I know its been a while and that I should have posted a couple more things on the blog. Sorry I didn't keep you posted, so let me back into the last week.
I left the last post on edge because I wasn't staffed and it was my last week. I really wanted to kill it and leave no regrets but I was stuck not having much to do.
Well I ended up getting staffed to my surprise. The staffer went on vacation and the substitute sent out a message saying to send him our activity levels. So I sent an email saying, "I know that if new things come up that you will ultimately want to staff the new analysts, but if you have anything I can do, please staff me."
He called me and said, "We have project for you that will take a couple of days, could you do it?" So I ended up getting staffed anyway and it was great. It was great because it kept my mind off of dwelling on the offer and wondering what will happen. So I cranked on having a couple pages in a book ready for today and looking back I realize how far I have come because the pages were pretty complex and yet I was able to whip them out in no time. It felt good. And just like The Analyst, I feel like I am really starting to get it.
Thursday morning I had my final review at 8:30. I got into the office around 8:00 and at 8:15 I got called in to have my review. There were two interns before me, each with 15 minutes blocked out. So in my mind I am thinking, "If they finished 2 in 15 minutes they both probably have offers." Sure enough, they did.
I entered the room and sat down across from the VP who I actually was working with on this last staffing of mine. On the phone was the recruiter.
Recruiter: "Well Warpang as you know, I am sure this summer has been very challenging and rewarding at the same time. How did you feel it went for you."
Me: "I thought it went really well. You know we had those things to work on and I did my best to improve..."
Recruiter: "Yeah definitely. And it was clear from your review that you did make improvements in your second half of the internship. We are proud that you worked hard and well, I will let VP deliver the news..."
VP: "We were very impressed with you work and many have mentioned how enjoyable it is to work with you. We would like to extend and offer to come back next summer to join the analyst class of 2009."
Me: "Wow, awesome, thank you."
They handed me a letter and said I would be receiving stuff in the mail.
VP: "This is not an exploding offer. We are looking to have decisions made by the end of October but want you to take as much time as needed to make the right decision. Also, not everyone in your class today will receive an offer so please keep that in mind as you talk with people today."
Me: "Well thanks again, and I would like to say, I really enjoyed the summer and loved the people I worked with, so thank you."
That was it. I got on the phone and called my best friend and my mom and sister. I definitely was excited, don't get me wrong, but they were really excited.
I got a lot of congratualtions, but I think what was sad is that the intern who shared an office with me was the only one who didn't get an offer. However, he didn't seem to bothered by it.
No rest for the weary though. I was cranking away all day long yesterday. In fact I was at the office until 2:00 a.m. last night. But what better way to go than by working really hard? All of the other interns were done and goofing off. As much as I would have like to join, it was nice to think that even though I got the offer, I was still interested in performing well.
One of the true signs that made me feel like I actually made a difference was when the analyst I was working with said, "Dude I am so screwed this weekend." I was like, "Why?" "Because you're leaving." He mentioned it a couple times. Though I felt a little bad for him, I smiled inside.
I don't know what else to post. I leave the rest of my blog to you and any questions, anytime, please feel free to contact me. Hopefully the blog has been helpful and I will try to stay up on it when I accept my offer and the thoughts that were in my head at that time.
Thanks for following the blog for those who did. I wish you luck in these markets, but I have learned anything is possible.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Interesting News
This week has been interesting as things start to dwindle down to just a couple of days left in the internship.
Yesterday the new full-time analysts arrived from NY. There are 10 all together. One of the new analysts is from my school and its nice to catch up with him. Interesting how the tables have turned and we are all in it together. You see, it was last summer when I was coming to him asking for help and getting up to speed on banking. Now he is the one asking the questions about the office and how things have worked.
I found it humorous that 3 times yesterday I engaged in a conversation with 3 new analysts and somehow in the conversation they said, "Oh I thought you were an associate." Well, not quite, but I do have to say there is a sense of confidence when you are not the new kid on the block.
As time winds down I once again come to a point similar to where I was in the beginning of the internship. That is, not staffed, but wanting to be busy. You have to kind of balance not bugging people and yet being proactive. But it dawned on me in a conversation yesterday--this is pretty much it. I am not getting staffed again and I have a week left. The reason being is because any new projects and the staffer will put one of the 10 new analysts on it. In addition to that, the staffer is going on vacation next week. Basically it boils down to me just doing well on the projects I am currently on when I am needed.
For one project, all the bankers are in NY going through due diligence. On the other project, everyone (including the senior bankers here) are on vacation. So from time to time, I do little things like fax stuff to hotels in NY for those in due diligence. To be honest, yesterday I "worked" for probably a grand total of 3 hours. I ended up leaving the office at 10:30 p.m. which was one of the earliest time I have ever left.
This morning I submitted the names of bankers I want to review me. A couple days ago I made a list of all the people I had worked with. The list contained about 13 names, but I then narrowed the list down to those who I worked will significantly. Out of the ones I worked with significantly I narrowed it down to the ones I know will go to bat for me. They asked us to submit 4-6 names total. So I made my final choices of 5 names. I then individually approached each one. Generally this is how our conversation went:
"Hey I just wanted to catch up with you. They have asked us to submit 4-6 names of bankers we worked with. I wanted to touch base with you and see if you feel like you have enough information from our interactions to write a review for me."
Now obviously they know I am really asking them to write a GOOD review, but I think the words "enough information from interactions to write..." was a soft approach to asking "Will you go to bat for me." Every single one said, "Dude, I will write you a good review. You don't have to worry."
There were some bankers I did approach that I felt I had a good interaction with but really didn't know what kind of a review they would write me. For example I approached an analyst and their response was, "Yeah, we didn't work too much together you know. I can write you a good review, but it will be general." Well, to say the least, I scratched them off the list. I can't afford a luke warm review.
