JUNE 2022

10 Tips For Summer Interns In Finance

1. RELATIONSHIPS. Spend your summer building relationships with your fellow interns. Never view any of these people as your competitors because life is not “zero sum.” These people may become your future clients, business partners, friends and trusted confidants. Every one of us remembers our own “insecurities” and “cluelessness” when we first started. Be certain that when the people reflect back and say they “knew you back when,” they will always remember if you were helpful, kind, inquisitive, competent, team oriented and most importantly, a person they could trust.

2. ALWAYS DIFFERENT. Every summer is different and that means every summer intern class has different opportunities and challenges. Last summer was defined by nonstop action throughout the capital markets which created a “fire hose” of experience and learning opportunities. This year it appears that volatility, challenging if not impossible capital markets, and extreme investor confusion (panic) may rule the summer months. You can learn a great deal in both good and bad markets so make sure you don’t miss all the valuable lessons you can soak in this summer by wasting time regretting all of the experience you could have gotten in rosier times. Both learning experiences are equally invaluable.  

3. IS THIS FOR YOU? Yes, you need to focus your energy on earning a full time job at the firm you are interning with. You are all ambitious “type A” people or you wouldn’t be in your current seats so no need to try to convince you otherwise. However, also spend the summer really assessing if you can see yourself truly enjoying a career in the industry, firm, division and role of your summer job. Get to know the people around you at various career levels to get an understanding of what the next 10+ years of your lives could look like. Try to listen and really understand their enjoyment, frustrations, challenges and opportunities. Don’t get sucked into jumping onto the “finance treadmill” because you are now part of the crowd and that is the direction the crowd is jumping today. This is a great summer to decide what you want to do when you graduate.  It is also a great summer to decide what you don’t want to do. As long as you are honest with yourself, both are valuable conclusions. 

4. CHOOSE INTEGRITY. This summer should be the final step in your decision to embrace the concept that honesty, integrity and reputation will be three foundational pillars of who you are as a person and how you will act throughout your entire career. Right at this moment, every single summer intern has their reputation intact. It is easy to take this for granted as a given and feel invincible because you just assume it will always be this way. It will always be this way for those who make a conscious and pro-active decision to surround themselves with other good people, stand and speak up firmly when they see bad actors or behavior, deliver unwanted news in an honest and timely manner and always take responsibility and ownership for their actions. For those who start cutting their first corner and (God help them) get away with it, watch out. This summer you will meet the people who do it all the right way because the ones who cut the corner(s), eventually get smacked head first into a wall and are now nowhere to be seen. It is all that fragile. 

5. THINK. Summer interns have to do a lot. So much so that you can get completely caught up in “doing” and wind up being so narrowly focused that you neglect one of the most important skills these programs afford: “thinking.” You will find yourself working countless hours and whether you are producing spreadsheets, pitch books, research analysis or whatever, when the specific assignments are done, shame on you if you don’t allow yourself to truly learn and internalize what you just did.  Yes, it’s great to be prolific in your work and make every deadline with time to spare. That is a job done “well.” If you want to do a “great” job, sit back and ask yourself (or at the right time ask the people you work with):  Why did I do this analysis? What was the conclusion? How will this be used by a client?  Is there something I could have done that would have made the conclusion more productive? How should this best be delivered to the client? What decisions will this cause the client to determine? What should I anticipate will be the next step? How can I help my team most add value? Suddenly you aren’t just “doing,” but you are “thinking.” Welcome to the real world of finance.  

6. HAVE A LIFE. A summer internship in finance can be one of the most intense work periods of your career. Everything is new, peer pressure is at a max, proving yourself every second seems the only way, and failure is not an option. If you draw the line in the sand this summer when things are so intense and decide now that you will maintain some reasonable degree of balance in your life, you will set the right foundation for the rest of your career. This means getting some exercise daily, eating well, staying in touch with family and friends, maintaining personal interests and having a life. Get your work done and get out of the office (or just close the laptop at home). Hanging out to show unnecessary “face time” or feeling pride about your “martyr complex” is vastly overrated. Besides, if you are always first in and last out people might just come to the conclusion that you can’t be that smart if you are that slow. That’s a joke but hopefully the point is made. 

7. THIS IS REAL. Force yourself to come to grips with the reality that all of these zeros at the end of everything you are working on are real. These are big numbers. You are working on deals that involve huge dollar amounts for your firm’s clients. Be accurate because many zeros after any number add up and even the smallest of mistakes on really big numbers is a problem. Further, realize what you are working on is much more than numbers. The math represents your firm’s ability to help client’s solve their most critical issues as well as seize their most exciting opportunities. Behind all the dollars are management teams and investors who are living, breathing human beings who are responsible for a lot of other real people. People’s lives are directly affected by the analysis we do, the advice we provide and the execution we all deliver. Companies can make acquisitions that will determine the direction of their future. Investors will put money to work that will affect their stakeholders who are real retirees, pension holders, endowments or just hardworking individuals. The point here is to realize this summer that one of the most exciting aspects of what you are doing is that you are truly impacting outcomes that are important to real people.  Be accurate and take pride in doing something important.

8. FUN. This summer will be a waste if you don’t have fun and enjoy yourself. Enjoy the people you meet and don’t be intimidated by anyone. Don’t take yourself or any of the people in our industry too seriously. Every one of us has our own insecurities and truth be told, we are all just doing our best every day by “winging it.” You might be too focused on covering up your own inadequacies to recognize that none of us really have all the answers, but it is the truth. There is no rule that you need to check your personality or individuality at the door when you join finance. In fact, the people who do best in the long term are the ones that naturally enjoy people and let their personality and authenticity shine. Don’t go loony here, but be yourself and have at least a little fun every day.

9. WHO’S NEXT. The day you start your internship is the day you can start helping others at your respective schools who are interested in finance get their jobs for the summer of  2023. It’s easy to think that you are a “baby” in finance and have nothing to offer in terms of mentorship or assistance to others, but that is wrong. You got here through hard work, focus and perhaps others assisting you along the way. Time to pay it forward and do the same for the classmates behind you. They too are not your competition but your future allies and friends. Start working with your career development programs and begin planning on how you can be of assistance to your underclassmen. You will have even more great advice and perspective to offer them after the summer, but the time to get started is today.

10. WHAT’S NEXT? Plan now for a short trip after the internship and before school starts. There are very few times in life (they will get increasingly rare) when you can truly have zero guilt about rewarding yourself with some time away to zone out, unplug, unwind and have fun. You will have worked really hard this summer. You have more than a little cash leftover (maybe for the first time in your life). It doesn’t have to be extravagant. Treat yourself well and do something with friends or family.  Then go back to school with a recharged battery and get ready to start all over!

RICH HANDLER
CEO, Jefferies Financial Group
1.212.284.2555
[email protected]
@handlerrich Twitter | Instagram
Pronouns: he, him, his