Summer Intern Review

As an Investment Banking Summer Intern, I was assigned to one of the teams within the Investment Banking division for 9 weeks, of which there was 1 week of training and 8 weeks of actual desk work. As part of this, I essentially worked alongside the existing analyst to help the team in their day-to-day activities, including preparing presentations for clients, planning solutions, and sharing news material/info with the team

The internship provided me with a lot of new experiences which pushed me to develop new skills. Particularly, I was able to develop my analytical skills and attention to detail as I worked on different tasks for the team. In addition, my own intern project provided a great opportunity to improve on my own presenting skills and to grow my analysis capabilities.

In the internship, I took on a good amount of responsibility within the team, while ensuring that I, as an intern, worked on tasks that managed my experience and skill set. As such, though I wasn't leading any deals or the work in the background of deals (mostly dealt with at the actual analyst level) I did help out with different parts of presentations in a variety of tasks

My team itself provided a lot of support and guidance and were very understanding of the fact that I didn't have any industry specific experience at the start of the internship. They were always available if I had concerns and did not make me feel like a nuisance (even if, as an intern, I probably was)

While my team's culture was very positive, I felt that the wider company culture, though nice, did tend to favour people from certain backgrounds (usually some kind of European business school) as opposed to different experience profiles. I think that this meant the environment was a little lacking in diverse perspectives, even if everyone was well qualified to be there, as it the vast majority of interns/employees came from more privileged backgrounds

I found my internship to be enjoyable. Though the hours were occasionally long, the team was great and really supportive, and I was able to learn a lot over my time. I do think that the environment needs to be a little more diverse, but this doesn't take away from the positive experience I had with my team and other interns

Yes

I would say that it's important to be a personable and intelligent individual. If you are polite, friendly, hardworking and curious, you should be able to succeed here as these qualities seem to be valued. However, I would also say that you likely need some kind of business school background to integrate, as without this you may not be seen as being at the same level as everyone else