You’re almost halfway there. Or perhaps you just had your review and you’re just past the halfway line. How does it feel? Is it all that you’ve been striving for? Has it been slightly odd working from home? Or perhaps you’re going in a couple of days of the week in a hybrid situation. I’ve heard about people moving to a city simply to WFH which I find rather ridiculous but I digress.
I’ll get straight to the point here – 10 weeks, I view them in thirds. And I wish someone had told me this stuff back when I was an intern.
1. First 3.3 weeks – Learn the Job
- Focus on the task at hand – crush training, exploring the job, asking questions, meet and engage with your team, have coffee with senior colleagues. This is the honeymoon phase so everyone’s going to be friendly and willing to help you. Ask those dumb questions.
2. Second 3.3 weeks – Do the Job (where we are right now)
- This is when you excel (and hopefully really start getting efficient with your excel skills). You’ve been on the job for a few weeks – gone are the days of the ‘dumb questions’ because you should know those by now and now you should be accelerating on the speed of your work. Things move fast – especially in a 10-week internship. Start holistically understanding your team’s role within your firm and what the macro picture looks like. Network outside your team, outside your firm, alumni, anyone in the industry. Midtown coffees are back.
- ASK ASK ASK during your performance review what you can do better. Even if you’re the best intern they’ve ever seen (which you very well could but low likelihood) THERE ARE WAYS TO IMPROVE. Asking for what you can do better > Asking if you’re well-positioned for a full-time offer. You’ve been saying how you’re going to crush your summer internship. Show rather than tell.
3. Third 3.3 weeks – Improve the Job
- This is when you start wrapping up long-term projects, you look to improve processes where you see the potential for improvement (i.e. macros or VBA scripts for a potential performance report). Always ask for more work, even putting in the extra effort will help you lock in the full-time offer. Do you have a final presentation on your work? How can you make sure that your presentation will blow other interns’ work out of the water?
I know it’s very easy to get caught up with thoughts around “Will this convert to a full-time offer?” or “How can I guarantee full-time so I can officially unplug and enjoy my summer like the rest of my friends?” but now is the time more than ever to pedal down and accelerate.
Accelerate because you’re going to get this full-time offer and more if you follow the steps above. If you’re looking to potentially take this offer to the bank and see what other investment banks (or buyside analyst gigs) you might be able to get competitive offers from, that might be an option as well. Schedule a time & we can chat about it.
Interested in learning more about OfficeHours and how a Career Coach can help you? Schedule a time to connect with a Coach here or Submit your Application directly here and we’ll be in-touch!