Last week

Last weekend in New York City, and last week of internship. Just this past week, all the interns gave our final presentation in front of 5 managing directors. We were given a specific company and had to make a pitch to the company based on what we think is the best strategy for them. The presentation actually turned out to be harder than I thought. Everyone in the intern pool was assigned into random groups, and that made meeting up really difficult. I work "early" hours compared to other interns who cover industries, and so, the other interns would tend to schedule meetings late at night and were prepared to stay till 4am since they could get in at 9am, while I have to get in at 7am. Aside from logistics, we also found out that not many interns have the technical knowledge needed. And it was extremely challenging to juggle the presentation with daily work demands; we could be meeting for 5 minutes and someone would get a call to work on something immediately. Overall, it was a mad scramble to pull the pitch together, but all of us managed to complete it and my group was pretty confident and proud of our pitch.

Looking back, every week was very different and very challenging. Everytime I start to get the hang of a certain project, a new project comes up and I have to pick up new skills and knowledge again. It was stressful at first, but I got use to having curve balls thrown at me constantly, and I stop getting all tensed up when something new comes up. It has been a very dynamic 9 weeks, lots of pressure to perform, lots of expectations, but that's what makes this industry so interesting. I definitely learned a lot about this industry - the culture, the work, the politics, etc. Even though it has been a very tough 9 weeks, I also like that I have been pushed to my limits and I've proved to myself that I could handle a high stress environment. I've met so many intelligent and extremely hard working individuals at work, and people that I meet in the industry never fails to impress me. The hours may be long, and I don't get much of a social life, but the dynamics of this industry never fail to attract me, and I will still choose to work in investment banking.

Closing Thoughts

Although this final post is supposed to be about the end of my internship, I still have a couple of weeks remaining. This past week, I completed one of my final projects to support our team's private wealth management group's client pitch, including models, strategy outlooks, and market outlooks. It was a great experience to learn about various investment products. However, I do not envision myself entering a career within private wealth management. Four Wood’s operations go far beyond PWM though, and there are various opportunities to work across different areas of the investment universe.

As for my remaining projects, I have yet to complete an investment pitch for a private equity group looking at high yield real estate investments in Brazil. Working on due diligence for this project, I gained a lot of insight on global economic trends and market-shifting indicators. This will definitely be useful for me, as I definitely have plans to remain involved in finance for a time to come.

This leaves one major question – what will I choose to do next year? As of last week, it seems like there have been strong indications of interest that the Four Wood team will extend a return offer.

There was no formal performance review but feedback came in little bursts throughout the summer. In terms of the feedback I received, the team commented that I was a quick study and fit in really well at Four Wood Capital Partners. I was also able to juggle a lot of tasks at once, which I think was a big plus in a firm with about 25 people. I think my attitude towards working with a new company went over well. For areas to improve on, I’ll reference back to myself being a quick study—with friends, it can be easy to talk about topics which I am no master of, but with financial professionals, they are all much more experienced than me, and it is important to know everything about a topic if you don’t want it to become clear you have no idea what you are really talking about.

I have enjoyed my summer internship and hope all followers have enjoyed reading about it.

7 weeks in

I have been at my internship for 7 weeks now, and there is still so much to learn about the industry and even my job. I learn something new everyday, and there are challenges all the time. The first observation I made about the industry is that it is very hierarchical. There are ranks within this industry and people put a lot of emphasis and respect on it. This makes sense, since for the people at the top, it took them a lot of determination and hard work to get there. So for my group in particular, I get to sit right across from managing directors  (md) or directors, but I don't get to interact with them a whole lot. The way it works is such that project ideas come from mds, and then the people like associates and directors will plan to make the project work out. So I usually work closely with analysts and associates. I don't think hierarchy is a bad thing, though it does make the office culture a lot more formal.

As for company culture, I must say, I really like Deutsche Bank's culture. I really like that people are willing to take time to explain how to do things, and they are really open to questions as well. For instance, I would be given an assignment, and if I don't understand anything, I could ask the most embarrassing or basic question and they are happy to explain it, even if it would take quite a bit of time. I also like that people in my group are very friendly. They joke around with each other a lot, and often take time to check in with the interns and just hang around to answer any kind of questions. So despite the hierarchy, people are still very approachable.

