So it's 1:30 AM and I'm basically waiting on another analyst to finish one last page of a deck so I can get out of here. Things were pretty slow all day today until about 4PM, when I got staffed on a deal that has to be done tomorrow. I basically just had to profile some companies, gather financial data from 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and research reports (for the forward-looking estimates). The problem is that the formatting is sometimes really tricky to get just right. Little changes mess up the formatting and that's where I spent the majority of my time tonight. It's really frustrating when some Office program won't do what you think it's supposed to be doing.
I thought for a little while that tonight might be my first all-nighter, but it ended up that I got through the second half of pages much faster than the first. Once I figured out where to get the data and how to put it together, things went really fast.
I'm already getting faster at Excel navigation. It seems kind of funny to make a big deal of it, but seriously it saves you so much time not to use the mouse. About six months ago one of my friends and I decided to start only using Excel through the keyboard. That was a great decision. I learned tons of shortcuts that are really helping now. That's one area that I am WAY ahead of the other interns on. Of course, the bank does have its own special shortcuts which are really nice, but if you already know all the other shortcuts then learning a few more is no big deal. It is pretty amazing to watch the second-year analysts getting around in Excel. They go so fast that things just pop up on the screen - you can't even follow what they're doing.
Well I'm tired and I don't have much of anything important to write about, I just thought that since I have a few minutes I could write some things down while I wait. This is the second night in a row where I've been here pretty late. I can't complain though; I would much rather be busy than be sitting around out here. This is exactly what I want to be doing.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Craziness on Wall St.
So Lehman Brothers has been hitting some hard times and it has made me reflect on how weird it is out here sometimes. When you think about Lehman or Bear Stearns, it's strange because for most of the bank, it's just business as usual. In the IBD nothing changes - you just keep on working and you have no idea that somewhere on some other floor there are traders trying to pull off hedges against your bank's huge mortgage-backed security exposure. You have no idea that your job is on the brink as you sit there and spread comps.
It's just crazy to think that at a place like Bear, all of the analysts felt like things were going well. Everybody looked busy, deals were getting done, pitches were being made. Then all of a sudden you start to hear that some crazy stuff is going on with lenders, hedge funds, short sellers, and everybody else. Before you know it, JP Morgan is there paying $2 per share and you're out of a job.
The traditional investment banking divisions are strong, but they don't bring in nearly as much revenue as the prop desks and trading departments do. Huge trades can bring in a ton of revenue, but they can also cause you to implode.
It's just weird to sit here and read about stuff going on at banks on the Street and realize that at any moment, somewhere in the bank, some trader could cost me my job, no matter how strong my group is or how many deals we're doing. What a crazy place this is!
It's just crazy to think that at a place like Bear, all of the analysts felt like things were going well. Everybody looked busy, deals were getting done, pitches were being made. Then all of a sudden you start to hear that some crazy stuff is going on with lenders, hedge funds, short sellers, and everybody else. Before you know it, JP Morgan is there paying $2 per share and you're out of a job.
The traditional investment banking divisions are strong, but they don't bring in nearly as much revenue as the prop desks and trading departments do. Huge trades can bring in a ton of revenue, but they can also cause you to implode.
It's just weird to sit here and read about stuff going on at banks on the Street and realize that at any moment, somewhere in the bank, some trader could cost me my job, no matter how strong my group is or how many deals we're doing. What a crazy place this is!
Seamless Web
Well it's 1:18 AM and I just got home. I guess tonight before I go to bed I'll write a little about Seamless Web - every analyst's best friend. First though, a quick run-down on the day.
Things for me were pretty slow through the morning. I got in right at about 9:00 AM, which is pretty late for me. I spent most of the morning studying options, swaps, and other derivatives. For lunch I went out with my mentor to a really nice place and got the best steak I've ever had. It was amazing. We talked a lot about college and I realized more than ever how different my college experience has been from the "normal" colleges around the USA. Thank goodness!
In the afternoon I got staffed on a sell-side M&A deal with a short fuse. It was pretty intense because I had to work quickly and not make any mistakes. We got through the book pretty quickly and without too many problems. At about 9:30 the book came back with comments so I made the changes and double-checked everything. That took a while because some of the changes were formatting things that took a while to figure out how to fix up.
