Summer Internships being cancelled? Is it possible?

Hello Monkeys,

Given the current coronavirus situation and what is happening in the markets (especially today's oil prices and equities reaction to it) I started to ask myself, if it is possible that the Summer Internship programmes will be cancelled?

Have you ever heard about something like this occurring in the "bad times" like 2008?

Scared monkey with tons of student debt at a European target school and no FT offer.

 

The BB I'm set to intern at this summer recently sent out an email saying for now they don't expect to change anything and if needed they'll move remote -- but they assured as they won't outright axe us. If they ever do go back on that I'm guessing things will be bad enough that a summer internship will be the last thing on my mind. I did hear though that a friend of an acquaintance (so take this with a grain of salt) with a summer offer at a large prop trading firm was canceled, although they're getting full pay + guaranteed FT offers.

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So if/when all internships and FT offers get cancelled, what do we do? Any tips from those who went through '08? (Especially if networked way in and have no previous IB experience on CV)

 

Very interested in that. Perhaps, we should start already looking into other alternatives like Restructuring/Consulting?

Might be difficult for now, at least in Europe. Heard from a friend that McK froze all their recruitment processes until further notice (people had they last round interviews cancelled because of coronavirus risk).

 

and I imagine when things really go bad, applicants will flood toward the remaining available options, meaning competition will skyrocket... doesn't bode well.

 

This is highly dependent on the bank btw. Some banks (the BB's) are mandated by the US government to hold certain capital ratios and have excellent liquidity right now, plus some have extra stringent lending standards (JPM for example which saved them in 08)- this prevented the BBs from getting in on killer deals that Jefferies and some of the MM banks sucked up, those guys might see some issues.

 

Just got word from my BB that they’re not changing the start date and are still looking forward to welcoming us to the firm so I wouldn’t worry too much. Hopefully this whole situation dies down in the coming months...

 

They sent an email confirming the start date, didn't even mention the impacts of coronavirus so I assume they plan to go ahead with it at the same time.

 

I live & study in Italy and will be interning (hopefully) at a MBB in continental europe this summer, so I can relate. Here's my two cents for those interested:

My take on this is that there is indeed reason to be worried about summer internships this year. As far as Europe is concerned, we can expect rigid social distancing measures and travel bans to occur for the next 30 to 60 days. Anything beyond that will be unsustainable if applied at national levels, so I wouldn't be concerned about that specifically, although it wouldn't surprise me if some countries will keep the 14-days isolation period for people coming from abroad for longer.

The issue is that the mitigation efforts in place today have the objective of easing the burden on health services by flatting the curve of the epidemic, which means that the peak for COVID-19 will be delayed. We could end up in a situation where the peak will occur in May (in Europe), after mitigation measures are lifted. This could push firms to cancel/reschedule/change internships for safety concerns independently from government actions. There is no solid evidence for the seasonality of the virus, it's too early to say.

I can tell you that today, as far as Milan is concerned, interns who can work from home do just that. For those who can't (mainly it's due to inadequate tech if you can believe it), it's all over the place. I know people in AM who work regularly. I also know people interning for a major italian bank that are having their internship postponed or suspended, i.e. they can't come in to the office and can't work from home.

I think we ought to accept that this virus is here to stay for the next 12-24 months until a vaccine is produced or herd immunity is reached. This is no time to go into details, but the gist of it is that containment is too difficult and too late. This is also true for the US.

I would recommend following The Lancet for nuanced updates and working papers. Also, Joe Rogan did a podcast with an epidemiologist that is worth checking out.

In any case, there's little we can do right now for the internship issue. It's too early to say, even here in Italy, so firms don't know what they will do either. I will contact my MBB about, say, 30-45 days from now when we will know more.

But hey, think about what it's like to look for a job/internship in this environment.

 

Final year here. Would like people's perspective on whether I should push for off-cycle/winter internship (Sept onwards start date) instead of summer. Given the uncertainty of the SA internships, which I hope won't be affected. Would headcount for off-cycles/winter increase to compensate for the lowered productivity during the summer given, 1) everything stabilises by then, and 2) in the event that there is an unfortunate material impact on the summer programmes?

 

Interesting comment given your previous posting history? Really doubting this lol

 

Not banking, AM here. But I was advised the firm is “closely monitoring the situation” yet “strongly pursuing” an onboarding process with no changes. At this point in time, it is pointless to listen to HR as nobody truly understands where we will be in a little over a months time.

 

MM Firm - Regional Office Internship itself was a pipeline internship (I attend a target for the firm).

 
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Why are you so insecure that you keep going around to these forums and telling kids their internships are getting cancelled despite that fact that many banks have assured kids they will not be and that they will be doing online? I don't get how you can speak with such certainly given that no one knows what is going to happen. Go deal with your problems some other way.

 

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