Despite the fact that I have worked my hardest, done my best work, and have confirmation of people going to bat for me, I still worry about the final verdict. Yesterday the summer associates had their final reviews. Only 2 out of 4 got offers here in CA, and in the NY group 0 out of 4 got offers! I couldn't believe it because I felt like the summer AS did really well.
So the question comes, how do I stack up against the other interns? There are 6 and I feel I am at least in the top 3. But as you can see, not even being the top intern in some cases will get you an offer. So as you can imagine, times are tough, and not being busy doesn't help. With names already submitted I ask myself if there is anything at this point that I can proactively do. In all honesty the best thing would be first to make sure I don't additionally ding myself.
I can say this. I do love banking, and if I don't get an offer, as discouraging as that may be, I would still apply for full time jobs at other banks. I know times are tough and even those with offers are struggling to shop around. I don't feel like I can afford to shop around. I may end up accepting on the spot, if in fact I do get an offer. Especially if there is an exploding bonus which is where they give you a bonus if you accept within a certain time frame.
Yesterday the new full-time analysts arrived from NY. There are 10 all together. One of the new analysts is from my school and its nice to catch up with him. Interesting how the tables have turned and we are all in it together. You see, it was last summer when I was coming to him asking for help and getting up to speed on banking. Now he is the one asking the questions about the office and how things have worked.
I found it humorous that 3 times yesterday I engaged in a conversation with 3 new analysts and somehow in the conversation they said, "Oh I thought you were an associate." Well, not quite, but I do have to say there is a sense of confidence when you are not the new kid on the block.
As time winds down I once again come to a point similar to where I was in the beginning of the internship. That is, not staffed, but wanting to be busy. You have to kind of balance not bugging people and yet being proactive. But it dawned on me in a conversation yesterday--this is pretty much it. I am not getting staffed again and I have a week left. The reason being is because any new projects and the staffer will put one of the 10 new analysts on it. In addition to that, the staffer is going on vacation next week. Basically it boils down to me just doing well on the projects I am currently on when I am needed.
For one project, all the bankers are in NY going through due diligence. On the other project, everyone (including the senior bankers here) are on vacation. So from time to time, I do little things like fax stuff to hotels in NY for those in due diligence. To be honest, yesterday I "worked" for probably a grand total of 3 hours. I ended up leaving the office at 10:30 p.m. which was one of the earliest time I have ever left.
This morning I submitted the names of bankers I want to review me. A couple days ago I made a list of all the people I had worked with. The list contained about 13 names, but I then narrowed the list down to those who I worked will significantly. Out of the ones I worked with significantly I narrowed it down to the ones I know will go to bat for me. They asked us to submit 4-6 names total. So I made my final choices of 5 names. I then individually approached each one. Generally this is how our conversation went:
"Hey I just wanted to catch up with you. They have asked us to submit 4-6 names of bankers we worked with. I wanted to touch base with you and see if you feel like you have enough information from our interactions to write a review for me."
Now obviously they know I am really asking them to write a GOOD review, but I think the words "enough information from interactions to write..." was a soft approach to asking "Will you go to bat for me." Every single one said, "Dude, I will write you a good review. You don't have to worry."
There were some bankers I did approach that I felt I had a good interaction with but really didn't know what kind of a review they would write me. For example I approached an analyst and their response was, "Yeah, we didn't work too much together you know. I can write you a good review, but it will be general." Well, to say the least, I scratched them off the list. I can't afford a luke warm review.
Despite the fact that I have worked my hardest, done my best work, and have confirmation of people going to bat for me, I still worry about the final verdict. Yesterday the summer associates had their final reviews. Only 2 out of 4 got offers here in CA, and in the NY group 0 out of 4 got offers! I couldn't believe it because I felt like the summer AS did really well.
So the question comes, how do I stack up against the other interns? There are 6 and I feel I am at least in the top 3. But as you can see, not even being the top intern in some cases will get you an offer. So as you can imagine, times are tough, and not being busy doesn't help. With names already submitted I ask myself if there is anything at this point that I can proactively do. In all honesty the best thing would be first to make sure I don't additionally ding myself.
I can say this. I do love banking, and if I don't get an offer, as discouraging as that may be, I would still apply for full time jobs at other banks. I know times are tough and even those with offers are struggling to shop around. I don't feel like I can afford to shop around. I may end up accepting on the spot, if in fact I do get an offer. Especially if there is an exploding bonus which is where they give you a bonus if you accept within a certain time frame.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Busy Week
Wow. I feel really bad for not keeping up with my blog so close to finishing my internship. This week was busy and the hours were as expected.
I got staffed on a couple more live deals. I am starting to wonder if I even know what live deal means. The reason I question myself is because I hear of interns going their whole summer without seeing a live deal and I feel like my whole summer has been live deals.
So I went to the banks intraweb to see if I was really on live deals and sure enough, I am currently staffed on 4 live deals. I think the cool part is that they are all at different stages. My responsibilities have been pretty secretarial. For example, I had outline a due diligence list. So when a company engages in a transaction, lets say they have a couple of interested buyer, the management makes presentations to the interested buyer and then the buyers will seek after more information. What we do then is set up a data room where we can store all kind of documents related to the company that the potential buyer want to see. The detail of these data rooms is amazing. They range from court documents to financial statements to brochures to minutes from meetings written on a napkins-- scanned in and placed in the data room.
So the due diligence list is a 20 page document requesting all this stuff, and of course you want to be detailed because if you don't ask for it, the potential buyer will.
Luckily, I don't have to reinvent the wheel. Plenty of these DD lists have gone out before and they are pretty standard. I just had to cut and paste pieces that were missing from one list to the other. It was a little tedious and ambiguous, but interesting to read the things requested.
I have one really good story to tell, where I feel like I nailed it, and another story to tell where I feel like I blew it big time.
I got staffed to a deal where we are possibly going to restructure some debt for a client. So right when I got staffed I hopped on bloomberg and looked up some things to try to get my head around their current position. The next day I was in a conference call with a VP and a couple MDs. I don't know why the analyst on the project was not on, but I was doing my normal thing just laying low and listening.
