How I Got a Summer Internship at a Bulge Bracket Investment Bank

[Christine Wu1]

Hi everyone, I'm Christine. I am an incoming summer analyst at Citibank this summer. I currently study Chemistry at Imperial College of London and am in my second year. I have been asked to write a few words on how to secure a summer internship with an Investment Bank.

1. Online Applications

Most banks would require a resume and a cover letter or a bunch of questions. I would suggest the Education, Work Experience, Leadership Experience format, all within one page. With the cover letter, I had a short introduction, why I wanted to work for this particular bank, my related past experiences, and other interesting activities that I do at college. I ended the letter reiterating why I am suitable for this role and addressed the letter to the HR responsible for recruiting. This is when networking at the bank's events becomes very important. It allows you to find out their recruiting process, the HR responsible for screening candidates (it will become easier when you know who to email for application update when you want to leverage your offer), talking to existing analysts about the firm (so you know exactly why you want to work for this particular bank and how to answer their online questions), and whether Investment Banking is really for you.

2. First round interviews

The first round interviews for HK banks are around late November and December (although JP Morgan is on an on-rolling basis so they have their interviews a lot earlier). I would suggest to start preparing for them in October and NOT wait until you have received your first interview, because that was the mistake I made and the bank only notified me few days in advance (longest was a week notice). There are normally 2-3 rounds telephone in the first round interview with an analyst or associate (Morgan Stanley would have a second round skype interview as well and UBS only had one round) and you will have to pass all rounds to get to final round.

To prepare for these interviews I used the 400 Investment Banking questions and answers you need to know, wall street oasis behavioural interview guide, and the vault guide to financial interviews. I started with the vault guide ‘Corporate Valuation’ section because it was more comprehensive than the 400 Q’s and then the 400 Q’s, and used the behavioural guide as another source to strengthen my competencies. For HK interviews, I would suggest that you memorise all the basic levels questions in the 400 Q’s except the Merger Model and LBO section and make up your own notes for the competency questions as you go along in bullet point format. Also, don’t forget to read about recent financial news (I would recommend Financial times) and to know your resume well and be confident to talk about things that you have written in it (especially finance related experiences). After this, you are ready to ask a few friends to help conduct some practise interviews with you!

3. The Super day

Most assessment centres (AC) are in mid December or mid January, I had three ACs during my exam week in January, and I would recommend that you study for them since the start of term if it is the same for you. The format for AC could vary a lot depending on which bank, some only conduct interviews whereas other may have translation test, numerical reasoning tests, and presentation exercise. In terms of preparation, I would say your first round preparation would be sufficient to get you through the final round because the directors and MDs are a bit more tolerant with the technical knowledge than the analysts and associates unless you study Finance and Accounting.

I also received offers from Sales and Trading in London, let me know if this is an area of interest and I will be happy to share about it as well.

If anything is not clear feel free to ask for further detail here or if you are more comfortable asking privately inbox me on LinkedIn - Christine Siying Wu.

Good luck,
Christine

 

[T771]

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[mUkKa1]

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[Monderier1]

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[JJJJ111]

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[ad981]

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[AugustusSeptimius1]

Hi everyone, I'm Christine. I am an incoming summer analyst at Citibank this summer. I currently study Chemistry at Imperial College of London and am in my second year. I have been asked to write a few words on how to secure a summer internship with an Investment Bank.

1. Online Applications

Most banks would require a resume and a cover letter or a bunch of questions. I would suggest the Education, Work Experience, Leadership Experience format, all within one page. With the cover letter, I had a short introduction, why I wanted to work for this particular bank, my related past experiences, and other interesting activities that I do at college. I ended the letter reiterating why I am suitable for this role and addressed the letter to the HR responsible for recruiting. This is when networking at the bank's events becomes very important. It allows you to find out their recruiting process, the HR responsible for screening candidates (it will become easier when you know who to email for application update when you want to leverage your offer), talking to existing analysts about the firm (so you know exactly why you want to work for this particular bank and how to answer their online questions), and whether Investment Banking is really for you.