There's only 3 more weeks left in my internship, and its about time to wrap up some long term projects and kick start the final project!

Learning Wall Street

Working with Four Wood Capital Partners has offered a real-world perspective as to what it is like working in financial services. I have been here for close to two months now and a clearer picture is coming together.

Based on what I’ve seen, being a lower level employee is in many ways an educational experience. My involvement in various projects - from corporate decks and marketing materials to building models and conducting due diligence - offers a wide perspective of different industries and financial tools.

One of the most interesting observations in our office is the alternative use of financial tools to create numerous income strategies. It demonstrates that there is a tremendous amount of knowledge available and wide array of applications for these tools, regardless of market conditions.

I have had two major projects so far. The first was developing wealth preservation models and researching athlete bankruptcy trends to support Four Wood's private wealth management business. The other project was collaborating with a private equity group to research high-yield real estate investments in Brazil. I feel like learning on the job is much faster and more interesting than when it just comes from a text book.

Within Four Wood, the people are extremely intelligent and driven. As a firm that just started with 2 people in November, the group has grown to over 25 employees and is continuing to make headway.

The strength of the company to grow and make headway when other companies are failing comes from the firm’s CEO and CIO. Respectively, they have been a senior managing director in sales at BlackRock and credit CIO at BNP Paribas, and they cover all bases as a team from creating valuable business relationships to creating strong investment products. Getting to work with them shows how to effectively run a business.

I am excited for the rest of the summer.

Busy busy busy

Work has been really hectic. After 2 weeks with my group, people are starting to give me more work and more responsibilities. There are long-term projects to do on top of everyday responsibilities and random tasks and one-off projects. Hours get really long sometimes. So here's how a typical day for me is like - I get in to work at 7am, check my emails for a while, then head off for a meeting at 7.15. I get out of the meeting at 8am, check/respond to emails, get on the office chat to check in with the people I'm supporting, and if there is nothing urgent, I work on my long-term projects. Throughout the day, tasks will come in. For example, the MD may want to pitch to a client, and I would have to build parts of a pitchbook. When the market closes at 4pm, I will start writing market commentaries and send them off to my supervisors. I will keep working on completing those tasks that are due by the end of the day, and on an early day, I end at 9pm. On a busy day, I get out at 11pm. And, busy days actually happen often. So on average, I work about 16 hours a day. I never had to work on Saturdays, but I do work on Sundays. Usually, I would work about 6 hours on Sunday, but this week, some urgent deals came up and I worked 14 hours today. So that's the overview on each day and how my hours look like in a week. Banking is definitely grueling with its long hours, but I've expected this and take it as natural that this is happening.
As for social life, it can be really tricky to get a balance. After the long hours, I just want to go to bed, rest up, and get ready for another long day. So I don't usually get much social life on the weekday. On the weekends, if it was a particularly long week, I would rest up and relax. I would go out to meet friends, and sometimes hang out with other interns, or get a good workout. Work life balance is important, but since this is a summer internship, I'm prioritizing work over life. Life can come after the summer is over :)

Not enough hours

Heading into the summer, I hadn’t really given a ton of forethought to what my social situation would entail. After all, I had never lived in a major city with other kids my age. How much effort could it take? To keep the theme of this post simple, it takes a lot.

At Four Wood Capital Partners, most people are in the office around 8:30 and we typically work through lunch until the end of the day, somewhere around 5 o’clock. Being that there are only 3 interns in our office, we get a lot of tasks delegated to us across a range of investment and analysis functions. I realize there is a lot more to my summer than solely going into the office every day.

In addition to work, one of my main objectives for the summer is to network with as many people as possible in the banking/finance industry. Having done a lot of homework on the industry and talking with professionals during the school year, it has become clear that relationships are highly valuable in achieving recruiting and career goals. I try to talk with people in the office as much as possible to see who they know, and who they can introduce me to, as well as drawing information from their own career experiences. Outside of the office, I aim to connect with Ross School alumni and family friends, who can help me learn more about the firms where I will be looking to recruit for next year. All relationships are valuable.

