Full disclosure — I wasn’t a great intern my first time around.
Northeastern has a co-op program (three 6-month internships done over 5 years) — it was the only way I got actual experience that allowed me to exit directly into Growth Equity right out of undergrad. However back to the point here — I wasn’t a good intern because I wasn’t even sure what a good intern looked like until my stint at a bulge bracket.
So my first internship was at a Fortune 100 Company, Supply Chain Finance at 20 years old — I personally don’t think I was set-up for success since I was a 1st co-op replacing 2 (3rd year co-ops) why idk!?— I didn’t know what normal hours looked like for work (no-one directly managed what time I came in/left), I wasn’t exactly sure what work product should look like (after all, it was my first internship, people were too busy to tell me I did something wrong) and then I didn’t realize people were upset with me and their form of punishment was filling out banker boxes with paperwork lol.
TBH I was such an idiot back then — it wasn’t until my co-op coordinator told me I didn’t do a great job (clearly I didn’t get a great review) and then I had to beg and plead to convince her I had changed and to PLEASE give me a shot at banking and that I finally understood what good work product looked like…
I guess what I’m getting at is that when I see posts around interns and there were many this week (see some below and on our IG story) — people complaining that interns aren’t putting in their hours, interns might not be giving it their all, interns are showing up not wearing professional clothing — my question is — do your interns know what success looks like?
My former boss had a saying:
“Focus on the Top 10%, use them to coach the middle 80%, and forget about the bottom 10%”
After some time, sure let the laggards be the laggards — find the stars and focus on the stars, take them aside and let them know they are GOOD, you are PROUD of the work they do, and you want them to CRUSH for FT position selection. We all know by now that not all interns will get full-time gigs, I’ve even heard 1 in 2 interns might get FT Analyst roles (contrary to years in the past). If that doesn’t wake up an intern, not sure genuinely what might.
While it’s easy to complain and you could tell me “Rohit, they know what success looks like off 1st-year analysts” — this generation is different. I’m not going to say they have other options to make money through TikTok/IG but the reality is that we see this all the time — investment banking is getting to be less and less a popular choice for individuals graduating college — this is LITERALLY A RISK IN OUR OWN BUSINESS MODEL, cannot disagree there. Fewer and fewer people want to go into investment banking whether it be for the skillset, money, learning hard work, etc. This next generation just functions differently — why spend your time wondering how to cater to the ENTIRE generation rather than just focusing on your Top 10%…
“Focus on the Top 10%, use them to coach the middle 80%, and forget about the bottom 10%”
After all, what you and seniors need to understand is that no matter how “bad” this class is — some of them will return to full-time and they are the FUTURE OF YOUR FIRM. Find the best and start nurturing them and understand that you weren’t perfect the first time around.
For any interns reading this — if you don’t know WTF is going on — ask around for more details, I’d be surprised if you were the only one.
(covering more details here on our IG Story for anyone interested).