UBS wealth management internship... opinions

Hello all,
need some advice. I'm wondering what everyone thinks about a UBS wealth management internship. It could be pretty much bullshit work, but it is a name. Please so bashing of the UBS name, its still a BB and people on the forum are in denial. Does not matter than has nothing to do with my question. Back to original question:
has anyone actually participated in this type of internship?
If you have been through this internship, what is your general opinion/experience ?
Do you think the UBS name will be beneficial and considered when apply for SA position recruiting next year, even though it is not an IBD internship.......

Please help me out, I am trying to find as much info as possible.

Thanks in advance

 

Generally, this type of internship is pretty good for a freshman. This is because it shows strong interest early on. If you are a sophomore, it is ok but there are better options. Try to consider a middle/back office position at a BB or an ibanking gig at a regional boutique. You are right in that the name is important. However, I would argue that the actual work that you do is more important and generally people know that a PWM internship is BS. That being said, if you are aggressive on the job and can get some meaningful work, it can turn out to be a great experience.

 

Agreed with Blago99 --I did a wealth management internship at UBS after my freshman year, and it was a great stepping stone into getting an IBD internship sophomore year. Just make sure that you're put into a great team where your advisors want you to learn and give you legit tasks, such as allowing you to address client inquiries through phone/email about their portfolios, working with Bloomberg, researching/pitching stocks, etc. Wealth management is especially helpful for S&T interviews; I found that I got more S&T interviews than IBD, even though I was more interested in the latter, so I'd say go for it unless you have better options lined up.

 

As a sophomore last summer I had a UBS Wealth Management internship. I was lucky in that I joined an established team, so I did zero cold calling and did some actual non-BS PWM work. I think it's all about your attitude towards the internship. I was proactive and showed genuine interest in wanting to learn, which led to more interesting work and less BS work. Overall I thought it was a great experience because I developed skillsets that are transferable to IB or S&T.

I'm in the process of junior-year SA recruiting and my UBS PWM internship is the #1 experience on my resume. I have gotten plenty of IB and S&T first round interviews and some pending final rounds/super days at BBs. So you could definitely do a lot worse than UBS PWM.

 

I actually know three people who had interned with UBS in the wealth management program. All had claimed that the work was bs and one was actually sent to the library one time to return the boss's books, haha. But, two of them ended up in IBD internships and then FT at BB's, and the 3rd ended up in an S&T internship at a BB and then FT in investment management at GS/MS/JPM.

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Great help everyone. Thank you for your insight. just a little bit of background info: I am a sophomore, I'm not a freshman. Since I am a sophomore I wish I was able to get something, not technically better than the pwm, but an internship where I would be doing more significant tasks. But that aside, basically what everyone is saying is that if I do have the opportunity to do the ubs pwm internship, take it...? By the way it is in a regional office right outside of Manhattan, just figured I would include that. Oh and also, I am not sure how the UBS internships are structured as far as PWM goes but the internship is during the semester (2-3, full days a week), not the summer. When I was talking to the HR recruiter, she stated that the office is actually one of the busiest regional offices. Obviously NYC/CT office would be more desirable but the office I am trying to intern at is right outside of Manhattan. Based on everything I'm saying, do you think that an internship at UBS in the PWM division during the spring until beginning summer will be beneficial and put me into a more qualified person for SA IBD or S&T junior summer?

Again, thank you for all of your advice.

 

Don't listen to what everyone else says. I did a UBS internship last summer in PWM because I had no other options due to the recession. I was reluctant to do it at first since I was a junior, but I worked my ass off and networked like crazy and I landed a BB FT IBD offer after graduation (Not UBS). Although, I agree many people know it is a bullshit internship, it all depends on how you swing it. I just made the most out of my experience and tried to learn as much as possible.

hands down, an internship in IB is better if thats what you want to pursue, but if you have no other options go for it, make the most of your experience, and work your ass off to go pursue other routes in financial services.

Good Luck.

 

Hmm.. I'd be careful about this whole working 2-3 days a week only. Just from my personal experience, I was working full time, and there were two other interns I knew who came in 2-3 times a week because they were also taking classes, and my advisors gave them the BS work, while giving me the 'real' work, just because I was there fulltime and could learn more, etc. You should really talk to your employers directly; ask what kind of work they need help with during the spring. Maybe talk to past interns who have worked at this particular office and ask what they did.

 

Thanks for your help, appreciate it. Getrichordietryin thanks for being honest. Just out of curiosity was the UBS internship in PWM a formal structured internship? like you could literally see the program on the company website.... Or was it like almost all other PWM internships.... Because the formal UBS PWM summer internship states that that program is for rising seniors...Anyone know how the PWM part of UBS works as far as recruiting/structure etc... The internship I am getting was through my school career network.

nx3l12 I didn't even think of that.. in that way.. but yea it is 2-3 days a week, not during the summer.

hey Getrichordietryin was the internship you did summer of junior year... was it the formal internship UBS offers that is for "rising seniors"....

 

slumdogny....to answer your question, no it was not a formal internship. It was at a local branch office and I was like 1 of 4 interns and it was very informal. However, the laxed structure gave me the opportunity to take on more of a workload and do cooler projects than otherwise expected (although it was still PWM, but still it was bette rthan anticipated.) And yes, it was my Junior year that I did it.

Anymore questions, feel free to shoot me a PM.

 

Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it. Great info, insight and great advice

If anyone else has been through this type of internship, any other info/comments/insight would be appreciated

 

im doing it now...you basically dont learn any technical skills whatsoever. mostly administrative stuff, filing, copying, faxing, sometimes printing out research reports and summaries but you dont actually write them. every once in a while the financial advisors or wealth managers may sit down with you and talk about what they do or give you a lesson on options or some shit like that...but dont expect to be doing any advanced excel modeling or anything pertaining to IB really. but it shows that youre willing to pay your dues and youre serious about finance. at least its supposed to. its okay for freshman/sophomore summer...but junior summer you should try to get into a formal program. there are some other interns i work with that are older though...i think ones in law school too...so who knows

 

I'm going to a school this fall with a similar requirement to receive credit for internships (3rd year). I was planning on getting an unpaid PWM internship freshman year but I was unaware that it was illegal for a company to hire without any compensation. Is this really true for all companies?

 

It's illegal for them not pay you if your not receiving academic credit. That said it's most likely an unpaid position, so more likely than not they wont be able to employ you if you cant receive credit. Try contacting your registrar and see if you can make it an independent study.IMO PWM is a great experience for a freshman or sophomore, you can really learn a lot.

 

At my PWM internship when I was in high school, M-Th are slacks + shirt + tie (no suit), and Friday is normal business casual.

It really depends on what bank you are interning at, but you might want to ask HR about their dress code.

 

If you would run a search you will find about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 posts dealing with PWM internships.

That being said, if you don't have any other offers, obviously take this one, but I would keep looking for other opportunities. PWM as a soph is good, not great.

 

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