Case study: An internship leads to a full-time job

She says the experience provided a valuable insight into what can be a highly technical

product area, and ultimately led to the offer of a full time job.

When I applied to Morgan Stanley, I opted to do an internship in the investment banking division. I was placed on the capital markets desk, in the convertibles origination team.

I had no previous investment banking experience. My economics degree at Cambridge was theoretically oriented, and I confess that to begin with I had no idea what a convertible was!

That was quickly remedied. The internship began with a week of classroom-based tuition, during which all interns were taught about the different divisions of the bank and the products they had to offer. After that, it was very much a question of learning on the job and having the confidence to ask questions of colleagues working nearby.

In the process, I learned that a convertible bond is a security which at maturity gives its owner the right to convert the bond of a company into shares in the company at a given share price.

Convertible bonds can be advantageous to our clients, because they do not count towards debt, and are cheaper to issue than straight debt.

The internship programme at Morgan Stanley provides participants with a real depth of knowledge. After the first week of classroom training, I spent nine weeks working solidly on the convertibles desk. This was enough to give me an insight into a very technical product area, and allow me to make a constructive input by the end.

To begin with, the internship was a little daunting. Morgan Stanley provides interns with a massive amount of responsibility. From the start I was treated not as a temporary summer employee, but as someone who was expected to give real constructive input.

Fortunately, everyone around me was extremely willing to help. Once I had overcome my initial hesitation in asking questions, I quickly found the work very interesting and rewarding.

One of my main tasks as an intern was to use our computer-based models to determine the convertible prices which Morgan Stanley would advise, for specific clients interested in issuing convertible products.

This involved gathering information about the company, taking a view about various factors, and talking to the traders about how the market would view the convertible.

The internship also coincided with Morgan Stanley merging its debt and equity capital markets divisions. I was involved in putting together an explanatory presentation on the convertibles group, for our debt colleagues.

The freedom I was given in doing this made it one of the most enjoyable elements of my 10 weeks as an intern.

I was subjected to rigorous assessment of my performance as an intern. Once in the middle of the internship, and again at the end, I was asked to specify seven or eight people who had worked with me to write an evaluation of my performance.

I then sat down with an evaluator and discussed their responses. It was very constructive, and I was well-advised on my strengths and my weaknesses (to take a more active/confident role in having views and asking questions, and that I should improve my Excel skills!)

A few weeks after the internship finished, I learned that I had been successful. I was offered a full-time graduate trainee position on the convertibles desk.