Another set of valuable relationships is the ones built with peers. The kids in New York go out on most nights of the week (the hours vary widely). I follow in suit, and am looking to make friends and connections that will stick around beyond the summer.

Long story short, there truly are not enough hours in the day. I’ll continue to explore both the professional side and social side of New York life, and I will happily sacrifice my sleep to get it done. Thankfully, New York has Starbucks and RedBull found on every corner.

2 weeks of options

Week 2 of my internship ended! To recap, I am in the equity capital markets division and was specifically assigned to the convertibles desk in this division. Overall, this 2 weeks have been an extremely steep learning curve. I took classes on options, but those classes hardly prepared me for what I had to learn at work. There are many complicated products to learn and most of the work on this desk is modelling and pricing options. As I wasn't able to model and price at this point, my supervisor gave me many notes to study and constantly tested me on how much I've absorbed. It was very stressful at first, as I thought I would be working on assignments but instead felt like I've taken an upper level intensive class on options. I must say though, my supervisor was very patient with me. He knew I was struggling to understand the concepts and that options was not something I'm good with, but he took much of his time out to teach me. What was interesting was the way he tried to teach me. He never has a lesson plan, and would leave it up to me to study as much as I can while working on random assignments from other people in the team. His way of testing how much dedication I have to the team was to announce 5 minutes beforehand that he will be testing my knowledge. And so, I have to constantly make sure I was studying and reviewing my notes.

One day, he handed me a presentation on a certain product, walked me through the main points and then told me that I will be teaching this to another intern. After spending some time preparing notes to teach the other intern, right before I was about to teach, he brought in more interns, and said I will be making a pitch of the product to the interns. I was thrown off, did my best to pitch, though I must say it wasn't a good pitch. And that was one of the highlights of the 2 weeks.

I thought I had a great supervisor, albeit a tough supervisor. But I'm really grateful for his time and his dedication to teach me. I will be having multiple supervisors as I rotate through the division, and I'm excited to see the different styles of supervising that I will be experiencing.

Working Smarter

    The past few weeks at Four Wood Capital Partners have been pretty eventful. In terms of my own assignments, I've been at work on a myriad of projects. Some of these were doing research reports on our firm's competitors, creating a model for our high net worth client strategy, analyzing trends in real estate investment trusts (REITs), and putting together daily market summaries. Anyway, it doesn't seem like I've been given my big summer project yet (although working on our High Net Worth Client Strategy has been going on now for a few weeks, and it has drawn a lot of attention from various directors and managers in the firm). Nonetheless, I still have yet to get placed on a live deal.

    When it comes to getting work done, I've found that most of the people in the office with more experience are willing to give feedback and lend a hand to our group of interns. After all, none of us have significant real world experience. Their advice has helped a lot in knowing what to focus on and look for. One of the big takeaways so far has been the importance of developing work in a manner, such that anybody could understand the message by looking at a slide. It makes sense considering that investing activities are not exclusive to highly educated or sophisticated individuals. While we still need to make sure our research checks out and that all the work is accurate, keeping it understandable seems to be a very important point to remember for presentations and explanations.

    Working with supervisors has been relatively enjoyable so far. Most, as mentioned before, are generally helpful and willing to give guidance and explain what they want to see in our work. One thing all supervisors enjoy is hearing about interns and their social lives. Seriously, they love to hear about it. Moving on. At times, it can be tricky to work with multiple supervisors who have different objectives. However, I have found it easiest to collaborate with both supervisors and let them both take the credit for the great idea. I'm just hoping to keep my head down, learn a lot, and get new insights from more experienced professionals. It will be interesting to see if this strategy can work all summer long.

2 weeks in NYC and counting!