Then one of the MDs asks, "Do we know the credit rating on this company?" Nobody really knew and a couple were guessing, but I knew! I had emailed a copy of their credit rating to myself from Bloomberg. But rather than taking myself off mute and blabbing what could potentially be the wrong answer, I just sent the document to the VP with a message, "Is this what you are looking for?" Sure enough 10 seconds later I hear over the phone, "Yeah I got it right here. Looks like they are rated a BB-" BOOYA! He sent me an email saying thanks.
But with every good action there is an opposite reaction. Sunday I was asked to have some documents delivered to an MDs house. As I was obtaining the address, I noticed he lived very close to the office, so rather than having a courier take it I could just drop it off on my way to church.
I located his address on a document that was given to me when I first arrived that contained the home addresses of all the bankers. When I got to his house, no one was home and so I emailed an analyst asking whether I should leave it or come back. He said to leave it, but I was concerned (because it contains highly confidential information) that it might get stolen. So I slid the documents through a mailbox that dropped into his home. I then sent him an email describing where I put it, and then I took off to church.
During church I get this email, "I can't seem to find the documents. Where did you put it? Address?" I responded, "I delivered to 100 Warpang street, is that not the right address?" I didn't get a response and due to the fact that I was sweating bullets I decided to call the MD.
"Hi [So and so] I delivered them to this address in the mail drop connected to the garage."
"No, no that is where I used to live, I live one street over now. You have to make sure you get the right address next time, and Warpang-- you better get those documents back."
Frantically I drove to the house, hoping and praying that someone would be there and that they had not opened anything. I thank my lucky stars that someone was there this time and I told the gentleman what had happened. He started looking through his mail and I said, "I think it is still in your garage, I just dropped it off today." He went in his garage and got the envelope and thank goodness it was still in its original condition.
I delivered it to the MD, and as you can imagine, I delivered it to him like a scared little puppy. I apologized for not getting the right address. He just looked at me and said thanks, and closed the door.
So, okay. Some ups and downs. I don't excuse myself, put my level of attention to detail has reached level 5 paranoia. I mean, now I feel like I have to check addresses.
I went back to the office, sure enough the date on the document was June 6 and the address was incorrect. I don't know and I didn't ask whether he had moved in that time, but you can best bet that any documents coming my way will be checked three times before I believe whatever's on it. Hopefully he doesn't spread the foul up, but you never know.
I got staffed on a couple more live deals. I am starting to wonder if I even know what live deal means. The reason I question myself is because I hear of interns going their whole summer without seeing a live deal and I feel like my whole summer has been live deals.
So I went to the banks intraweb to see if I was really on live deals and sure enough, I am currently staffed on 4 live deals. I think the cool part is that they are all at different stages. My responsibilities have been pretty secretarial. For example, I had outline a due diligence list. So when a company engages in a transaction, lets say they have a couple of interested buyer, the management makes presentations to the interested buyer and then the buyers will seek after more information. What we do then is set up a data room where we can store all kind of documents related to the company that the potential buyer want to see. The detail of these data rooms is amazing. They range from court documents to financial statements to brochures to minutes from meetings written on a napkins-- scanned in and placed in the data room.
So the due diligence list is a 20 page document requesting all this stuff, and of course you want to be detailed because if you don't ask for it, the potential buyer will.
Luckily, I don't have to reinvent the wheel. Plenty of these DD lists have gone out before and they are pretty standard. I just had to cut and paste pieces that were missing from one list to the other. It was a little tedious and ambiguous, but interesting to read the things requested.
I have one really good story to tell, where I feel like I nailed it, and another story to tell where I feel like I blew it big time.
I got staffed to a deal where we are possibly going to restructure some debt for a client. So right when I got staffed I hopped on bloomberg and looked up some things to try to get my head around their current position. The next day I was in a conference call with a VP and a couple MDs. I don't know why the analyst on the project was not on, but I was doing my normal thing just laying low and listening.
Then one of the MDs asks, "Do we know the credit rating on this company?" Nobody really knew and a couple were guessing, but I knew! I had emailed a copy of their credit rating to myself from Bloomberg. But rather than taking myself off mute and blabbing what could potentially be the wrong answer, I just sent the document to the VP with a message, "Is this what you are looking for?" Sure enough 10 seconds later I hear over the phone, "Yeah I got it right here. Looks like they are rated a BB-" BOOYA! He sent me an email saying thanks.
But with every good action there is an opposite reaction. Sunday I was asked to have some documents delivered to an MDs house. As I was obtaining the address, I noticed he lived very close to the office, so rather than having a courier take it I could just drop it off on my way to church.
I located his address on a document that was given to me when I first arrived that contained the home addresses of all the bankers. When I got to his house, no one was home and so I emailed an analyst asking whether I should leave it or come back. He said to leave it, but I was concerned (because it contains highly confidential information) that it might get stolen. So I slid the documents through a mailbox that dropped into his home. I then sent him an email describing where I put it, and then I took off to church.
During church I get this email, "I can't seem to find the documents. Where did you put it? Address?" I responded, "I delivered to 100 Warpang street, is that not the right address?" I didn't get a response and due to the fact that I was sweating bullets I decided to call the MD.
"Hi [So and so] I delivered them to this address in the mail drop connected to the garage."
"No, no that is where I used to live, I live one street over now. You have to make sure you get the right address next time, and Warpang-- you better get those documents back."
Frantically I drove to the house, hoping and praying that someone would be there and that they had not opened anything. I thank my lucky stars that someone was there this time and I told the gentleman what had happened. He started looking through his mail and I said, "I think it is still in your garage, I just dropped it off today." He went in his garage and got the envelope and thank goodness it was still in its original condition.
I delivered it to the MD, and as you can imagine, I delivered it to him like a scared little puppy. I apologized for not getting the right address. He just looked at me and said thanks, and closed the door.
