By Jen Saarbach & Kristen Kelly, Co-Founders of The Wall Street Skinny
Jen here! For those of you who know me, many will recall that I didn’t get the return offer from my junior year summer internship. Yet only five years later, I found myself in charge of the all the summer interns rotating through the desks on the trading floor at the exact same firm I’d once interned for.
I’ve had the experience of being unworthy of a return offer, and I’ve seen what differentiates the great summer interns from the good…and the terrible.
Here, we’ve distilled down the top ten tips for success for those of you hoping to convert your internship into a full time offer:
- Internships are not always structured like school…yet you’re still being graded. Not given a project? Feeling underutilized? Advocate for yourself. Ask for ways to showcase what you’re learning. Pay attention to what your desk is working on, and assign yourself a project based on one of those topics.
- It IS a popularity contest. Build relationships with as many people across multiple desks as you can across a range of roles and seniority. You want lots of hands raised in support of you returning to the firm in whatever capacity possible.
- The work doesn’t end on the desk. Take advantage of any and all networking opportunities. Reach out to people across the firm for coffee chats. Any time you’re invited along on a desk outing, whether it be a formal event or a drink after work, try to join in with enthusiasm.
- Read the room. Everyone seems busy and stressed? Maybe not the best time to ask someone to take time away from work to answer your questions or teach you. Make a list of questions and find a more appropriate time to ask them. Basic or procedural questions? Ask the junior people. More complex, thematic, business level questions? Ask the senior people.
- Add value in any way you can. Most desks aren’t comfortable giving you high stakes, client facing assignments. But there are still endless ways to help the team. Yes, there’s the classic coffee/lunch orders, but there are also non client-facing internal projects you might be working on. Treat those as though the stakes are life and death, and prove you can be trusted with real work.
- Soft skills > technicals. As long as you demonstrate an ability to learn quickly, what you’re really being evaluated on is: “Do I want to sit next to you for 12-14 hours a day?” and “Can I trust you?” Remember people’s names after one introduction. Use proper email etiquette, addressing people in descending order of seniority. Show up first, leave last. And if you make a mistake, own up to it immediately.
- “Try 3 before me”. This was a rule I saw posted in a second grade classroom that applies to your internship. Have a question? Try three different ways of figuring it out before you ask someone to take time away from their work to answer it. Pause and try to logic it out. Utilize your access to resources online and in podcasts. Ask your peers. And present the question along with others you may have in order to make the most of someone else’s time.
- Be open to learning new things. Didn’t get assigned to the desk you THOUGHT you wanted? Might be a blessing. Rather than pouting and finagling to get more facetime with the group you thought was “best”, be open to possibilities. You might discover something that’s a better fit for your personality or captures your interest. Or you might just meet the mentor who will drive your entire career forward.
- Bond with your fellow summer interns. Chances are, you’re surrounded by the future leaders of Wall Street. Bare minimum? You’ve made a new friend with unlimited potential upside. You never know how valuable those relationships might be one day.
- Be prepared. Want a leg up on the competition? Spend the days ahead of your internship start date reading and learning as much as you can. Start learning HERE to get desk-ready, confident, and poised to maximize your odds of securing that return offer!
Good luck this summer!!