Investment Banking Summer Analyst Review

Before interning at Goldman, I had completed some other internship programmes at another bulge bracket firm, one of the Big Four accounting firms and a boutique. Thinking I had 'been around the block' enough to have seen it all, I was pleasantly surprised by how different Goldman's culture and its people are. The quiet confidence, smiles and guidance of the employees of the firm easily made it the best company I have worked in so far and accepting a full time offer from the firm was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made.

I felt that not only did the work I do for my team matter, clients actually depended on it. For example, during my internship program I was staffed on a debt capital raise transaction for a client with an analyst, a VP and an MD. The analyst made sure I got meaningful work to do throughout the whole transaction and I even got the chance to tag along on one of the roadshow events to a client when we started marketing the opportunity to investors.

There was almost always someone who was willing to provide support, guidance or advice during the whole summer. Before the internship, I expected Goldman to have a work environment where everyone was so busy and mean that they would not have found time to help a mere intern. I was totally surprised by how misguided my preconceptions about the firm had been. Everyone was always willing to help, even the other interns (yes, that is how collaborative you become once you get into the firm's culture!)

I must say that I was almost always extremely busy. I interned in the Investment Banking Division where you are considered to be having a good day if you leave work at midnight (This is not only Goldman thing, its an IBD thing). But there were also some downtimes where I was waiting for feedback on some piece of work I had done or there was a lull in a transaction we were working on. Regardless, working in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs (or any other bank for that matter) means that you should be prepared to do a lot of work and be stuck in the office almost the whole day and for almost every day of the week.

I was given a lot of responsibility during the internship programme. There was one time where I was placed on a team of two associates, a VP and an MD and I had to perform all the roles of the analyst since there was no analyst on the team. This forced me to learn a lot directly from the two associates and I got the chance to confirm for myself if I was truly going to enjoy working in that role. I loved it!

I believe that the networking, modelling and time management skills I developed under pressure during the internship at Goldman will always be valuable no matter what I decide to do with the rest of my life. Being forced to build these skills at first was very uncomfortable, especially for networking. But it got to a point where I felt more at ease whenever I was forced to do something that was outside my comfort zone. And that is one of the most important skills I have taken away from the internship: learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

My team members were very funny guys. They could literally keep me laughing with wiseass jokes from 9am to midnight. I loved working with them and you could easily notice if the atmosphere got too quiet because somebody would say something funny about that and we will all start laughing again. But that was just my team, the dynamics and culture of every team is different in the bank and you just have to find where you might fit best.

The internship programme was EXTREMELY well organised. I am not even trying to overhype this. Goldman's HCM (Human Capital Management) team made sure that the whole internship programme was executed flawlessly and I was amazed by how efficiently the firm carried out the process of identifying and recruiting its next top talent.

I got an offer to join the firm after my summer internship and I was happy to accept.

Living in London is quite expensive. I got lucky and stayed with a friend the whole summer so I did not have to spend much on rent but I know that he was paying almost £2,000 a month to living in Zone 2 in London, just less than 30 minutes from the firm's office.