It's crazy how fast time goes by in New York City. I've been here for 2 weeks now, and I have not had a day when I have nothing to do. I came here 2 weeks ago, and spent everyday of the first week learning to get around the city, find places to buy groceries, etc. Going from Michigan to Manhattan, I was really overwhelmed by the amount of people I see everyday, and I'm still not used to getting stuck in a crowd almost all the time. Interestingly, just by walking around the city, I've bumped into classmates from Michigan - glad to see that many Michigan students are having great internships in the city! After a week, I still did not get to see even half of the city. But at least I know where I can go to get what I need :)

This week was training week for my internship. It was an intensive 5 day training of accounting, finance and learning how to use the databases that I will be using at work. I got to meet a good number of the people in the intern class, made some friends that I will hopefully be touch with, and got to see the floor I will be working at. I will be working with equity capital markets group this summer, and so far, I've only met my supervisors. They are really nice and have promised that we will be getting a great learning experience. I've also met the 5 other interns allocated to the group, and everyone seems to be bonding well and have plans to get together outside of work. I will be starting at my desk this Monday and because of the nature of my group, I actually have to get into work at 7am everyday, but I may actually get out at 7pm. That is actually not typical of investment banking, as many of you may know that bankers typically work till 12am or even pull all nighters. That said, it remains to be seen if I actually get off earlier. Overall, I'm really excited to get on the team this Monday and to meet everyone on the team.

Much to learn

Hi everyone! I'm Priscilla, a BBA junior and I'll be interning at Deutsche bank this summer in the corporate finance division. I will be a summer analyst doing investment banking work. Currently, I'm still waiting to hear back from Deutsche about which group in corporate finance I will be joining. I'm really excited for this internship and really hope to be selected to join my favorite group :)

There's quite a lot I'm expecting from this internship actually. I'm expecting to be pushed to my limits - challenging deals and tasks and long hours. Hard work aside, I'm also looking forward to meeting and working with the many great people that I've been talking to from recruiting till now.
A little background about myself, I came to Michigan from Singapore hoping to join the business school. But when I came here, I decided to try Actuarial Mathematics. I realized I didn't quite like actuarial jobs, and really wanted to give banking a try instead. After many months of hard work, I manage to get this internship with Deutsche and I'm extremely grateful to all the people that have helped me. So naturally, I'm very excited about the internship. I can't wait to finally get to understand life as a banker, work with the amazing people I've met, and learn so much more about the financial industry and the companies that Deutsche works with. And of course, I'm nervous as well. The grueling hours are well known, and I'm worried about burning out. Being international, I'm worried I might misunderstand the culture.
Worries aside, I'm excited for this opportunity and I truly believe this will be a great experience. Thanks for reading and I'll update on my progress at work soon!

A Crash Course in Banking

At the start of this year, I had no idea what investment banking meant. ECM, DCM, M&A, TMT? It sounded more like TV stations to me. I guess that's pretty standard for a student beginning his first year in the Ross BBA program. Well, I made sure to learn all about these areas (and more) throughout the year. Now I have a summer internship as an analyst in Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions, and as the summer is approaching, I realize I don't know how any of this works in the real world. I guess the steepness learning curve is what gets me most nervous about working for Four Wood Capital Partners.

 

Four Wood Capital Partners is an independent financial services firm focused on delivering unique investment solutions to the market. Through both organic growth, as well as partnerships with boutique managers, the firm seeks to deliver a diverse range of investment products across traditional asset management, real estate and private equity platforms. The goal is to provide investors with wealth preservation and current income strategies to meet their liability-driven needs. FWCP and its subsidiaries serve institutions, high net worth and individual investors.

 

Like I said, there is going to be a very steep learning curve. As an independent firm (with far fewer employees than the bulge banks), I am going to be working closely with clients and senior members of the firm. While this raises some concerns, I think I am more excited about the opportunities that I will get to learn the business inside out. It will be really valuable to learn the technical side of the business, and even more valuable to take part in interpersonal business at high levels. Ultimately, this should be a tremendous experience.

 

I am very excited to start my career in finance, and I hope to hit the ground running.

Summer is over... Ross here I come again!

This is my last post for the summer, and I am glad to say that yesterday I had the best day of my life. I received a full time offer from Citibank, to return next year as a full time associate in the M&A Group. After all my efforts, energy and time dedicated to achieve such a goal, I felt extremely satisfied of what I accomplished. It’s a tough process and competition is fierce. Out of 5000 resumes received, the bank chooses only few of them and I realized that the opportunity I got was extremely unique.

This internship went far beyond all my expectations. I met great people, I learned tremendously and every day has been different. New deals to work on, new responsibilities, a dynamic and fast pace environment that kept my mind busy all the time. If you like difficult challenges, this is definitely the place you want to be.

