SECRET DIARY OF CORPORATE FINANCE INTERN: Week 3 - shipping finance
Here's the third week of our secret diary from an investment banking intern in London. For previous instalments click here.
The week started off calmer than usual. Even better, the sun finally came out. Finally, the London summer had begun!
Initially, I didn’t have much work to do. I therefore did my best to go over everything I’d learned over the previous three weeks. However, this quickly changed on Tuesday – half the team had gone away on a business trip and it suddenly I was given a lot more responsibility. I had to calculate pricings for promising projects and clients that were demanding figures on short notice. One thing I’d like to warn you is that you need to know the official names of countries when carrying out a project - The Democratic Republic of Korea is actually North and not South Korea - as I figured out after my numbers weren’t matching!
As the week progressed, we carried out a deal with the Shipping Finance department. This was quite interesting as I got to learn about the different products and machinery that they sell and finance throughout the world. From observing colleagues, I also learned the importance of knowing clients on a personal basis. It seemed that the senior bankers managed to use these contacts to gain an advantage to secure the project over rival banks.
On Thursday, everyone on the business trip came back and I was transferred to a new project. The regional head called me in for a meeting and asked whether I’d be interested in working on a project related to my home country. Needless to say, I said yes.
The week ended pleasantly on a sunny Friday. Work wasn’t too stressful and the team went out for drinks before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. All in all it was pretty pleasant.
