Job Description: Banking Intern

I grew up with two loving older sisters. They were almost always very nice to me and taught me so much about life, especially around being a gentlemen. However, likely due to me annoying them to their whits end, they would occasionally pick on me as older siblings often do. One particular evening, after I had tormented them for long enough, they decided to mess with me and told me that I was an accident. My mother overheard this and was furious, shooting an angry motherly look towards my sisters. Expecting me to be upset, she looked at me and said "You were not an accident! You were a happy surprise." Unbothered, I scoffed and shrugged responding with "I'm not a surprise or an accident. I'm your early retirement plan." 

To this day, my priorities remain unchanged. I love money, because money means freedom. Living without the burden of tight financial constraints would allow me to do the things I love with all of the people I love. I can go on scenic camping trips, surf on beautiful beaches, garden, see my family and hopefully start a family of my own on day.

I knew I wanted to make a lot of money. However, coming from a family comprised primarily of teachers and tradesmen, I didn't know exactly how I could get there. Over time, following this path of money, I ended up in the field of restructuring investment banking. This summer, I interned in this field.

Investment banking internships intentionally maintain unclear responsibilities. If you were to try to attempt to understand the role based simply on any given company's role description, you would likely be left scratching your head. For example, according to J.P. Morgan an investment banking intern's role is to "build innovative solutions that make a difference for our customers, clients, and employees."

To best understand what banking interns really do, I'll describe the three main aspects of my job:

• Learner
  
• Scribe
• Dishwasher

 

Learner

While interning, I learned very quickly that investment banking, especially within a restructuring group, is a very technical and confusing space. As a college student who was used to spending his days going to class and being taught things that I could then review in neatly outlined assignments and study guides, I quickly faced a large challenge when entering into banking: I had to learn things quickly and be able to execute learned tasks with little follow-up. To better understand this, it makes sense to lay out a situation. 

A third year associate, who has been working in investment banking for five years, decides he no longer wants to track the database the MDs (bosses) have assigned for updating. Instead, he emails an intern and gives them the task. The associate then goes over to the intern and explains to him numerous steps he must do to research and update the database. However, after the 15th step, the intern loses track and gets lost. 

Finished explaining, the associate runs back to his desk to answer the 5 teams messages and 2 corresponding emails he missed within that 10 minute window. At this point, the intern is flustered. He doesn't want to go back to the associate, because he knows he is busy. He also doesn't want to do things wrong. It is truly a tough situation. 

The only way I have found to avoid this predicament is to become a top-tier learner. When talking to colleagues, I asked questions in the moment and took as many notes as I could. At the end of the day, the worst thing you can be as an intern is inconvenient or time-consuming. Asking constant questions and doing things incorrectly slows the team which flows up the chain of command, leaving everyone frustrated.

 

Scribe

As college students entering into a high-pace, technically-heavy industry, it is hard to have an immediate contribution to the team. Junior team members typically invest significant time in training interns and receive only marginal returns on their investment. However, going back to my note taking tendencies above, I found that one way to immediately add value to the team is by being a strong scribe. 

Due to the stress and pace of their work, MDs tend to give information in short, unorganized bursts but also are disappointed when it does not align with what they had imagined originally. As a scribe, you can provide confused members of the team with all of the information they need to investigate and dissect an MD's intentions with a given assignment.

 
Dishwasher

Throughout the year, the bottom of the totem pole is held by 1st year analysts, the team members who just joined the firm. They are typically responsible for all of the tasks that no one else wants to do. This often involves tedious, mind-numbing tasks with little purpose. Many of these tasks are outdated and unnecessary for everyone except for one member of the team who insists they keep being done.

However, during the summer, the 1st year analysts have the rare opportunity to delegate those tasks to the new lowest members of the totem pole —  the summer intern class. As summer interns, we act effectively as dishwashers. We take all of the scum and grime that was too gross or stuck-on to be scrubbed off and work tirelessly and monotonously to clean it. 

While it is not fun being a dishwasher, it is somewhat rewarding, as you are left with a sense of accomplishment when you are finally finished with the task. Along with this, you gain important skills as a bi-product. For example, I have become far more efficient at setting my mind to certain tasks and accomplishing them. Likewise, I have become proficient in more tangible skills such as excel shortcuts and research techniques.

Readability

Flesch Reading Ease: 59

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.5

Passive Sentences: 13.4%