Summer Analyst Review

Had a great time overall, learned huge amount of different things; from my own strengths and personality traits, fundamental skills for working in a bank, understanding the basics of the markets, getting exposure to lots of different parts of the business and getting a feel for where I want to take my career in the future. Internship was well structured, HR were incredibly helpful and accommodating, cannot thank them enough for all of the help that they gave me.

Difficult to feel too integrated on the trading floor when hopping between desks every week. Whilst people were clearly great and sociable, they did not make the effort to make me feel part of the team from day one. More a case of; "here is your desk, get on with it". My second desk experience made me feel much more integrated into the team, everyone made an effort to spend time with me and take me to events which helped me learn more effectively.

HR events were very useful in learning the basics of how to conduct yourself in a professional environment; how to get the best out of the internship and demonstrate your talents. Managers on first rotation provided feedback at the end of every week after the week's stock pitch or presentation which was helpful, although feedback largely told me what I already knew, but found it hard to implement given the nature of the internship. Hot desking, spending little time with lots of people made it difficult to build relationships with people that are clearly very busy. This changed on my second rotation, although comprehensive feedback came at the end of the cycle.

Sales rotations must be a headache for the bank to manage, considering the activities interns can take part in are so limited by regulatory requirements. Expect to do lots of stock pitching, talking about your brief thoughts on certain ideas from morning meetings and generally listening in on calls and meetings to get a feel for that that part of the business does. You are only busy if you choose to make yourself busy, run around asking people for things to get on with, or trying to learn things off your own back. Otherwise can see days easily flying by as a sales intern if you are not active enough. Research was a completely different experience. I had one task that had to be completed by a set date, so I was very much setting my own workload. This meant that some days I would stay late to try and finish a certain part of my project, and some days I would finish earlier to go back and get some rest. Valued this kind of freedom as it gave me the chance to take breaks from my projects and try to learn about other parts of the desk, which manager was very supportive of me doing

On trading floor I was given almost no responsibility whatsoever, most things I was doing were mainly focused on trying to practice the skills that the desks were utilising day to day. By contrast, I was given much more responsibility during my time with research - speaking to senior people in companies on the phone to get information for my project and sitting in on client marketing meetings to give me a breadth of understanding of the sector. Overall very much a tale of two halves.

The internship was a great thing to do from a personal development perspective regardless of securing a job offer. Learned a great deal about myself and my own career trajectory, how to a company income statement and balance sheet, how to pitch an idea and show professional integrity.. Interning at a Tier 1 company such as BofAML is probably the best way you can spend your summer, regardless of whether you have ambitions to work in the industry or at the bank in the future. In many ways I felt that I took far more advantage of the bank than they took of me!

Equities and FICC trading floors very exciting places to be, even in the summer months when it is supposedly much quieter. Something is always going on, each morning starts with a fresh idea, fresh announcement and a new problem to deal with. For those who like to think quickly on the spot and be constantly challenged at all times, the trading floor is the place to be. By contrast, the research floor was considerably quieter, one of the junior analysts likening the floor to a library, which I suppose is not far off. However, the team I had the chance to sit with were great - fantastic team dynamic, good senses of humour and team head clearly ran an exceptionally successful shop as a result. Overall if you want to be excited and take an interest in finance, this is a great place to be.

HR did a fantastic job throughout, I cannot thank them enough for all of their help and support over the course of the ten weeks I spent at the bank. The first week is made up of training sessions and some networking sessions, partly to get you up to speed but I also think to help make you feel comfortable before you embark on what at the start will feel like a mammoth summer ahead. (It goes very quickly! Before you know it 20% of your year has evapourated). The 4 week internship on the global markets programme was far less structured. There was a general expectation to make work for yourself, with the exception of the weekly stock pitches and the presentations that were set out at the beginning. However, crucially, they decided half way through to cancel two of the main end of rotation presentations that would have been a great opportunity to give people a better impression of ourselves which was disappointing. Not sure If this is because they had already made up their mind on the first rotation interns of if they had just lost interest. By contrast, my time on the research desk was very well organised. I arrived and the desk head had an extensive project organised for me to work on for the duration of my time with the team. Whilst the days were very much my own, and I could choose how much to do and when, there was an expectation to prepare my presentation for the whole research floor by a certain date and complete the contents of my research note.

The programme began with some extensive training and networking, which was very useful, although some of the more interactive sessions were the most valuable - would have appreciated some more specific information before getting started on Bloomberg and also more simply all of the IT stuff. Was quite embarrassing when in the first week I didn't know how to use the phone, outlook and lots of the basic bank specific software!

Will be very surprised if I receive a job offer; knew pretty early on that the first desk wasn't for me and exerted a lot of effort in trying to convince HR in allowing me to move from the Global Markets programme to the Global Research programme, believed I was better suited to longer term projects with longer term deadlines that allowed me to produce my own ideas and intellectual property rather than a sales role where it seemed that people were very limited in expressing their own ideas to clients. In research having joined with only four weeks left, I lacked the technical understanding to really hit the ground running, although was given a great deal of help regardless of this, and I didn't feel that it would be treated as too much of a problem. Everyone on the desk was understanding of my background, and my project reflected this - a thematic commentary on a global issue affecting the industry rather than a detailed dive into individual company valuation models, although this was covered.

Social scene was good amongst some of the interns - although there was a lot of fakery and BSing going around. People deliberately trying to unnerve to advance their own chances and people so blindly motivated and willing to sell out any last vestige of self worth; one intern running around multiple times in across a few nights to buy a desk junior cigarettes certainly a personal highlight, and the general swarming of interns at any chance of points scoring. (This wasn't the case for everyone) At the end of the day you have to be ruthless and highly motivated to get anywhere in this industry, but certainly felt that some of the behaviour was unnecessary.

London obviously a heinously expensive place to live, especially if you have the misfortune of having to live on your own in a shared flat with strangers. If possible try to get a place with some people you know in the city! (Unfortunately none of my friends were interning...) Also just go to faces for a night out.

Solid

Very limited