Undergrad student at a small, non-target university - having a hard time finding an internship relating to investment management/research type roles because of my education and limited work experience (currently in my 1st internship at a brokerage firm). I recently came across an opportunity at a major utility company for a summer internship, but ideally I wanted to find something more relevant to my career goals. But, obviously I will take what I can get at this point, since financial experience can never hurt I guess. Anyways, just wanted to get some feedback from everyone here - will it be worth my time to interview here for the internship, or should I keep looking for something more relevant? Job Description: Intern - Financial Planning & Analysis Assist with the following: *Provide guidance on financial matters associated with various strategic business opportunities and projects. *Act as finance representative on project teams, with the objective of managing all financial analysis of projects and coordination of all finance function support requirements; *Develop and maintain financial models with the appropriate complexity to support decision making, provide sensitivity analysis around critical assumptions and quantification of risk parameters; *Work with business units and Enterprise Risk Management to probe business issues to gain an understanding of regulatory, legislative, and industry environments in order to develop financial, strategic, and operational assumptions that support project evaluations; and, *Prepare presentations summarizing financial impacts and economics of strategic business transactions/projects to support Senior Management decision making. Doesn’t seem too bad, and would at least give me some more experience. Thoughts?
I would take it if I were in your shoes.
<> And you should do exactly that, unless you thought you’d somehow be better off spending your summer unemployed…
Particularly interested in comments regarding the description. I know I should take it if I don’t find anything else - guess I phrased the original post wrong.
My only concern would be about the networking opportunities present for this internship. From my personal experience, I have gained more from the connections made through my internship than the actual work experience itself. I worked an unpaid internship for a year at the local branch office of a major investment firm. The work sucked but I was able to meet some people and get a foot into the industry. This was very important since I worked in fast-food / landscaping at the time in order to pay my tuition, and I had absolutely zero relevant work experience. I ended up getting a decent job there after graduating, which lead to a better job… etc. If I were you I would try and see if anything is available at a company where you could actually see yourself working in the future. Otherwise take the job, it sounds like it would be useful experience and will look better on a resume than mowing lawns all summer.
The key questions: What year are you? What kind of experience and things are you doing at the Brokerage firm now? And don’t exaggerate- if you’re copying, filing, cold-calling…say so. What do you THINK you want to do after you graduate? The answers to these questions would def help to see if you 1) have time to find another opportunity before you graduate 2) are going to gain different and valuable experience. With that being said, I wouldn’t rule out this opp…it all depends on the answers above. And to be honest with you there are many college graduates that still want to find something more relevant to their career goals but have to settle for working at a Utility company. If you’re late in your college career and haven’t gained much experience so far, you can always take the internship and plan to pass CFA level 1 before you graduate.
I’m a senior, graduating in December 08. I switched majors late from computer science to finance, so I didn’t do my first finance related internship until fall of last year. I’m taking CFA L1 in December as well. I’m hoping to do a summer internship, and then 1 more in the fall before I graduate. My internship now is more of an operational role than anything else, although I do not do any cold-calling or filing. A lot of stuff relating to client’s accounts - transactions, opening new accounts, etc… but also work with some of the brokers on investment proposals and asset allocation stuff which helps a little bit (not much, but something is better than nothing). Research is what I like the most, so if I could see myself doing anything after graduating (job market aside) it would be that. Investment management type roles interest me as well. I have a couple of contacts that I am still waiting on at some more relevant companies, but this opportunity just came up the other day so I didn’t want to rule it out yet.
j-rad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’m a senior, graduating in December 08. I > switched majors late from computer science to > finance, so I didn’t do my first finance related > internship until fall of last year. I’m taking > CFA L1 in December as well. I’m hoping to do a > summer internship, and then 1 more in the fall > before I graduate. > > My internship now is more of an operational role > than anything else, although I do not do any > cold-calling or filing. A lot of stuff relating > to client’s accounts - transactions, opening new > accounts, etc… but also work with some of the > brokers on investment proposals and asset > allocation stuff which helps a little bit (not > much, but something is better than nothing). > > Research is what I like the most, so if I could > see myself doing anything after graduating (job > market aside) it would be that. Investment > management type roles interest me as well. > > I have a couple of contacts that I am still > waiting on at some more relevant companies, but > this opportunity just came up the other day so I > didn’t want to rule it out yet. Yeah if you can’t find anything else, I’d take a risk and go far it. You can argue that the brokerage firm gave you client service skills and knowledge of the market…this internship will give you analytical skills, financial modeling exp, risk analysis, etc. Couple that with CFA Level 1 and you’re way ahead of the game. I think it’s best to get all the diff aspects of financial experience on your resume. All of those factors come into play in Research, etc…and you don’t want too much operational experience b/c that will pigeon hole you into getting mostly operational job offers.
Thanks for the advice TPain88.
I found another internship opportunity, but this time it is Institutional Operations at a well known asset management firm. Job Description: Institutional Operations group is looking for a Summer Intern to work in our Stamford, CT office. The Operations group is responsible for portfolio accounting, reconciliation, portfolio reporting, corporate actions, pricing, and custodian trade communication. Our internships provide students with relevant, constructive work experience, and although there may be some routine clerical duties, such duties will not constitute the majority of the intern’s workload. Other duties as assigned. ---------------------- I know it’s operations, but is an internship in operations at a reputable asset management firm better than FP&A at a large utility company? Input appreciated.
Depends on what you want to do longer term. I would take the job at the AM, stay 1 or 2 years and take a second position in the AM, probably in mid office function. In general, it’s a good idea to stay away from the heavily regulated industries.
Danteshek: These are both summer internships. I like the description of the job at the utility company better, but like the reputation/networking possibilities of the AM firm. Ultimately I want to get into either equity research/investment management, and since I am not finding any other internships along those lines, I have to take what is available. So you’re saying the AM internship would be better? I don’t graduate until Dec. of this year, so I’m trying to think how that would pan out - summer internship, ends when my last semester starts - no way to get an offer I’m assuming since I won’t be done with school and able to work full time for 4 months after the internship is finished. Any thoughts?
j-rad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Danteshek: > > These are both summer internships. I like the > description of the job at the utility company > better, but like the reputation/networking > possibilities of the AM firm. Ultimately I want > to get into either equity research/investment > management, and since I am not finding any other > internships along those lines, I have to take what > is available. > > So you’re saying the AM internship would be > better? I don’t graduate until Dec. of this year, > so I’m trying to think how that would pan out - > summer internship, ends when my last semester > starts - no way to get an offer I’m assuming since > I won’t be done with school and able to work full > time for 4 months after the internship is > finished. > > Any thoughts? It’s a tough call. I agree that the skills, etc. of the utility company are useful but if you really want to get into investment management/asset management/eq research I say go for the Operations opportunity. What type of firm is this? Is this purely an operational firm or do they manage funds as well. The information you learn will def be more relevant in this opp, I say go for this one, and then look for middle/front office jobs after you graduate (with this firm and others). Don’t be afraid to look outside of this company for full time offers but always network within the company that you’re currently employed.
TPain88: can you shoot me an email at jperlin (at) gmail (dot) com, or post yours here? I’d like to talk in a little more detail if you don’t mind.
j-rad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > TPain88: can you shoot me an email at jperlin > (at) gmail (dot) com, or post yours here? I’d > like to talk in a little more detail if you don’t > mind. sent