I can’t wait to see all my classmates again. We all spent our summer in different cities and countries and I am sure it’s going to be awesome to hear all their stories. Ross is a great school, full of talented people that are down-to-earth and ready to achieve amazing results always with a smile on their faces. I am proud of being part of such a group and I am sure that if you are reading this post you have already realized what I am writing here by going to school.

Life is a never-ending journey and Ross helped me shaping my career in the way I wanted it to be, and I will always be thankful for that. Above everything, it’s all the people I met at school that really made the difference and my experience special.

Hope I managed to give you an idea of what I lived this summer, as for me it has been the most important of my life.

All the best and good luck with your career search.

Matteo

Only 3 more weeks to go!

In my last post I told you about how time goes fast and I am even more convinced now that I only have 3 weeks left.

Last week I had my mid-summer review with the staffer of my group and HR. It was a very comprehensive review where they highlighted they gave me an extremely candid feedback. The purpose of it is to make us reflect on what we did well and what we can improve on, and to update us on where we stand.

This is the first free weekend that I have and I have to say it feels really good. I am going to meet all my classmates who are in NYC for a drink soon, and after that we will go for dinner. NYC is amazing, it offers everything you need and it’s unbelievable the amount of different nationalities you can find here. I lived in Amsterdam before and I thought it was one of the most international cities in the world, and it is, but I have to say NYC is unique and at the top of my list now.

Chinatown, SOHO, Little Italy, West Village, East Village, Downtown… all the areas are different and you can really feel different vibes all around the city. Everywhere is full of restaurants, bars, pubs… anything you need. Everything is convenient: banks, shops, laundry service, groceries… the concept of ‘anytime, anywhere’ really exists here.

I am very excited about the city and the job so far. It’s been an amazing experience and I will always remember it as one of the most important and formative of my life. I met a lot of new great people and I expanded my horizon further.

I also look forward to seeing all my classmates again and to go back to Ann Arbor to live my second year at school. It’s going to be awesome and I am also very curious to meet all my new classmates MBA1. Go Blue guys!

Talk soon,

Matteo

It's unbelievable...

...Once you start, time goes really fast.

It’s unbelievable but I am already half-way of this amazing adventure. Next week we will have our mid-summer review and I am very excited to hear how I have been doing so far in my new role. I have tried to meet as many people as people in order to arrive at the review well prepared and not too much stressed.

In terms of the workflow, it has always been really busy. During the past week I have been staffed on five different deals and I have been learning tremendously. Everybody is willing to help and people in my group are extremely nice and friendly. Every time you need help, you can just shoot an email or walk to the desk of any colleagues and they are ready to guide you.

My ‘junior’ mentor has been very helpful in giving me great advice during the past weeks. We have a coffee chat once in a while and he updates me on what’s going on in the news and in the group. We also have a monthly M&A meeting where the head of the group is showing us all the financial results of our group. Each meeting he brings in different representatives from the bank and outside of the bank that can give us interesting different perspectives.

Last week it was the 4^th of July weekend. I had to work but I managed to go home at a reasonable time in order to see the fireworks from the rooftop of my building. It was great!

This weekend we have to prepare a presentation for a Monday meeting. Even if it is weekend, we are all together in the office and with a great team hours goes fast and hopefully tonight we will all find ourselves at a bar with a drink in our hand after an intense week of work.

Keep you posted!

Matteo

The investment banking journey continues...

It’s been only two weeks of full time work and I learned tremendously. Working hours are pretty intense but once you start you get used to it quickly. The pace is fast, extremely challenging and every day there are new things to learn. It is exactly how I thought it would be.

My colleagues are very nice and helpful. Every time I have a question they are ready to sit down with me and help me. In my first week I got staffed on two live deals related to two different industries. It is very exciting because even if I never worked in those specific industries, I have the possibility to learn a lot in few days by reading reports, asking my colleagues and using all the resources that Citi has.

Two days ago I got staffed on a new project, my third deal. In banking you have to learn how to work in parallel on different deals, at different stages of the process and with different senior and junior people. You develop a unique set of skills that are and will always be extremely valuable for your present and future career.