2. First round interviews

The first round interviews for HK banks are around late November and December (although JP Morgan is on an on-rolling basis so they have their interviews a lot earlier). I would suggest to start preparing for them in October and NOT wait until you have received your first interview, because that was the mistake I made and the bank only notified me few days in advance (longest was a week notice). There are normally 2-3 rounds telephone in the first round interview with an analyst or associate (Morgan Stanley would have a second round skype interview as well and UBS only had one round) and you will have to pass all rounds to get to final round.

To prepare for these interviews I used the 400 Investment Banking questions and answers you need to know, wall street oasis behavioural interview guide, and the vault guide to financial interviews. I started with the vault guide ‘Corporate Valuation’ section because it was more comprehensive than the 400 Q’s and then the 400 Q’s, and used the behavioural guide as another source to strengthen my competencies. For HK interviews, I would suggest that you memorise all the basic levels questions in the 400 Q’s except the Merger Model and LBO section and make up your own notes for the competency questions as you go along in bullet point format. Also, don’t forget to read about recent financial news (I would recommend Financial times) and to know your resume well and be confident to talk about things that you have written in it (especially finance related experiences). After this, you are ready to ask a few friends to help conduct some practise interviews with you!

3. The Super day

Most assessment centres (AC) are in mid December or mid January, I had three ACs during my exam week in January, and I would recommend that you study for them since the start of term if it is the same for you. The format for AC could vary a lot depending on which bank, some only conduct interviews whereas other may have translation test, numerical reasoning tests, and presentation exercise. In terms of preparation, I would say your first round preparation would be sufficient to get you through the final round because the directors and MDs are a bit more tolerant with the technical knowledge than the analysts and associates unless you study Finance and Accounting.

I also received offers from Sales and Trading in London, let me know if this is an area of interest and I will be happy to share about it as well.

If anything is not clear feel free to ask for further detail here or if you are more comfortable asking privately inbox me on LinkedIn - Christine Siying Wu.

Good luck,
Christine

This is really great info, Christine. Thank you for posting this, definitely gonna use this when applying for summer internships this September. I was wondering, though, did you have a process of choosing the best IB’s for you and what you were looking for before applying or did you kinda go into it hopeful with an open mind? There is clearly an immense amount of competition for these programs.

 

[sw20001]

This is really great info, Christine. Thank you for posting this, definitely gonna use this when applying for summer internships this September. I was wondering, though, did you have a process of choosing the best IB’s for you and what you were looking for before applying or did you kinda go into it hopeful with an open mind? There is clearly an immense amount of competition for these programs.

I would say choosing the best is a nice idea in theory but because of competitiveness and how it's actually quite hard to understand what is right for you before you are on the inside, don't spend too much time figuring this out. When you have years of experience under your belt and have built up a network, that will become more feasible. Here is some expansion on my thoughts.

I would recommend submitting a CV to as many as you can. It isn't time consuming, and even if you are not that interested in somewhere, you can use their psychometric testing as a practice for the tests you'll have to take at banks are you most care about. And the same goes for interview practice. Yes, there may be a month where you hate yourself (especially if you are also trying to keep up with your degree alongside applications - which you SHOULD do) because it will become very time consuming preparing for video interviews coming at you left right and center, but it disciplines you, and will help you understand if you are actually cut out for IB in terms of work ethic. You also have the option to not do some of the video interviews if you just wanted to use an application as an opportunity to practice their earlier tests.

Every bank seems to recommend really researching them and not scatter-gunning your approach to applications because they are able to tell and will opt for those most loyal to and interested in their firm. Whether it is true about them being able to tell is debatable: most people I know who secured prestigious summer internships applied to 15+ places but they knew how to come across very interested. You can do this by listening to their podcasts, being able to discuss a couple of their case studies, name drop some of their clients and reading up on their recent news stories.

