M&A internship

In terms of the actualities, what is required?

i.e would an intern be assigned a task creating models? what are people's experiences.

also, how much modelling work can we get exposed to? given most models can be found from templates and just adjusted accordingly with rejigging numbres.

forgive my ignorance if this is not the case.

In terms of the actualities, what is required?

i.e would an intern be assigned a task creating models? what are people's experiences.

also, how much modelling work can we get exposed to? given most models can be found from templates and just adjusted accordingly with rejigging numbres.

forgive my ignorance if this is not the case.

From my experience,

Even if you know a lot, it's not that useful because every bank does stuff differently and this is what you have to get to grips with very fast. Most models I work on, you're just adding extra analysis, using a template, updating them, or fixing something. Never had to do a model from scratch or if so, it's a very, very basic analysis on something. Also, lots of powerpoint and ****ing around with Excel to make a graph look sexy and getting it into Powerpoint with all the right analysis/conclusions, engineering it to come to the right conclusion etc. Actually, my biggest problem was trying to make so much data look good/simple in a graph and presentable etc. Also, you're the guy doing the work so if you think in the presentation, some analysis is missing or would look better another way, or you should add something, then say. My Associate was disproportionately impressed by adding an extra row in a table on a presentation showing the trend of a different way of measuring a certain metric. Little weird things like that matter.

And actually, before you do anything, get a pen and paper and ask an Analyst to walk you through all the formatting rules regarding colours, bold, italics, types of graphs, hard coded numbers, font size and font type. Will save you lots of time later. And make sure everything is consistent in everything you work on.

Most of it is just asking the right questions to get what you need done as quickly as possible and doing what is asked. I've actually found you can get quite a few abstract and weird requests from time to time.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Quick Q: if you apply to say 3 divisions at an IB for SA internship, do you have to talk about all 3 divisions in your cover letter?

And would you say it wise to apply to 3 divisions?

You'd have to word the cover letter so it could be applicable to all divisions as it would be seen by representatives from all those divisions you'd applied to - it'll get binned if they feel like it's not relevant/very good. Although most people don't read them anyway so would probably be fine...

In light of that, I'd apply to one division or two if they are very similar and then really go for it.

Just my two cents.

Posted from TSR Mobile

If a CL is not required, then would you apply to as many divisions as you can?

What key things to learn before an internship in M&A?

You are generally not asked to do a lot of work on an internship.

In terms of the actualities, what is required?

i.e would an intern be assigned a task creating models? what are people's experiences.

also, how much modelling work can we get exposed to? given most models can be found from templates and just adjusted accordingly with rejigging numbres.

forgive my ignorance if this is not the case.

Quick Q: if you apply to say 3 divisions at an IB for SA internship, do you have to talk about all 3 divisions in your cover letter?

And would you say it wise to apply to 3 divisions?

Only really true for a summer internship,
.

....

It's August...



No one I have ever spoken to did work that required thought on a summer internship (in finance) and I certainly didn't in mine. What kind of company would let an intern have actual input on a live deal?


Posted from TSR Mobile

Built from scratch 2 3 statement DCF models for airlines at the buyside firm I'm at.

It's August...



No one I have ever spoken to did work that required thought on a summer internship (in finance) and I certainly didn't in mine. What kind of company would let an intern have actual input on a live deal?


Posted from TSR Mobile

And I'm guessing someone else went though every single line checking it (unless you had significant previous experience)?

I should amend my previous statement to "I've never heard of someone doing real work that wasn't also done by someone else at the firm who was full time".




Posted from TSR Mobile

Because it's August, its a bit late to ask what to do BEFORE an internship, so who knows....
It's august, how long have you been interning? And if you read what I said, you'd see that I did say the duration of your stay is relevant. So it is indeed unlikely a summer intern would do modelling unless they had significant previous experience. And some summer interns do come with up to 12 months worth of M&A internships and can be competent enough to handle more important tasks.
I also do mention that an intern would not get to model on a live deal.
Furthermore, I'd like to refer to the first sentence of mine you quote where I do say that this is generally true, meaning my statements thereafter are not the rule.
Now if you could read and apply common sense better, amybe you would get better tasks in your internship

Obivously every peice of work by the intern, unless utterly meaningless and superficial, gets checked by the analyst. The analyst's work in turn gets checked by the associate. The VP doesn't really need to check every detail, but it doesn't reflect well on him either is he lets an obvious mistake pass. Doesn't really negate the fact that both the intern and analyst actually did work.