Each year, thousands of students leave their bank offices for the final time in the summer, having spent the past ten weeks creating models, perfecting their slides and pulling all-nighters to prove their worth. All they have to do is wait for their return offer.
If you are not in the industry, this recruitment process can be confusing. However, the summer internship is effectively a ten-week interview. This can ultimately determine whether you will have a great career in finance.
What is a Return Offer?
A return offer is a full-time job that you are offered at the end of your internship. If you are a junior intern and are offered a return offer, then you have a job lined up after you graduate.
Most major banks will recruit full-time analysts through their summer analyst programme. Rather than interviewing hundreds of people they don’t know in their senior year, they would prefer to hire someone they have seen work for the past 10 weeks. Therefore, this internship is the most important part of breaking into investment banking.
How do Banks Decide?
There is no one test, but generally interns will be assessed on:
Quality – Are your models and slides accurate? Are you checking your work?
Attitude – Are you keeping a positive attitude when asked to do something again at midnight?
Culture fit – Would they actually want to work next to you for 80 hours a week? This is often more important that people think. Whilst technical ability can be learnt, it is much harder to learn how to be trustworthy and likeable.
What if I don’t get one?
Some interns will decline their return offer as they realise they don’t want to work in banking, whilst others won’t get one as the bank won’t be hiring as many people that year.
Those who don’t get an offer can still go into full time recruitment in their senior year (fall), apply to smaller banks and boutiques or switch to other areas such as corporate finance, consulting and asset management. It is a more difficult route but there are plenty of successful people in finance who have taken this route.
Get Ahead
Whilst you are waiting for your return offer, banks will already be considering you for two summers time! Internships in junior year are often recruited in sophomore year meaning a student who has just finished their freshman year may need to start networking, learning accounting and practicing technical questions. The earlier you have to start, the more rewarding it is for those who knew from day one what they wanted to do.
The summer internship is the real finish line if you want to work in finance. However, the race starts much earlier than most students realise. Start learning the fundamentals early, speak to people in the industry and decide whether this is a career you actually want to do.
