"I'm an M&A MD at a US bank. I used these tricks to convert my internship"
If you're an intern at an investment bank this summer, then good luck. Converting your internship into a graduate job is never assured. In many years, only 50% of students make it. This year, that might be lower still.
Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.
I've spent over a decade working in M&A for US investment banks and am now a managing director. However, my own banking career would have ended at the intern stage were it not for some amazing advice from a mentor.
I don't come from a financial services family. When I started my internship, I knew comparatively little about banking or how to behave in a professional environment. My mother was a nurse who worked full-time to pay her way through nursing school while raising five kids. My dad was a bus driver.
When I decided I was interested in a banking career, I cold-emailed loads of people in banking. One of them responded, and she became my mentor in my early career. She helped me get into business school, and then she coached me to get an internship at the bank where she was a managing director (MD) herself.
In my community, we respect our elders. When I arrived for my internship, I came with that attitude. I wouldn't look people in the eye or ask questions. I'd put my head down and grind through the work. When I didn't understand how to do something, I'd work it out myself instead of asking the analysts. That doesn't play well in banking. When you're an intern in a bank, you're expected to be proactive. They want you to ask questions and to be genuinely intellectually curious.
I was fortunate, then, that during the internship my mentor pointed out that I was going wrong. She took an active interest in how well I was doing, and she came to me after the midsummer review and told me I was at risk of not getting a full-time offer. I had no idea that this was the case. I thought I was doing ok!
In fact, I was making some fundamental mistakes. I didn't understand the subtle things that are required to convert a banking internship. - Things like not leaving the office before your superiors, putting in face time, scheduling coffee chats.
My mentor told me four tricks that turned the situation around. Firstly, she said that every time I completed an assignment, I needed to ask for feedback right away. Secondly, she said that every time I completed a project, I needed to ask for informal feedback. Thirdly, she said I needed to arrange coffee chats with associates, directors and MDs in my team and adjacent teams to get to know people and learn about their roles. And fourthly, she said I needed to make it very clear to everyone that I was really enjoying my time with the bank.
In pursuit of this fourth point, she advised me to do something very specific. - She said that during the group outing, I should go to the group head and tell him that I really enjoyed the summer, that I was grateful for the opportunity, and that if he would have me, I would really love to come back.
I went away and did all those things. At the end of the internship, I got an offer. My staffer came and told me he didn't know what had happened, but I'd completely turned things around. It was thanks to my mentor - she was like my guardian angel!
I'm sharing her advice now to help other interns like me, who aren't the finished product. There's a technique to getting a job from your banking internship. Use it!
Jarmal Lloyd is the pseudonym of an MD in New York City
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