The best opportunities don't necessarily arise from you deeply researching and trying to understand whether they are right for you. The first summer I did involved submitting a CV and writing a paragraph on a book I had read recently (so I thought what have I got to lose?), followed by an interview 2 days later, being given an offer during the interview and starting 4 days later. There was literally a 2 week period between hearing about the internship and it starting. I didn't really understand what the team did. Then the summer I did last year was at an asset manager I had never heard of before and I only properly researched them after being called for interview. That interview was when I decided I really wanted to work for them - there is only so much of an impression you can get by researching a company online. Talking to people who work there gives you much more insight. Maybe I am biased because I have fortunately enjoyed everywhere my career has taken me, but still worth bearing in mind!

What IB is best for you may mean you rule out too many places - ultimately what each one does is pretty similar, and it will definitely appear like that through online research. The office politics and culture is where they differ the most - but you can only really understand that once you are working, and even then, it may vastly differ internally across teams.

One thing I would say if you do only want to apply to a few, is yes, try to figure out what the best firms are for you. No point in applying to 3 randomly on a whim or that you don't like that much. You should have the time to, and it will increase your chances at interview, which you should try to do when you have a lot of eggs in one basket.

 

[AugustusSeptimius1]

I would say choosing the best is a nice idea in theory but because of competitiveness and how it's actually quite hard to understand what is right for you before you are on the inside, don't spend too much time figuring this out. When you have years of experience under your belt and have built up a network, that will become more feasible. Here is some expansion on my thoughts.

I would recommend submitting a CV to as many as you can. It isn't time consuming, and even if you are not that interested in somewhere, you can use their psychometric testing as a practice for the tests you'll have to take at banks are you most care about. And the same goes for interview practice. Yes, there may be a month where you hate yourself (especially if you are also trying to keep up with your degree alongside applications - which you SHOULD do) because it will become very time consuming preparing for video interviews coming at you left right and center, but it disciplines you, and will help you understand if you are actually cut out for IB in terms of work ethic. You also have the option to not do some of the video interviews if you just wanted to use an application as an opportunity to practice their earlier tests.

Every bank seems to recommend really researching them and not scatter-gunning your approach to applications because they are able to tell and will opt for those most loyal to and interested in their firm. Whether it is true about them being able to tell is debatable: most people I know who secured prestigious summer internships applied to 15+ places but they knew how to come across very interested. You can do this by listening to their podcasts, being able to discuss a couple of their case studies, name drop some of their clients and reading up on their recent news stories.

The best opportunities don't necessarily arise from you deeply researching and trying to understand whether they are right for you. The first summer I did involved submitting a CV and writing a paragraph on a book I had read recently (so I thought what have I got to lose?), followed by an interview 2 days later, being given an offer during the interview and starting 4 days later. There was literally a 2 week period between hearing about the internship and it starting. I didn't really understand what the team did. Then the summer I did last year was at an asset manager I had never heard of before and I only properly researched them after being called for interview. That interview was when I decided I really wanted to work for them - there is only so much of an impression you can get by researching a company online. Talking to people who work there gives you much more insight. Maybe I am biased because I have fortunately enjoyed everywhere my career has taken me, but still worth bearing in mind!

What IB is best for you may mean you rule out too many places - ultimately what each one does is pretty similar, and it will definitely appear like that through online research. The office politics and culture is where they differ the most - but you can only really understand that once you are working, and even then, it may vastly differ internally across teams.

One thing I would say if you do only want to apply to a few, is yes, try to figure out what the best firms are for you. No point in applying to 3 randomly on a whim or that you don't like that much. You should have the time to, and it will increase your chances at interview, which you should try to do when you have a lot of eggs in one basket.

This is great feedback. Thank you. Noted, I’ll bear all of that in mind. Appreciate the advice a lot!