Sometimes it seems like the MD's and SVP's think that you can just move everything around on a slide as easily as they can draw it on a piece of paper. It's almost funny the things they have you change. When we were hearing how to fix one slide, I was thinking in my mind, "He probably has no idea that what he just drew on that slide will take about 30 minutes to update."
So anyway, it was a good night. When you have work to do, time flies and you wish you had more time to get things right and triple-check everything before you have to turn it in with your name attached to it.
So about Seamless Web. Every big bank on the street has this system. It's basically the way that you get food every night. It kind of depends on the bank, but generally if you stay in the office after 7:00 or 8:00 PM, you get $25 to spend on dinner. That doesn't mean that you have to wait until 8:00 to eat, it just means that if you get dinner at 6:30 then you better stay until at least 8:00 (but seriously, as an analyst, will you ever NOT be in past 8:00?).
Everything is done online. You have a list of 200+ restaurants in New York that you can choose from. When you pick a restaurant, you see their entire menu and you just add whatever you want. Seamless Web automatically adds a nominal tip for you, plus tax, so you can see a running total of how much it will cost you as you add things. It's awesome! Any kind of food you want is on there. Last night I just got a sandwich and a little tub of pistachios. Tonight I got a wrap, plus a sandwich for lunch tomorrow (so I don't have to spend $10 for lunch). You can basically get any type of food and dessert imaginable, every night of the week. If you work weekends, you get two meals per day.
The more senior analysts and associates will sometimes have the interns order for large groups of people. Because Seamless Web will just split the overall costs with everybody equally, usually it ends up that everybody owes $22 or so. The analysts will then order cases of Life Water or Coke to stock up their mini fridges using the $3 per person that's left over. It's funny how you learn all the tricks of survival out here.
Anyway, that's Seamless Web. Along with late-night car service, it's one of the few perks of staying so late in the office. Well, I just got an email that I'm needed back at the office, so see ya later!
I added the options to receive updates on the blog by email or for you all to subscribe to Atom feeds, so enjoy! Thanks for the comments.
Things for me were pretty slow through the morning. I got in right at about 9:00 AM, which is pretty late for me. I spent most of the morning studying options, swaps, and other derivatives. For lunch I went out with my mentor to a really nice place and got the best steak I've ever had. It was amazing. We talked a lot about college and I realized more than ever how different my college experience has been from the "normal" colleges around the USA. Thank goodness!
In the afternoon I got staffed on a sell-side M&A deal with a short fuse. It was pretty intense because I had to work quickly and not make any mistakes. We got through the book pretty quickly and without too many problems. At about 9:30 the book came back with comments so I made the changes and double-checked everything. That took a while because some of the changes were formatting things that took a while to figure out how to fix up.
Sometimes it seems like the MD's and SVP's think that you can just move everything around on a slide as easily as they can draw it on a piece of paper. It's almost funny the things they have you change. When we were hearing how to fix one slide, I was thinking in my mind, "He probably has no idea that what he just drew on that slide will take about 30 minutes to update."
So anyway, it was a good night. When you have work to do, time flies and you wish you had more time to get things right and triple-check everything before you have to turn it in with your name attached to it.
So about Seamless Web. Every big bank on the street has this system. It's basically the way that you get food every night. It kind of depends on the bank, but generally if you stay in the office after 7:00 or 8:00 PM, you get $25 to spend on dinner. That doesn't mean that you have to wait until 8:00 to eat, it just means that if you get dinner at 6:30 then you better stay until at least 8:00 (but seriously, as an analyst, will you ever NOT be in past 8:00?).
Everything is done online. You have a list of 200+ restaurants in New York that you can choose from. When you pick a restaurant, you see their entire menu and you just add whatever you want. Seamless Web automatically adds a nominal tip for you, plus tax, so you can see a running total of how much it will cost you as you add things. It's awesome! Any kind of food you want is on there. Last night I just got a sandwich and a little tub of pistachios. Tonight I got a wrap, plus a sandwich for lunch tomorrow (so I don't have to spend $10 for lunch). You can basically get any type of food and dessert imaginable, every night of the week. If you work weekends, you get two meals per day.
The more senior analysts and associates will sometimes have the interns order for large groups of people. Because Seamless Web will just split the overall costs with everybody equally, usually it ends up that everybody owes $22 or so. The analysts will then order cases of Life Water or Coke to stock up their mini fridges using the $3 per person that's left over. It's funny how you learn all the tricks of survival out here.
