We started the training today by introducing ourselves. There is something about intellectually sizing up the other interns from other schools that I think everyone participated in. The office I am in will be competitive. In the past I have gone back and forth between target schools being more prepared than us from non-target schools. Sometimes I think, "I am a business major up against liberal arts majors...I got this." Other times I think, "they aren't going to these target schools for nothing, they are smart." In my office we will have some smart guys [and girl], who surprisingly are not too bad at accounting and finance.
Basically, we got a billion copies of printed powerpoints covering material like how to use our blackberries, features of powerpoint that will help us in presentations [Yes, we had powerpoints on powerpoints]. I think the most boring part and yet absolutely necessary was all the HR, get-your-2,000-passwords-and-IDs stuff.
HR Rep: "Here is where you find this, and if you are looking for this you can log in here and it will tell you this and if you have questions about this go here and fill this out and there is a packet of this to fill out by yesterday so you better hurry."
We had some analysts come in and train us on comps. I was really embarrassed for them. They did an absolute horrible job. Every other sentence out of their mouth was, “this is boring, we know.” So instead of covering the material, they would goof off. I was disappointed because I can see spreading comps as my first assignment .
Training went from 8:15-6:30 with a 45 minute lunch break and a few other breaks in between guest speakers. Lunch was provided and dinner was not.
Despite the fact that I was really tired, I went to NY with the other interns for dinner after training. Some interesting things surfaced. (1) They were amazed that someone from my school had an internship with Goldman Sachs. (2) They were stunned that I knew (to some degree) my way around NY which was great for them because I had to lead them everywhere. And when I told them how I learned my way around (3) they were flabbergasted that I would actually buy a plane ticket and fly to NY without any appointments hoping that someone would let me in.
I was amazed that they had no one from their school at GS, stunned that only one had been to NY and it was for a vacation, and flabbergasted to find that getting into banking was like drawing out for a bull elk permit. The intern described it like this, “so if you don’t get an internship your first year you earn points, and apply the next year…and the next until you earn enough points…I barely made it in with 435 points.” I told the group some of the things I went through—dead silent.
Now I am going to sift through this paperwork and get ready for tomorrow.
2 comments:
Can you please explain a bit as to what are 'Comps?' I read all the posts written by your friend - The Analyst - and wanted to ask him the same question but forgot. I am guessing - is it some kind of analysis on companies i.e. Valuaion?
Comps is short for comparables. Banks have these dynamic spreadsheets that have ratios from the financial statements comparing companies in a sector. For example you may want to compare Yahoo, Google, etc. (anyone in the space) and the ratios you might include are enterprise value to EBITDA, or EV to Sales, or their PE ratios. Comparables or comp spreadsheets are a way to value a company but think of it like a one of 3 satellites you would need to pinpoint a gps location on earth, you have to "triangulate" different types of valutation and this is just one way.
Post a Comment