All the people I met during the training week are now friends I can trust and on which I can rely. Every time our group has requests in terms of data I can ask my peers in the other groups and in few minutes I get what we need. I learned how important is to build relationships across different groups in the bank and to maintain them throughout my career.

I got assigned to a junior and senior mentor within the group. These are the people that will follow me through the process and will help me in case I have any problem with work, colleagues, etc. I have a bi-weekly coffee chat with my junior mentor, who is a director. It is very interesting to hear his perspective and also his background and role within the bank now.

Despite the fact that we work hard, we also love playing hard. Even if we go out of the office late at night, we try to find the time to hang out together. This is a great way to meet new people and to extend my network even further.

As always, I will keep you posted!

Best,

Matteo

The investment banking journey began!

The journey started only less than two weeks ago and so far it has been amazing. I arrived in New York City on the 6^th of June and I was hosted for a week by a classmate from Ross. I managed to find an apartment on Craigslist in a very nice location, pretty convenient to commute to go to downtown to the office.

The summer associate program started with a week of training. The first day was very exciting as I met all my new colleagues of the summer associate class and I am proud of representing Ross as an international student. I am surrounded by smart individuals from other top business school in the US such as Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago Booth etc. Training was a great way to get started and to meet most of them. Despite the fact that it was a week of training, one night I went home pretty late as we had an assignment due in less than 24 hours. It was a job simulation and we had to value a company that was exploring a merger with another company. We had to learn how to use Factset (an investment analytic tool) and use all the excel files they provided us to perform the valuation. We were divided in sub-teams and this was a great way to bond with some of my colleagues and to make new friends.

The last day of training was volunteer day. We went to a park and we had to do gardening all together. It was nice to see how future bankers can contribute to the community and have fun at the same time. After that we had a welcome drink event where I met other nice colleagues.

Next week is my first ‘real work’ week and I am very excited. I will be staffed on Monday morning and I guess it is going to be very busy. I spoke with some summer analysts in my group (M&A) who started a week earlier and they told me they have been going home very late every night.

Keep you posted on how it goes!

Matteo

Winding Down!

Its amazing fast the summer program's gone that I can’t believe it’s all coming to an end this week. I presented my summer project to a team of hard core bankers and got very good reviews. Seems they were impressed by my understanding of the strategic rationale of the deal I analyzed (I wonder why I didn't take up the Corp Strategy offer I got instead, maybe I’d have aced it). At this stage in the program, the vast majority of my fellow interns are obsessed over who'd be receiving an offer from which group. Funny how your perspectives change: I have finally realized that contrary to my enthusiastic first post in this blog, I don't want to spend the next four years building models and prepping presentations in the concrete jungle that is NY. So much for mastering the universe - I'm now quite relaxed and taking things in my stride and trying to savor these last days. I spent a good chunk of last week networking with various people here at, including having an hour-long debate with a Managing Director on the merits and demerits of Obamacare (aka healthcare reform bill). Of course I was the unyielding liberal while he played the role of the rational free market advocate.

I'll be having my end of period review on Wednesday and I look forward to receiving all the superlative comments on my performance on the second half (yeah right). However the real treat would be the freedom to explore NY for a few days afterwards and hopping on a plane to Atlanta with a couple of friends before deciding whether to go back to AA for more learning (just kidding).

Let me closeout my participation in this blog by offering some tidbits of advice to incoming MBAs: if you do find yourself in a generalist Investment Banking summer internship program, bond quickly with the very first group you work with, be flexible in your group preferences (I was not, for personal reasons) and spend a boatload of time with as many people in your group as you can. May the force be with you!

P.S. Kindly forgive any typos you see in this post..... I'm typing on my iPhone keyboard and needless to say, my thumbs are quite arthritic now.

I will come back for more

One feels a strange mix of emotion at the end of an intense summer internship. A feeling of relief as work winds down combined with a tinge of reluctance at putting a pause on newly formed professional relationships. Would I return full time to Credit Suisse?

Of the myriad factors to consider when choosing a full time job, the strongest pull to join Credit Suisse would be the people. Throughout the summer, I have received help and friendship from many bankers in CS. They have been open and honest with advice, providing important insight into the ins and outs of an investment banker's life. Not only has everyone in the office been polite and kind, they have taken the time to teach me so much about the financial industry. Their amiability alone confirms that the working environment will be a pleasant and conducive one.