So, okay. Some ups and downs. I don't excuse myself, put my level of attention to detail has reached level 5 paranoia. I mean, now I feel like I have to check addresses.
I went back to the office, sure enough the date on the document was June 6 and the address was incorrect. I don't know and I didn't ask whether he had moved in that time, but you can best bet that any documents coming my way will be checked three times before I believe whatever's on it. Hopefully he doesn't spread the foul up, but you never know.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Time To Kill It
Saturday: 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday: Didn’t have to work! Yay!
Monday: 8:00 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.
The weekend was very chill. I came in on Saturday to spread a couple of comps, but that was about it.
When I came in to spread comps I went to see the staffer as well. Here is what went down:
Me: “Hey [staffer] do you have a few minutes?”
Staffer: “Sure, Warpang, what’s up?”
Me: “I just wanted to catch up with you and give you an idea of my activity levels. I have a couple things early next week to work on for Real Deal, but besides that, most of my projects are moving kind of slow. I just wanted to let you know that I have 3 weeks left and I want to kill it. I would love to work with bankers I don’t know in the other groups…”
Staffer: “Great, yeah. I am thinking some things will be coming up later next week, I will be sure to keep you in mind. Thanks for letting me know.”
We talked a little longer, but overall I felt like I left him with the impression I wanted him to have: that I am here to work, and that without sacrificing quality, I want to be fully staffed. Hopefully things go well. No regrets.
Sunday, I didn’t come into the office, but spent some personal time thinking, and building up strength to really perform well for the next few weeks. I feel like for the most part I have had a successful internship. I know that success is determined by the offer, but I know this for myself, I have done everything I can to position myself in such a way that if I don’t get an offer, I can go home holding my head high because I did the best I could.
Monday— We had management meetings with Real Deal. From 9-1 a competing management team to who we are advising came to here our client pitch their business. The idea would be that if things went according to plan, a merger would be in order. I wasn’t apart of that meeting because of space, between the bankers and two management teams, the room was packed. In the middle of the first meeting I was walking past the restroom when one of the MDs stepped out of the meeting. He looked at me and rolled his eyes and said, “Dude you are lucky to sitting out this round.”
“Is it boring?”
“You have no idea.” I just laughed and said I would see him soon. Well he was right. The next meeting from 2-5 was with a private equity firm looking to buy our client. For me I learned really what banking was about. Here we are in the meeting, and I think, “we are just match makers. Hi-end real estate agents, matching buyer to seller.” I looked around the room. The bankers were just as bored as I was. Except for the MD, not one banker said a word. The majority of the meeting was spent discussion IP, operations, long term goals. Only about 10% was on the actual numbers of what it would take to do the deal. It seemed as though (and maybe this really does apply to all) that the potential buyer was not so concerned about the price, but just like ordinary people, they wanted to make sure they were purchasing something they wanted, that fit, and worked for their business. I guess my impression of a management presentation was the team with bankers crunching and selling the numbers, but it wasn’t.
I did some other tasks throughout the day. I don’t know if I have mentioned this in the past, but one of the surprising things about my internship is the lack of modeling I have done. I thought we would be doing a lot more. Finally, though, I got to work a little with a model, just one piece (which is better than no piece). I had to spread the P&L (profit and loss) from the management presentation. However, the numbers they presented didn’t quite ad up because of rounding. So for me I had to tweak numbers here and their and shape the model to fit the managements projections. What was nice an relieving was the fact that had the analyst not been on vacation, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I would have just sat behind him. So it was nice to have to AS trust me enough to do.
The last thing I did was spread a transaction cost. I zeroed in and spread that sucker in 15 minutes. When I was done I was like, “Is that it? Wait that can’t be it, that was way to quick.” An analyst checked my work and said, “It’s right. Looks good.” I couldn’t believe myself and how far I have come since I first started here. I remember when it would take hours to spread one comp. Now it takes just a few minutes.
Well this is it. It is coming down to the wire. I can’t emphasize enough about how bad I just want to tear it up. Go out guns blazing. My goal is to kill it for the nest few weeks, work tired long hours and return to school happy and with an offer hopefully.
Sunday: Didn’t have to work! Yay!
Monday: 8:00 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.
The weekend was very chill. I came in on Saturday to spread a couple of comps, but that was about it.
When I came in to spread comps I went to see the staffer as well. Here is what went down:
Me: “Hey [staffer] do you have a few minutes?”
Staffer: “Sure, Warpang, what’s up?”
Me: “I just wanted to catch up with you and give you an idea of my activity levels. I have a couple things early next week to work on for Real Deal, but besides that, most of my projects are moving kind of slow. I just wanted to let you know that I have 3 weeks left and I want to kill it. I would love to work with bankers I don’t know in the other groups…”
Staffer: “Great, yeah. I am thinking some things will be coming up later next week, I will be sure to keep you in mind. Thanks for letting me know.”
We talked a little longer, but overall I felt like I left him with the impression I wanted him to have: that I am here to work, and that without sacrificing quality, I want to be fully staffed. Hopefully things go well. No regrets.
Sunday, I didn’t come into the office, but spent some personal time thinking, and building up strength to really perform well for the next few weeks. I feel like for the most part I have had a successful internship. I know that success is determined by the offer, but I know this for myself, I have done everything I can to position myself in such a way that if I don’t get an offer, I can go home holding my head high because I did the best I could.
Monday— We had management meetings with Real Deal. From 9-1 a competing management team to who we are advising came to here our client pitch their business. The idea would be that if things went according to plan, a merger would be in order. I wasn’t apart of that meeting because of space, between the bankers and two management teams, the room was packed. In the middle of the first meeting I was walking past the restroom when one of the MDs stepped out of the meeting. He looked at me and rolled his eyes and said, “Dude you are lucky to sitting out this round.”
“Is it boring?”
