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.

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!

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 :)

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.

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!