Preparing for Internships in the Business World (Part II)

Level 5 – Asset Management, Investment Banking and Strategy Consulting
First, here are a few firms that fit into these categories: Ariel Capital Management, Barclays Capital, Bain, Bear Stearns, Booz Allen, Boston Consulting Group, Citadel, Citigroup, CSFB, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey & Co., Morgan Stanley, UBS Warburg, etc. These are the big players that mainly recruit at the nation’s top universities, usually offer the highest salaries (unlike start–ups), expect 60–90 hours a week (much like start–ups), and can often lead to full–time jobs and careers.

When you are an intern for most of these companies, they lose money on you. For example, if a strategy consulting firm is paying you $8,000 for 12 weeks during a summer, they are not making $8,000 back on your work and this means they are losing money training you. Great opportunity! Take advantage of having someone else pay you to get trained. Most of these companies offer excellent formal training programs and the presence of their name on your resume is always a boost. However, make sure you can explain on paper why your experience has been different than the typical low–level intern who performs menial tasks. Highlight what you learned beyond making PowerPoint presentations at your strategy consulting firm and dumping 10–Ks into Excel at your investment bank.
It is important gain the skills and knowledge of the people you work with, along with the connections you will acquire. Make sure to stay in touch with recruiters, as they can be your saviors or the bane of your existence. When you interview for a new position with one of in your background, make sure you explain that you are genuinely interested in the job—not just how it will look on your resume because they might feel that you are just looking for names to slap on your resume.
Other Opportunities
While everything that exists doesn’t necessarily fall into one of the above categories, most college level internships fit somewhere on this list. Experience in one of these industries will play a key role in securing a job after graduation.
Spinning Your Experience
It’s crucial to tell a compelling story. The best way to convince an employer that they should employ you is to make it seem like working for them is part of your life story: it’s your destiny to work at XYZ Co. For example, John is interviewing for an investment banking internship and this is his story:
“I have always been interested in investing. When I was 12, my mother got me the Stein Roe Young Investor game and I learned about the differences between different types of investment vehicles. When I was 16, my parents gave me $2000 to start my own online brokerage account and I invested it in two consumer durables companies and made a 24% return in one year, but then lost all of it next year. I learned a lot from the experience and realized that I needed more than just qualitative analysis to make good investment decisions. When I got to college, I enrolled in accounting and finance in order to understand the meaning behind P/E and EV/EBITDA ratios and various other metrics. I feel like working for _______ (John uses this same story at every place he interviews; he just changes the name and a few small details) because I want to build on my skills and work with intelligent people such as yourselves. I believe the team–oriented atmosphere at ________ (inserts company) will help me learn a lot. I hope that I will be able to add value here because I also value ________ (inserts main values/focus of the place John is interviewing).”
See—it makes sense. John is destined to work at every single investment bank he interviews with. Now, let’s not forget the other important components of qualifying for an internship (beyond the interview):
The Resume

• GPA (and GPA in major if it’s better than overall GPA) Note: many prestigious investment banks and strategy consulting firms will not interview anyone with a GPA below 3.5 (so go on—study!)
• Major and classes taken List relevant courses such as accounting or database management on your resume
• Past Work Experience Tell a story. Explain why you deserve the job and why you are right for the job.
• Extracurricular Activities This comes up all the time, but “leadership” experience is nice to have on a resume, no matter how fake or irrelevant it has become since everyone is the president of about five different clubs these days. It’s better to focus on one or two activities to show you are dedicated and not doing things just to list them on a resume.
• Skills Are you fluent in other languages? What about computer languages? Are you good with MS Excel and PowerPoint?

Conclusion
So that’s it—make a strong resume, get others to edit it (ask career advisors, human resources people, alumni, parents, etc.), and go rock your interviews. Before you do, though, make sure you have spent time thinking about what you want to do and how you will go about accomplishing it. Setting a path with definite goals can help you a lot. Good luck!
This article is brought to you by PrepMe.com
Article by Karan Goel and courtesy of www.careersandcolleges.com