“You have no idea.” I just laughed and said I would see him soon. Well he was right. The next meeting from 2-5 was with a private equity firm looking to buy our client. For me I learned really what banking was about. Here we are in the meeting, and I think, “we are just match makers. Hi-end real estate agents, matching buyer to seller.” I looked around the room. The bankers were just as bored as I was. Except for the MD, not one banker said a word. The majority of the meeting was spent discussion IP, operations, long term goals. Only about 10% was on the actual numbers of what it would take to do the deal. It seemed as though (and maybe this really does apply to all) that the potential buyer was not so concerned about the price, but just like ordinary people, they wanted to make sure they were purchasing something they wanted, that fit, and worked for their business. I guess my impression of a management presentation was the team with bankers crunching and selling the numbers, but it wasn’t.
I did some other tasks throughout the day. I don’t know if I have mentioned this in the past, but one of the surprising things about my internship is the lack of modeling I have done. I thought we would be doing a lot more. Finally, though, I got to work a little with a model, just one piece (which is better than no piece). I had to spread the P&L (profit and loss) from the management presentation. However, the numbers they presented didn’t quite ad up because of rounding. So for me I had to tweak numbers here and their and shape the model to fit the managements projections. What was nice an relieving was the fact that had the analyst not been on vacation, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I would have just sat behind him. So it was nice to have to AS trust me enough to do.
The last thing I did was spread a transaction cost. I zeroed in and spread that sucker in 15 minutes. When I was done I was like, “Is that it? Wait that can’t be it, that was way to quick.” An analyst checked my work and said, “It’s right. Looks good.” I couldn’t believe myself and how far I have come since I first started here. I remember when it would take hours to spread one comp. Now it takes just a few minutes.
Well this is it. It is coming down to the wire. I can’t emphasize enough about how bad I just want to tear it up. Go out guns blazing. My goal is to kill it for the nest few weeks, work tired long hours and return to school happy and with an offer hopefully.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Take me out to another ball game?
Tuesday: Can't remember
Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Thursday: 6:30 a.m. - 4:30 a.m. I don't think I have ever stayed awake for 22 hours straight
Friday: 10:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday-- Today was the last day the analyst I have been working with on Real Deal will be here. He left on vacation for 10 days. Two good things have come from that happening: (1) I will be given some more responsibility and (2) Here is my chance to escape and get staffed on some other projects with other bankers. Not that I am trying to get out of work on this project, but I know that with the analyst gone some bandwidth will open up.
One thing I had a hard time with with this analyst was his teaching style. He liked for me to come sit behind his desk and watch him. Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn't learn much from those times, and now that he is gone I won't be sitting behind him shadowing him. Other approaches I have seen, which for me is the best is when the analyst can sit behind me and let me do the navigating. One of the analysts I have worked with will do that--it takes a lot of patience on his part, but I learn a lot. What this analyst will do is say things like, "press alt c.." so as I do it, I learn. He will also let me think when I get stuck rather than solve the answer for me.
Anyway, I got the down low on what I need to take responsibility for and off he went.
Thursday-- I had a call in the morning at 6:45 a.m. I decided to take it from home. It was for the book that had my picture in it. So here I am lying in bed listening to a management team pitch to another management team in NYC. It was a little hard to hear, and there was a lot of parts I had no idea what they were talking about, but what was cool is the MD referring to me as an analyst and not just a summer analyst.
I kind of played the glorified secretary up until about 3:00 p.m. I updated a meeting agenda to reflect all the new participants. Next week we have alot of management presentations. I think one of the most surprising things about Real Deal is the fact that this company is junk and yet competitors and PE and VC firms are going nuts trying to meet with management. Then again, I be the MDs have seen this before, where there is a lot of interest initially and then in the end we struggle to find buyers.
At 4:00 we had the First Annual [West Coast Bank] Softball Tournament. Can I say, I have never seen a more pathetic group of people try to play softball. I kept thinking, "Wow this is really humbling to even the most senior of bankers. These guys are horrible." It kind of made me feel good that I have such a well rounded life and have played sports since I was a kid. It was a lot of fun and I got some good laughs, I think everybody had a good time. One of the things it reconfirmed for me is that there is a life outside of banking and the fact that no one is in shape and really uncoordinated says that this lifestyle is not preferred. Boy I love being outside, but there comes a time you have to pay your dues.
When I got back, it was back to the grind. I got staffed on a project with deliverables that next morning. I had to spread 3 transaction comps. You wouldn't think that 3 would take that long, but imagine trying to find information on target companies from 2000, 2003, and yesterday. It was tough. I searched...and searched...and searched. One thing I have noticed about bankers they don't take giving up lightly. You really have to come to them having exhausted your resources before you say, "I can't find this information." I especially was working with a banker who I have noticed doesn't give any slack. So I just kept pounding it until I found as much as I could. What happened? It took me until 4:30 a.m. to find what I could. So I approached her with my back-up and defense, ready to answer any question..."Did you look in Thomson One,"
"Not only did I look in Thomson One, I looked in Reuters, Dealogic, MergerMarket, etc..."
Friday-- I woke up to email after email not responding to them (because they were all RFI or general emails) until it dawned on me. I have a call I am supposed to be on. It had already started and though I never talk on them, I always get comments from them. I never get on calls after they have started because of the beeping noise it produces when you enter the meeting. The last thing I want is some CEO saying after the meeting has started, "Who just joined?" "Oh its me the retarded intern who spaced the call. How is everyone doing?" I would get nailed.
So I came into the office and caught up with the AS on the deal and there were no comments! Not only that, but my day was pathetic. I had nothing to do all day. I even sent an email to the staffer requesting to be staffed and nothing. It made for a crummy day, but will make for a sweet weekend.
Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.
Thursday: 6:30 a.m. - 4:30 a.m. I don't think I have ever stayed awake for 22 hours straight
Friday: 10:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday-- Today was the last day the analyst I have been working with on Real Deal will be here. He left on vacation for 10 days. Two good things have come from that happening: (1) I will be given some more responsibility and (2) Here is my chance to escape and get staffed on some other projects with other bankers. Not that I am trying to get out of work on this project, but I know that with the analyst gone some bandwidth will open up.
