“Hollis Nye: My advice to you, Ellen, is to stop trying to figure Patty out. You’ll never change her, but she’ll change you.

Ellen: How?

Nye: By giving you access to how she thinks. You signed up for this; now, keep your head down, and do the work. That’s why you’re there, isn’t it?

Ellen: Yes.

Nye: Then don’t be shortsighted. Start using her. Learn everything you can, then get the hell out of there before it’s too late.

Ellen: How exactly will I know when that is?

Nye: Ah. That’s for another walk.”

-Damages (FX Series on fictional law firm Hewes & Associates and big law life)

If you’ve already landed an investment banking summer internship or are currently looking for one, keep these words of wisdom in mind as you approach the start date.

You get an investment banking internship for 2 reasons:

1. To learn the job and absorb everything you can.
2. To get a full-time offer.

If you keep these 2 reasons in your mind as you go through the internship, you’ll be successful. How do you learn the job and then get the job?

Attitude - Make It Good

Always be eager to learn and do as much as possible. This one should be obvious to anyone starting a new job, but you’d be surprised how many Summer Analysts are just plain lazy and try to leave early every day (”early” in banking terms being 6-7 PM).

If there’s an opportunity to take on a new project, take it. If there’s a chance to help someone with something, help.

You’re only in this for 10-12 weeks. You can sleep when you return to school.

No, You Don’t Know Everything

Some interns like to come in and pretend they know everything about investment banking already. It’s fine to do some independent research, but if you haven’t done this job before, you don’t know anything about it and shouldn’t pretend you do.

Last year an intern said he was an Excel whiz and then didn’t know the Alt + E + S + T shortcut (used for copying styles in a spreadsheet, one of the most commonly used shortcuts in banking… we care a lot about formatting).

Similarly, one Summer Associate last year said he knew a lot about an industry in the presence of an MD. When the MD quizzed him on it, he said his only experience was “reading about it in the press.”

Don’t be like them. If you already knew everything, you wouldn’t be here.

Don’t Screw Up

Or if you do, make sure it doesn’t happen again.

When I’ve already pulled 3 all-nighters in the same week and have been scolded by multiple senior bankers in the span of 10 minutes, the last thing I want to do is fix a company’s revenue projections if they go from $400MM to $4MM to $900MM in 3 consecutive years (unless it’s a biotech company, then that might actually be plausible).

If your work is obviously wrong like the example above, make sure you check it and fix it before giving it to me. It’s better to be slow and correct rather than quick and wrong.

Everyone makes mistakes of course, but make sure you ask questions and fix anything so it doesn’t happen again.  This is especially the case at more hardcore offices, like UBS LA.

Service With A Smile

I strongly disliked one of the Summer Analysts we had last year. He was flaky, he kept screwing up his work, and it took him forever to do anything.

But he did one thing right: he was always smiling.

No matter how many all-nighters I made him pull, how much menial work I made him do, or how sleep-deprived he was, he was always smiling.

Analysts are too bitter to believe the Smiling Summer Analyst, but the senior bankers love the routine.

While your eagerness to learn is important, your appreciation of the opportunity is also crucial. A good attitude, especially in Summer Analysts, can often overcome other flaws (such as not being able to use Excel), and result in investment banking jobs.

Party With Us, But Don’t Come In With A Hangover

When someone asks you to go to lunch, go. When someone invites you out, go out.

Make every effort to hang out with the other Summer Analysts, Full-Time Analysts, and anyone else at the bank outside of work, but avoid getting drunk every single time. Yes, Models and Bottles are nice, but so is getting that full-time offer.  And those investment banking salaries.

If you come into work with a hangover and look un-presentable, you won’t get one.

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Tags: investment banking, investment banking analyst, investment banking summer internship, Summer Analyst, Summer Associate

Posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 4:00 pm.