Secrets of the intern
Anywhere from 60% to 90% of banks' summer interns will receive an offer to come back and work full time once their summer stint's over. Making sure you're part of that group is easy enough, just so long as you...
Look the part: There's no need to wear Armani, but yes, you'll need a suit of some kind. "I went to TM Lewin and Hawes & Curtis to buy shirts," says Meera Judge, a Cass Business school student who interned at Fortis Investments last year and is interning at Lehman this summer. "You need to look professional, but you don't need to spend loads of money - if a Primark suit passes as professional, that will be ok," she adds.
Swot up in advance: Most banks will send some preparatory training for you to complete before the internship. Needless to say, you'll need to do this. Even if you don't get the prep pack, it's worth swotting up of your own accord. Read the eFinancialCareers Weekly News Digest. Get very familiar with computer packages: Excel and Datastream are your best bet - you should find Datastream in the economics department of your university; it's a database of company and economic data.
Work like a fiend at all times: You're spending your summer in an investment bank, not a holiday camp. "If I went home at 9pm it was a miracle. The latest was around 2.30am, but on average it was more 12am to 1.30am," says an Oxford student who interned in corporate finance last year.
"Even if you're rotating on a desk that isn't top of your list, don't be tempted to slack off. At the end of the day you are being hired firstly into the firm. A bad impression is a bad impression, and people talk, so leave a good impression wherever you go," says a Cambridge student who got an offer from the markets division of a tier-one firm.
Never be late for anything, ever: "It's crucial that you're always on time for every appointment, whomever it may be with," says the same student. "Failure to do this is a reflection of poor time management and may leave people with the wrong impression. My advice: get there five minutes early, rather than one minute late."
Don't make mistakes: "Banks are totally obsessed with accuracy," says another former Oxford student. "Everyone's going to make errors, but if you produce some research and hand it in with a mistake you can guarantee they'll spot it. You need to be really thorough."
Don't ask stupid questions at stupid moments: Last summer's interns were in the thick of things when the credit crunch went from something to do with a few Bear Stearns hedge funds to a liquidity threat for the global financial system. Needless to say, they had to choose their moment to ask how to enter a formula in Excel.
"It can be difficult to be there," says an intern from summer 2007. "You don't want to get in the way, but at the same time there's not much point in you sitting there and doing nothing. Write down the questions you want to ask and pick your moment to ask them - the end of the day is good."
Don't wait for work to fall into your lap: In some internships you'll be spoon fed projects and tasks to work on, in others you won't. Either way, you'll need to get out and talk to people. "The people on an internship who haven't got a hope in hell of getting a job are the ones who just sit there and don't talk to anyone," says a former intern. "You need to network with the senior guys and make jobs for yourself - suggest things you can do to help out."