One thing I had a hard time with with this analyst was his teaching style. He liked for me to come sit behind his desk and watch him. Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn't learn much from those times, and now that he is gone I won't be sitting behind him shadowing him. Other approaches I have seen, which for me is the best is when the analyst can sit behind me and let me do the navigating. One of the analysts I have worked with will do that--it takes a lot of patience on his part, but I learn a lot. What this analyst will do is say things like, "press alt c.." so as I do it, I learn. He will also let me think when I get stuck rather than solve the answer for me.
Anyway, I got the down low on what I need to take responsibility for and off he went.
Thursday-- I had a call in the morning at 6:45 a.m. I decided to take it from home. It was for the book that had my picture in it. So here I am lying in bed listening to a management team pitch to another management team in NYC. It was a little hard to hear, and there was a lot of parts I had no idea what they were talking about, but what was cool is the MD referring to me as an analyst and not just a summer analyst.
I kind of played the glorified secretary up until about 3:00 p.m. I updated a meeting agenda to reflect all the new participants. Next week we have alot of management presentations. I think one of the most surprising things about Real Deal is the fact that this company is junk and yet competitors and PE and VC firms are going nuts trying to meet with management. Then again, I be the MDs have seen this before, where there is a lot of interest initially and then in the end we struggle to find buyers.
At 4:00 we had the First Annual [West Coast Bank] Softball Tournament. Can I say, I have never seen a more pathetic group of people try to play softball. I kept thinking, "Wow this is really humbling to even the most senior of bankers. These guys are horrible." It kind of made me feel good that I have such a well rounded life and have played sports since I was a kid. It was a lot of fun and I got some good laughs, I think everybody had a good time. One of the things it reconfirmed for me is that there is a life outside of banking and the fact that no one is in shape and really uncoordinated says that this lifestyle is not preferred. Boy I love being outside, but there comes a time you have to pay your dues.
When I got back, it was back to the grind. I got staffed on a project with deliverables that next morning. I had to spread 3 transaction comps. You wouldn't think that 3 would take that long, but imagine trying to find information on target companies from 2000, 2003, and yesterday. It was tough. I searched...and searched...and searched. One thing I have noticed about bankers they don't take giving up lightly. You really have to come to them having exhausted your resources before you say, "I can't find this information." I especially was working with a banker who I have noticed doesn't give any slack. So I just kept pounding it until I found as much as I could. What happened? It took me until 4:30 a.m. to find what I could. So I approached her with my back-up and defense, ready to answer any question..."Did you look in Thomson One,"
"Not only did I look in Thomson One, I looked in Reuters, Dealogic, MergerMarket, etc..."
Friday-- I woke up to email after email not responding to them (because they were all RFI or general emails) until it dawned on me. I have a call I am supposed to be on. It had already started and though I never talk on them, I always get comments from them. I never get on calls after they have started because of the beeping noise it produces when you enter the meeting. The last thing I want is some CEO saying after the meeting has started, "Who just joined?" "Oh its me the retarded intern who spaced the call. How is everyone doing?" I would get nailed.
So I came into the office and caught up with the AS on the deal and there were no comments! Not only that, but my day was pathetic. I had nothing to do all day. I even sent an email to the staffer requesting to be staffed and nothing. It made for a crummy day, but will make for a sweet weekend.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Take me out to the ball game!
Friday: Can't remember
Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.
Sunday: 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Monday: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Rusticcharm asked some good questions that I actually want to address, because I think it’s important. The questions are “Do you feel heavy competition with the other interns? Do they treat you as though you are a threat? Does this distract you at all? Flip side Its pretty evident that you have a good and balanced relationship with the MD and VP's but what about your competition??? Are they (interns) a serious threat to YOU and YOUR job offer?”
Interestingly enough there really is no competition. That is, I don’t feel like I am trying to beat out one particular intern for a full time position. The competition is non-existent for a couple of reasons (1) No intern really knows how many offers the bank will make. They might give us all offers, they might cut us all off. To compete with one another would be silly because our reviews are not based on (and I would guess full time offers as well) our output relative to our peers. (2) It’s hard to gauge how well you are doing in comparison to other interns in that your schedules and work load are completely different. For example, I share an office with another intern. A week or so ago, I never saw the kid past 9:00 and I was worried he wasn’t working hard. Come to find out his assignments were just really easy. This week, however, I have left the office at midnight while he has been staying until 3-4 in the morning. So basically, for the most part, we all work our hardest to do our own assignments to the best of our ability with out competition.
In the end if you look at it like, 4 spots and 6 interns then yes we are competing. But I see it as what I have to do to get one of those spots.
Having said all that, I actually have really good relationships with all the interns. You kind of have to band together. They are about the only people in the office you can say what you want to without being judged. Last night I walked in to my office and said hello to the intern sharing my office. He responded but you could tell he was discouraged. I asked him what was up, and he got up, closed the door and vented for 10 minutes about how an associate was putting him through the wringer for no good reason. Who else besides another fellow intern could you turn to? All day we take it from the analysts and associates and even though they and the rest of the banking world think they are flawless, sometimes they're not. And having an intern catch a bankers mistakes can be embarrassing for the banker (depending on their ego) but we can’t fire back and say, “Good one you idiot. Pubic Market Overview, that’s the last market I want to know about and the last market I want to tell the client about. Get your head on straight or go home because you’re wasting my time with your lack of attention to detail.” No instead we have to say, “I think this word is spelled wrong, I am not sure…”
Anyway, let me catch you up on the past week. Friday, I can’t remember what I did. Saturday I got staffed on a job with an associate covering a FIG (financial institutions group) book, which of course is random because I am in technology / media. By far this guy is my favorite AS. Really easy to work with, I can actually read his handwriting, he is a perfectionist. Even his desk is always clean. Additionally, he doesn’t care so much that I am a summer intern as much as he cares about getting the work done. All I had to do was (yes you guest it, my favorite) company profiles. They weren’t that bad and I feel like I am becoming a pro. The thing I am doing now is copying the same format from previous profiles I have done and just finding the company specific information.