Anyway, that's Seamless Web. Along with late-night car service, it's one of the few perks of staying so late in the office. Well, I just got an email that I'm needed back at the office, so see ya later!
I added the options to receive updates on the blog by email or for you all to subscribe to Atom feeds, so enjoy! Thanks for the comments.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Interns and I-banks
I had an interesting insight today. Being an intern is like being an investment bank. You want all the (quality) work you can possibly get, and there is competition to get it. I'm up "against" other interns who are all smart, driven, hard-working, and ready to do whatever the analysts ask. All of us interns talk with the analysts a lot, work with them, and are becoming their friends. But, when it comes down to getting work done, that's where you start to work like a bank.
Bankers get business through relationships. What they want is that whenever a client has any type of financing/deal making needs, they are the first bank to come to mind. Bankers want the client to actually feel bad for turning to someone else before them.
In a like manner, you want to be in the front of the analyst's mind. As an intern you want the analysts to think of you right away when they need something to get done right. You want them to know that if they only have 15 minutes to get this done, you will get it done in 13 and you'll refill their coffee with your remaining two minutes.
Although it's hard to distinguish yourself from other interns, especially since we all do basically the same things and we all have about the same relationships with the analysts/staffers/associates, I've started thinking more about how I can move myself up the line. It probably has been on my mind a lot today because none of the interns have really had much to do. I'm at somewhat of a disadvantage because I don't sit by any analysts, so I can't just look across to the opposite cube and ask a question. I actually have to leave my desk and go looking for somebody. But today I went around and asked, "What can I do to get you home earlier tonight?" The analysts really seemed to like that kind of attitude.
It's true though - you are basically here to make the analyst's life better. You want them to be happy and you want them to be successful because they have you working for them.
Anyway, it's an interesting connection. As an analyst I'm doing the very thing that the banks do - getting into the front of the line and trying to get work.
Bankers get business through relationships. What they want is that whenever a client has any type of financing/deal making needs, they are the first bank to come to mind. Bankers want the client to actually feel bad for turning to someone else before them.
In a like manner, you want to be in the front of the analyst's mind. As an intern you want the analysts to think of you right away when they need something to get done right. You want them to know that if they only have 15 minutes to get this done, you will get it done in 13 and you'll refill their coffee with your remaining two minutes.
Although it's hard to distinguish yourself from other interns, especially since we all do basically the same things and we all have about the same relationships with the analysts/staffers/associates, I've started thinking more about how I can move myself up the line. It probably has been on my mind a lot today because none of the interns have really had much to do. I'm at somewhat of a disadvantage because I don't sit by any analysts, so I can't just look across to the opposite cube and ask a question. I actually have to leave my desk and go looking for somebody. But today I went around and asked, "What can I do to get you home earlier tonight?" The analysts really seemed to like that kind of attitude.
It's true though - you are basically here to make the analyst's life better. You want them to be happy and you want them to be successful because they have you working for them.
Anyway, it's an interesting connection. As an analyst I'm doing the very thing that the banks do - getting into the front of the line and trying to get work.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Summer in the City
Today I saw two friends from school that are out here doing internships with me. It was interesting to compare and contrast our internships so far. It seems like things are generally the same. I've actually worked less than one of my friends and more than the other. I'm guessing that by the end of the summer it will all even out. The workload seems to ebb and flow even on a day to day basis.
Well I'm gearing up for a long week of CFA study and finally the big test on Saturday. I'm nervous because I feel like there's still a lot I don't "own" but I'll do the best I can. It's hard to find time to really study out here, which is why I should have studied more this past semester. Oh well - live and learn, right? Luckily a lot of the stuff on the exam is stuff I've learned before, so it will be a lot of review.
Well good luck with the week everybody!
Well I'm gearing up for a long week of CFA study and finally the big test on Saturday. I'm nervous because I feel like there's still a lot I don't "own" but I'll do the best I can. It's hard to find time to really study out here, which is why I should have studied more this past semester. Oh well - live and learn, right? Luckily a lot of the stuff on the exam is stuff I've learned before, so it will be a lot of review.
Well good luck with the week everybody!
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