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?:)