Saturday night I went to a party in San Francisco with all the bankers from our office. It was held at an associates apartment in the city. Everyone got wasted, and of course my entertainment as the sober one was watching and hearing the funny things people say. One analyst told me I put his mom in a bomb. I just told him I was sorry and that I wouldn’t do it again to his new mom. He thanked me and went on his way. After the party we went to this mansion of one of the summer analysts. This kids dad is a partner at a very well known and prestigious venture capital firm. I mean, the kid has a go-kart track at his primary residence. This place was just for when they were in the city.
The place was massive. It is five levels with a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It had a very classical look to it with detailed, carved pillars and ceilings. It was pretty amazing. I would say the place is worth $50-100 million with location and size.
Sunday—I went in to work after church for what was supposed to be “a couple hours.” Things ended up taking 2 days. I was assigned to create a spreadsheet documenting certain dates and activities with a client. The nerving part was that this was directly for a sr. vice president with no AN, AS, or VP in between. I think I did pretty well and responded to his requests in a very timely manner. Any changes he made were changes to his preference rather than errors. So to recap: I have been working for an AS directly, a VP directly, and an SVP directly. I think the hard part was when the analyst came looking for my help I had to tell him a couple of times I was too busy. He was understanding, but I still felt bad because as much as I want to help, I can’t overpromise.
Monday—Here is my last story for this post. Monday at noon one of the MDs came in my office and said, “Warpang, lets go to lunch.” So of course I dropped everything and went out to lunch with him. We had a great conversation at lunch and he asked the question, “So when are you done?”
“August 22 is the last day.”
“When does school start?”
“I think like September 2…”
“So what are you going to do between then, have any plans?”
“Well,” I started throwing out some ideas and then I said, “I do know this—On Saturday the 23rd I am going to a Giants game. They play the Padres and the Giants are my favorite team.”
So we talked for a few minutes about the Giants which happened to be his favorite team too, and then 30 seconds after lunch he comes into my office and says, “You said 23rd right?” And hands me two tickets for the game. I was stunned. I said, “Wow this is really nice of you. I don't know what else to say but thank you.”
“I have had season tickets for years. I am always trying to get rid of them because I can never make it.” I looked on-line to see where the seats are and they are just above the 3rd base dugout. So now I have 2 tickets to the Giants came for August 23…who wants to come?:)
Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.
Sunday: 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Monday: 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Rusticcharm asked some good questions that I actually want to address, because I think it’s important. The questions are “Do you feel heavy competition with the other interns? Do they treat you as though you are a threat? Does this distract you at all? Flip side Its pretty evident that you have a good and balanced relationship with the MD and VP's but what about your competition??? Are they (interns) a serious threat to YOU and YOUR job offer?”
Interestingly enough there really is no competition. That is, I don’t feel like I am trying to beat out one particular intern for a full time position. The competition is non-existent for a couple of reasons (1) No intern really knows how many offers the bank will make. They might give us all offers, they might cut us all off. To compete with one another would be silly because our reviews are not based on (and I would guess full time offers as well) our output relative to our peers. (2) It’s hard to gauge how well you are doing in comparison to other interns in that your schedules and work load are completely different. For example, I share an office with another intern. A week or so ago, I never saw the kid past 9:00 and I was worried he wasn’t working hard. Come to find out his assignments were just really easy. This week, however, I have left the office at midnight while he has been staying until 3-4 in the morning. So basically, for the most part, we all work our hardest to do our own assignments to the best of our ability with out competition.
In the end if you look at it like, 4 spots and 6 interns then yes we are competing. But I see it as what I have to do to get one of those spots.
Having said all that, I actually have really good relationships with all the interns. You kind of have to band together. They are about the only people in the office you can say what you want to without being judged. Last night I walked in to my office and said hello to the intern sharing my office. He responded but you could tell he was discouraged. I asked him what was up, and he got up, closed the door and vented for 10 minutes about how an associate was putting him through the wringer for no good reason. Who else besides another fellow intern could you turn to? All day we take it from the analysts and associates and even though they and the rest of the banking world think they are flawless, sometimes they're not. And having an intern catch a bankers mistakes can be embarrassing for the banker (depending on their ego) but we can’t fire back and say, “Good one you idiot. Pubic Market Overview, that’s the last market I want to know about and the last market I want to tell the client about. Get your head on straight or go home because you’re wasting my time with your lack of attention to detail.” No instead we have to say, “I think this word is spelled wrong, I am not sure…”
Anyway, let me catch you up on the past week. Friday, I can’t remember what I did. Saturday I got staffed on a job with an associate covering a FIG (financial institutions group) book, which of course is random because I am in technology / media. By far this guy is my favorite AS. Really easy to work with, I can actually read his handwriting, he is a perfectionist. Even his desk is always clean. Additionally, he doesn’t care so much that I am a summer intern as much as he cares about getting the work done. All I had to do was (yes you guest it, my favorite) company profiles. They weren’t that bad and I feel like I am becoming a pro. The thing I am doing now is copying the same format from previous profiles I have done and just finding the company specific information.
Saturday night I went to a party in San Francisco with all the bankers from our office. It was held at an associates apartment in the city. Everyone got wasted, and of course my entertainment as the sober one was watching and hearing the funny things people say. One analyst told me I put his mom in a bomb. I just told him I was sorry and that I wouldn’t do it again to his new mom. He thanked me and went on his way. After the party we went to this mansion of one of the summer analysts. This kids dad is a partner at a very well known and prestigious venture capital firm. I mean, the kid has a go-kart track at his primary residence. This place was just for when they were in the city.
The place was massive. It is five levels with a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It had a very classical look to it with detailed, carved pillars and ceilings. It was pretty amazing. I would say the place is worth $50-100 million with location and size.