As for the nature of the work, we have all learned about job satisfaction in our MO classes. Task significance, autonomy and task variety make for vital intrinsic motivation. Investment banking offers all of these. First, you are staffed on multiple projects at once. We work on M&A deals, IPO launches, follow-on offerings and pitches. We also have to prioritize and manage our time efficiently so that deadlines on multiple projects are met. It is altogether challenging and stimulating. Task significance is a given. All projects represent significant milestones in a company's life cycle - bankers advise on important strategic and financial decisions and get the chance to mingle with the CEOs and CFOs of billion-dollar institutions. One couldn't have a more satisfying out-of-college experience.

All in all, it has been an inspiring and privileged summer. As a college student with minimal work experience, the opportunity to see and learn from industry experts has been mind-blowing.

So the answer to the question, is yes.

Nearly There!

How time flies when you’re having fun! I've been very busy since my last post and a lot of things have happened. Last week, we had our golf day outing, where we spent the whole day schmoozing with the big guns i.e. Managing Directors. It was pretty hilarious, watching people who'd never played golf as they went through 18 holes. We didn't get back to Tribeca until 9:30 PM and although some of us had to go back to work, there'll be no brownie points for guessing that the summer associates' section on my floor was relatively quiet (and empty) as we'd worked muscles we never knew existed.

Another major event was going to a nice restaurant with the family on my birthday. They were surprised that I was able to take a break from work to do dinner (thanks to a wonderfully understanding Director that ordered me out of the office). I'm shamelessly advertizing here, but if anyone reading this is ever in New York, be sure to try out "La Sirene" on Broome Street. It’s a delightfully cosy French restaurant (just blink and you’ll miss it) and they make the best hanger steak ever. Of course that wasn’t the only thing good about the day – getting to have a family dinner for the first time in 7 weeks was definitely a treat by itself. Other than this, I have very little perspective to offer in the way of life in New York as practically all of my summer has so far been spent with the (four?) hallowed walls of the bank. Maybe if this blog stays open until after my last day at work, I'll be able to regale you all with detail of the culture and entertainment I plan on taking in. But until that time, please bear with me.

I need not tell anyone that my industry is pretty tough, but nothing could have prepped me for the reality. That said, there's something to be said for the people I work with and their resilience. Networking has been pretty exhausting and despite our best efforts (I've been told I'm very reserved), a number of us are still not sure that we've made that critical "aha" connection. Although I will keep on bringing my “A” game to the pitch, I definitely no longer worry about not getting a full time offer as I now see that I win either way. In any case whatever the end is, all I can say is that “I’m nearly there”.

Sunset on internship

The sun is setting on my summer internship. With just two weeks left to go, my feelings are mixed regarding the end of my stint at CS. I feel reluctant to leave the people I have spent an entire summer building up good relationships with, yet excited that senior year is about to begin.

The culture at CS is amiable yet professional. You'll probably never meet a more diverse workforce than the one at the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) group at CS. Even though I am in America, I am surrounded by people from every corner of the globe - there are people from Nigeria, India, Singapore, America, the Netherlands, Canada, France, Australia and Bulgaria. It is stimulating to work on a daily basis with people of such different backgrounds and nationalities. For this reason, I deeply appreciate the CS company culture. It makes an effort to hire employees from different nations and of different backgrounds. People can be themselves instead of trying to fit into a corporate mold.

One thing I am grateful for at the TMT group at CS is that our group head has taken the effort to organize weekly lunches through the summer with various high-level people working throughout the bank. There was the head of equity capital markets, the new chief of branding and communications, and just last week there was the head of fixed income. The head of fixed income is such an inspiring figure. Not only does he manage risk-taking at CS effectively, he also finds time to liaise between CS and the government. In a time when governmental regulation has increasing potential to affect the industry, it is vital that every bank has someone who can effectively communicate the bank's position to government officials. He has even had long conversations with Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi.

The group will be deciding if we receive return offers on August 6. That's only a week of real work left before our fates are decided. Onwards and upwards I say.