Investment Banking Summer Analyst Review

I really enojyed it, like any jobs it has ups and downs, but I have finished convinced that I wish to work in Investment Banking, and more specifically that I want to work for BofAML. It's actually pretty hard to think of an alternative, because while there are other top global investment banks as alternatives, I can't think of one that I've had exposure to that has had such a great culture to back it up.

Within a couple of weeks I was given the opportunity to work on materials that had a material impact to the firm and its projects. I didn't feel that I was given any pointless tasks to complete. My colleagues were polite, professional and respectful and set a good overall impression of the bank. I was highly impressed by that, as I had relatively low expectations.

We had 4 touch-points within the firm that were allocated formally: a buddy (analyst), development officer (VP who conducted our reviews), mentor (an MD) and staffer (who organises staffings). I was fortunate to be able to work closely with my development officer, who ended up taking me out for drinks and generally made me feel like part of the team. My mentor was also highly useful for general, and impartial, advice, although I felt in general that the MDs were approachable enough that I could talk to most of them with no problem.

I was generally pretty busy - BofAML has implemented restrictions on working hours for interns which has greatly improved the work/life balance of interns and has successfully killed off "face-timing". However the down-side of this is that generally speaking interns get less staffing as the full-timers are aware that you cannot stay very late into the evening and on weekends. Having said this I definitely don't see this as a negative, as I was still able to get a full-experience, if not necessarily a representative one, and having weekends off was so great. Plus once one starts working full time, such complaints will seem asinine.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility, creating from scratch a few decks that ended up being sent directly to clients. That was a fantastic, and pretty rewarding experience, as it meant that I was working directly with an MD/VP and had the satisfaction of seeing my work being sent out directly to the client. I also ran a complex model for a few weeks as part of an ongoing mandate, and having that prolonged exposure was beneficial as it meant that I really gathered an understanding of the underlying principles. By the end I was able to appreciate more fully the impact of the assumptions that we were making.

Honestly I would say it's bi-directional; the skills that I have developed at university and before assisted me during the internship (I didn't come from a finance background, but attention to detail is an important part of my degree), and the skills that I have developed over the internship will assist me in the future. Primarily I think my time management has improved to the extent that I am more able to accurately assess how long it will take me to complete a task as it is so important to be able to do so here.

General atmosphere is good, we spend a lot of time in the office every day so it's important to work well as a team. Turn over is inevitably high, which is unsettling at first, but realistically not every analyst can become an associate, can become a VP and so on. We felt included, being invited to team dinners, drinks and the like.

The overall structure is great, and the training week is a good way to ease into the internship. A couple of the sessions are a little dragging, but such is life, and overall I felt like it was worthwhile. Once on the job the pooling system works pretty efficiently, but one has to be prepared to actively seek work out, which is actually pretty fun.

They invested pretty highly, with sessions at FactSet, Bloomberg and so on. We also had a couple of days of accountancy training, which is obviously only enough to scratch the surface, but more importantly as a Mac user introduced me to the world of keyboard shortcuts in Excel (which will save your life - especially Alt + E + S).

I find out in a week, but I plan on accepting my offer if I get one.

It was pretty good, I formed close friendships with a handful of the interns. Some of the interns can be a little clique-orientated, but that's hardly unique to IBd, and didn't negatively affect my experience. As someone from Oxbridge it was actually pretty nice to not be in the Oxbridge clique as the variety of people from different nationalities and backgrounds made it far more interesting outside.

It's London and St Paul's so expensive, but then a lot is paid for you. I had a friend who lived off our meal allowance so it is possible to be cheap, but good luck for accommodation. I would definitely recommend living along the DLR, it's a pretty pleasant commute in the morning (and unaffected by the 4 tube strikes we had this summer).

It's London so great, but be prepared to lose horrendous amounts of your salary.

There were intern football matches, and those interns who lived in BofAML recommended accommodation tended to socialise on the weekends. I was living elsewhere so didn't really see the iterns on the weekend that frequently, but didn't really matter. Otherewise it's fairly limited, as realistically full-timers want to spend time with their families when they can. Going out with them was a lot of fun though!