Sunday—I went in to work after church for what was supposed to be “a couple hours.” Things ended up taking 2 days. I was assigned to create a spreadsheet documenting certain dates and activities with a client. The nerving part was that this was directly for a sr. vice president with no AN, AS, or VP in between. I think I did pretty well and responded to his requests in a very timely manner. Any changes he made were changes to his preference rather than errors. So to recap: I have been working for an AS directly, a VP directly, and an SVP directly. I think the hard part was when the analyst came looking for my help I had to tell him a couple of times I was too busy. He was understanding, but I still felt bad because as much as I want to help, I can’t overpromise.
Monday—Here is my last story for this post. Monday at noon one of the MDs came in my office and said, “Warpang, lets go to lunch.” So of course I dropped everything and went out to lunch with him. We had a great conversation at lunch and he asked the question, “So when are you done?”
“August 22 is the last day.”
“When does school start?”
“I think like September 2…”
“So what are you going to do between then, have any plans?”
“Well,” I started throwing out some ideas and then I said, “I do know this—On Saturday the 23rd I am going to a Giants game. They play the Padres and the Giants are my favorite team.”
So we talked for a few minutes about the Giants which happened to be his favorite team too, and then 30 seconds after lunch he comes into my office and says, “You said 23rd right?” And hands me two tickets for the game. I was stunned. I said, “Wow this is really nice of you. I don't know what else to say but thank you.”
“I have had season tickets for years. I am always trying to get rid of them because I can never make it.” I looked on-line to see where the seats are and they are just above the 3rd base dugout. So now I have 2 tickets to the Giants came for August 23…who wants to come?:)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Pool Shark
Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Thursday: 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
These past couple of days have been slow. A lot of the bankers are in NY and other areas as well. Real Deal has been interesting. The company just had its quarterly earnings call and one of the top executives was replaced making things very interesting. I wish I could say more, but truly I find joy in being in the front lines of all this action.
So over the past two days I have done a bit of rouge staffing and printing books and flipping books; jobs that secretaries can do. However, I have been kicking trash on these comps which has taken along time. For example today I spread about 5 and it took me 5 hours. I keep asking myself, "Why do these take so long?" And the truth is, they take long because I have to stop and think. Not only that, but I am constantly double checking, because in some cases I am not too confident with my numbers. After I finished a couple one of the analysts checked my work and I was spotless.
Tonight all the bankers went to a bar/pool hall. We had the upper floor reserved for just us. The Global Head of Tech showed up and came over and started talking to a couple of us. During our conversation I asked the MD if he was a pool shark to which he replied, "Well, lets find out!"
The room suddenly backed away from the table and it was just me and him. Was I nervous? Of Course! This is not only my boss...this is everyone's boss. A couple of the analyst were teasing, "You are in a lose/lose situation. If you lose he will think you are giving in and you lose the offer. If you win, well there goes your offer, you can't beat the boss." Even he was cracking jokes. This is the same MD that I am working on Real Deal with, so he knows me a little bit. During the game I was pretty much getting killed until he scratched and then I came back to win putting the 8-ball corner pocket. Everyone in the room was like, "OHHHH!" The MD smiled and shook my hand, and said "Good game, I am glad you didn't back down."
The thing is, those of you who know me really well know that I suck at pool. I get beat all the time. later that night I got challenged by a VP and beat him 2 games to 1. I don't know where all this pool skill came from, but I had a lot of fun and kept thinking, "Man, I know none of my friends at other banks get this kind of experience or exposure to senior bankers." I really do have a good office. No one banker comes off to be smarter or better than anyone else. Yeah, some have gotten in my grill, but they don't think or come off better than me.
This weekend is looking pretty free if I can get these comps done. I got the reminder today that I have 4 weeks left. Boy does time fly. Seriously, days run into days run into days.
Thursday: 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
These past couple of days have been slow. A lot of the bankers are in NY and other areas as well. Real Deal has been interesting. The company just had its quarterly earnings call and one of the top executives was replaced making things very interesting. I wish I could say more, but truly I find joy in being in the front lines of all this action.
So over the past two days I have done a bit of rouge staffing and printing books and flipping books; jobs that secretaries can do. However, I have been kicking trash on these comps which has taken along time. For example today I spread about 5 and it took me 5 hours. I keep asking myself, "Why do these take so long?" And the truth is, they take long because I have to stop and think. Not only that, but I am constantly double checking, because in some cases I am not too confident with my numbers. After I finished a couple one of the analysts checked my work and I was spotless.
Tonight all the bankers went to a bar/pool hall. We had the upper floor reserved for just us. The Global Head of Tech showed up and came over and started talking to a couple of us. During our conversation I asked the MD if he was a pool shark to which he replied, "Well, lets find out!"
The room suddenly backed away from the table and it was just me and him. Was I nervous? Of Course! This is not only my boss...this is everyone's boss. A couple of the analyst were teasing, "You are in a lose/lose situation. If you lose he will think you are giving in and you lose the offer. If you win, well there goes your offer, you can't beat the boss." Even he was cracking jokes. This is the same MD that I am working on Real Deal with, so he knows me a little bit. During the game I was pretty much getting killed until he scratched and then I came back to win putting the 8-ball corner pocket. Everyone in the room was like, "OHHHH!" The MD smiled and shook my hand, and said "Good game, I am glad you didn't back down."
The thing is, those of you who know me really well know that I suck at pool. I get beat all the time. later that night I got challenged by a VP and beat him 2 games to 1. I don't know where all this pool skill came from, but I had a lot of fun and kept thinking, "Man, I know none of my friends at other banks get this kind of experience or exposure to senior bankers." I really do have a good office. No one banker comes off to be smarter or better than anyone else. Yeah, some have gotten in my grill, but they don't think or come off better than me.
This weekend is looking pretty free if I can get these comps done. I got the reminder today that I have 4 weeks left. Boy does time fly. Seriously, days run into days run into days.
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