs pointed to them giving me the thumbs up, but it turns out they scrapped the whole project together.
From my experiences, in general, you should give them what they want to hear. If you're interviewing for PWM, that's what you want to do. If you're interviewing for research, the same applies. If it came down between you and someone else, and the other candidate wants that particular field and you already said you don't, you won't get the offer. I'm not condoning lieing, but definitely make it seem like that is where your interests lie at the moment.
Are you doing advisory or private banking at Merrill?
just got a call from Merrill...i got the offer for the fall!
congrats ... good luck with it
PWM is for FA's. They just want to make sure you can interact with people. If you didnt get an offer, you may want to check your communications skills.
AudiChow
PWM is for FA's. They just want to make sure you can interact with people. If you didnt get an offer, you may want to check your communications skills.
AudiChow
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Merrill Lynch PWM internship (Originally Posted: 05/10/2010)
I got an interview offer from Merrill PWM for an internship position, but I am not sure I want to follow up because I am not sure if they will accept international students. Does anyone know what their policy is for international students seeking internships ?
This is just my back up though, as i currently have two pending ibanking offers (in the process of trying to finalize the details with the CEOs).
Do you have the IB Offers? If so I don't understand why you need to bother....
Just in case. But I am interested in knowing ML's policy for international students.
Merill Lynch PWM summer internship (Originally Posted: 03/03/2009)
'm not sure if this is the right place to put this thread..
I received an offer to intern at a Merill Lynch Private Wealth Management local office for the summer. It is a non-paid internship unfortunately but the hours are not bad at all.
I'm only a freshman in college so this internship is probably the best I could have done. What I'm asking is how much of an advantage will this give me when I apply for paid ibanking/hedge fund internships the summer after sophmore year and the summer after junior year? Will this give me a real advantage over other applicants?
Also, is there any possibility I could use this internship to potentially get a nice paying job at a ML local office later in time?
The reason I'm asking is because PWM internships and particularly ML PWM internships do not seem to get any respect on this forum. However, I'm only a freshman and this is probably the best I can do right now. But I dont want to do it if people just consider it resume fluff and dont take it seriously.
People do seem to bash Merrill PWM internships but I think it will be a good experience. I currently work in a local Merrill office part-time and was able to secure an energy trading internship this summer. Since you are a freshman, any relevant experience should be taken advantage of. I don't see how this could hurt you in anyway when recruiting next year. It will definitely be better than summer school or retail or something.
Yes it's a good job for a freshman. I did a similar internship with a BB (NYC headquarters) summer after high school graduation- I met a couple Goldman recruiters during freshman year and they were really impressed. I don't know how much it helped, but I'm now going to be doing the Goldman Securities Spring Program and my previous experience was the main thing I spoke about in my interview (though I had no further interaction with the Goldman recruiters I had previously met).
Try to think of PWM as S&T on a smaller scale, and learn as much about (at least) equities trading as you can.
ny23 - First, Congrats on the spring program. Next, I wouldn't advise anyone to think of it like S&T - its related but not on a smaller scale. Its Asset Management on a smaller scale than at say goldman though...
To the OP, plenty of us have done this our freshman year and it fills up a nice space on your resume and shows youre interested in finance.
Completely fair, I was trying to make the point that the things one can pick up in a PWM office are applicable to other (or as many on this board would say, "bigger") things
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