Eat, Sleep, Work, Network

You're social life in consulting, is going to vary significantly on your team, project, and location. For those of you who may get posted in a small town in the midwest that has 1 sheraton hotel your options after work may be limited. Having said that, it is likely you will really get to know your co-workers by the end of the internship.

For those of you who are posted in Boston, NYC, San Fran etc, there will be a lot more options. Having said that, your experience will end up being what you make of it.

In consulting, (and i'm sure many other fields) the social life is part of your networking, which is a significant part of your experience over the summer. In order for to obtain my full time offer, I am being evaluated on several factors which include the basics (written, communication, presentation skills, etc). But more importantly, am I a social "fit" within my team.

As a team we spend a lot of hours together, especially considering that we travel. It is not uncommon after a 10 hour work day, to have a 2 hour dinner meeting/discussion. That's a lot of time to spend with people you just met. And if you don't enjoy each others' company it feels a lot longer than 12 hours!!!

Those are just the days where I am on the customer's site (in Boston). On Friday, I am typically in my home office in Chicago where I need to network with the peers at the local office, mentors, partners, etc. OH and somehow find time with the family as well (wife and son).

It is a daunting task, no doubt but that is what we sign up for in consulting. You will find you come become very efficient with your hours, and flexible. One specific example, there was a partner at my firm who I really wanted to meet to learn more about his work and experience. We both happened to be golf fans, so we played a round of 18 holes on Saturday morning, at 5:50am!!! That was his only availability!

The "easy" part about the networking, is the firm knows how important is too network and have made every effort to make it easier for the interns. A sample of events that they have provided to date:

• Every friday happy hour in the office at 4pm. The firm provides food and drinks, which has a magic affect on attracting people
• Cubs game - Attended by associates, partners, interns, etc
• Taste of Chicago festival: Provided free food tickets
• Various nights out at local bars/restaurants etc

In regards to workload, I'm not going to lie. There is a lot of work to do. However, there is no cookie cutter model to predict your workload. It is dependent on a multitude of factors which include

• The client
• The partner/principle driving the project
• stage of the project (starting, mid, ending)
• proposal work vs deliverable work
• location
• team composition

In my case, our project was at the early stages. Within 3 weeks the project was cancelled, and restarted in a lesser capacity with half the team. There have been days where I worked 12 hours, others where I had light 8 hour days. Read other blogs, talk to other interns, there are those who work 14 hours days.

The message here...be prepared for variability. Do not expect a 9-5 lifestyle. But expect variety, interesting work, really smart people, and to be challenged on a daily basis.

Until next time..

Omair

Internship ++

It's been a while, and it's been busier...

True, I've learnt a lot about the industry and how things are done. I'm also more comfortable with the people around me, who I work with, and also my daily tasks - therefore I finish my work faster. However, work never ends.

There are 13 interns within Market Risk Management and Analysis, some are PhD students (modelers), some are undergraduates (analyst) , and some are MBAs (corporate). The intern manager in my department gave us a new intern group project to use our skills cohesively to analyze crises. Yeah, that's vague.

My team tries to work on the different matrices and indices to look at the risk factors and correlations between crises. We're not set yet, but we have a solid game plan. I think this topic is very challenging. The fact that it's open ended made it more difficult, and with only 3 weeks to go, we're concerned that we will not have time to finish this. Most interns sacrifice their weekends to finish their current daily project already, with this additional project, we will have to prioritize on which one is the most important one.

Additionally, our buddy gave us this tip: the first half of the internship is about task quality, the second half is about networking. We're required to meet with different people from different departments to learn more about them, at the same time learn more about our department. That is time-consuming. There is so much to do in so little time.

While most people are enjoying the sun in NY City, I guess the Market Risk interns will have to enjoy the ultra-violet ray from our Bloomberg Screen.

Cheers!

3rd week (out of 10) into the internship

Hello,

I'm liking NYC more and more- the restaurants, the entertainment, street activities, parades, and also my job. Working in Market Risks Analysis, I have to generate a lot of numbers which I initially didn't understand. Now, I am able to understand it so much better, what it's used for and what people can do with the numbers. The bank's ability to analyze trends from the weekly, monthly, and also quarterly reports really shows how detail oriented they are!

Last Friday, I had my informal review with my manager talking about my strengths, my weaknesses, and also about the internship experience for me so far. So far, the reviews have been good, and I'm expecting better things to come along the way. I was able to tell him the things that I might want to explore, even outside the department, and he was able to set things up so that I can manage my career better. Internal mobility within the firm is tremendously encouraged. I really like how personalized this internship has been, both from the activities and also from the friendships I made with the interns.

Also, the bank has a women's champion network to ensure that women can get leadership positions within the firm. They teach us to ask the right question, to "manipulate" our presence, and making sure that we are able to sell ourselves appropriately. I thought it was a very interesting presentation because women tends to be shy when asking questions. They encourage people to escalate problems as soon as possible and not pretend to be smart...

I've also started get to know my colleagues better, hanging out with them, and in fact, I'm going to have dim-sum with them in 1 hour time! I would definitely love to learn about them a little bit more, especially their humility despite of their great achievements!

Stacy Lim

Goldman Haven

Hi everyone,

My first week of internship had been super great. I'm bombarded with training for the first week, shadowing after, and I should be able to make my first contribution to the firm by next week. The building faces the Hudson river and the statue of Liberty, which made my workplace a relaxing place to be at. I'm still learning to navigate around excel to be as proficient as I could be, it's a steep learning curve to memorize all the short-cuts and jargon that my team (MRMA) uses everyday.

New York has definitely treated me well. I initially had some problem with housing, I was scammed. But now I'm staying at the FIT dorm, which is 1 metro stop away from times square, and 20 minutes away from the office. New York has ALL the kinds of food that you ever crave for: ZAGAT rated restaurants, Michelin star-rated restaurants, Italian, Japanese, and also Halal food on the streets.

Everything else is awesome, including the metro! I got the monthly pass, and I'm enjoying the ride! I hope everything is as well as this week from today onward until the end of the internship!

Stacy Lim

First post

Hey, I am Biswaroop and I am a 1st year MBA student at the Ross School of Business. I am an international student from India and am interning at Microsoft, with their online advertisement strategy group. I am very passionate about internet technologies and therefore was thrilled to get this offer.

I am very excited about the opportunity to work with amazingly smart people at a very innovative company and hope to utilize this opportunity to do some great work over the summer. Microsoft and Amazon interns from Ross stay in the same apartment in downtown Seattle. This summer, there will be close to 25 of us in the same apartment complex and I am looking forward to enjoying Seattle and having a good time.