finance internship guide - qfac · if your internship is in a different city then where you live,...

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From the QFAC Education Team

Finance Internship GuideHow to Succeed on the Summer Job 101

With a Focus on Investment Banking

INTERN CHECKLIST

Attention to Detail

Be Resourceful

Positive Attitude

Double-Check Work

And Many More Tips!

1st EditionMay, 2018

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Introduction

Preface

This guide was written to provide guidance to students at Queen’s University who have pursued summerinternships in the financial industry It is predominantly meant for third year students partaking ininvestment banking internships, however, much of the content applies to all areas/years of financeinternships

The ideas, advice and tips in this guide are based on the personal experience of the contributors. Nothingin this guide is a concrete to-do and should serve only as a guideline. While the material in this guide iscorrect and accurate to the best of our knowledge, we recognize that we may be misinformed about somethings. Although the contributors are providing advice that worked for them, it may not be applicable toeveryone. Please use this guide as a reference only and use it to supplement what you may already know.We highly recommend using this guide in conjunction with other finance guides such as Breaking IntoWall Street (“BIWS”) or Wall Street Oasis (“WSO”).

The contributors take no credit for either your success or your failure as a result of this. Throughout thisguide the contributors recommend the use of other resources and guides by name. The contributors andthis guide have no personal or professional association to any of these resources. There is no incentivethat may skew the perspective of the guide. Similarly, the contributors have no control over the content ofthese resources and guides and take no responsibility for its accuracy or relevance. Please use them atyour own discretion.

TL, DR – We put a lot of effort into this guide and think all the content is useful and helpful.However, if things go good or bad, we are not responsible in any way for your successes or failures

A Couple Tips to Help you Understand this Guide

✓ We’ve tried to hyperlink this guide as much as possible (most hyperlinks take you to redirectedpages within this guide). Whenever you see blue text underlined like this, click it to see moreinformation on the topic – this hyperlink in particular takes you one page back to the cover!

✓ We’ve only tried to cover topics that we know well and have gone through ourselves.

✓ Top-Bucket Tip: These indications provide “top-secret” tips which have been added to help youdifferentiate yourself amongst your intern class as a top-bucket (very strongly rated) intern

✓ In addition, we’ve compiled all of all our top-bucket tips at the end of this guide so you caneasily see them together in one place! Just click this link!

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Table of Contents

Section I: Internship Timeline

✓Prior to Your Internship

✓Week 1 (Training Week)

✓Week 2 and On…✓Performance Reviews

✓Homework & Summer Project

Section II: Tools of the Trade

✓Excel and PowerPoint

✓Seamless

✓Taxis/Ubers

✓Office Equipment

Section III: Soft Stuff

✓Emails

✓Conference Calls

✓Relationships

✓Chat

✓Clothing

Tip: If you’re viewing this guide electronically, click the topic you are interested in to be taken directly to it!

Section IV: Working with Deal Teams

✓Meetings

✓Before, During & After

✓Communication

✓Receiving Work

✓Deadlines

✓Under Promise, Over Deliver

✓Managing Multiple Deal Teams

✓Managing Your Workload

✓ It’s Okay to Say No!✓Checking Your Work

✓Checklist

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Table of Contents

Section V: Succeeding on the Job

✓How to be a Top-Bucket Intern

✓More Useful Tips

✓Don’t Screw This Up

Tip: If you’re viewing this guide electronically, click the topic you are interested in to be taken directly to it!

Section VI: Recap

✓Top Bucket Tips – Compilation

✓Overview

✓One Last Thing Before Examining Pitfalls

✓Pitfalls

✓The Return Offer

✓Re-Recruiting for Full-Time

Section VII: Appendix

✓Excel Tips and Keyboard Shortcuts

✓Finance Lingo

✓Glossary

✓References

✓Closing Remarks

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Section I: Contents

✓Prior to Your Internship

✓Week 1 (Training Week)

✓Week 2 and On…✓Performance Reviews

✓Homework & Summer Project

Topic


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Prior to Your Internship

Take it Easy…✓ Coming from Queen’s (or any school with a business background), you will have more than enough

knowledge and skills necessary to succeed on the job. As you’ll find out throughout this guide earning a return offer is not hard and rarely has to do with not being familiar with concepts

✓ Remember that many (almost half of) interns in the United States go to undergrad university programs without a business background. If these students can learn the skills necessary to succeed without any financial background, then you definitely can

✓ As you’ll find out in this guide, most of your internship will be spent formatting company logos, downloading company reports, manually inputting numbers into excel sheets and even more challenging and exciting work!

✓ The 10+ weeks you’ll be spending on the internship are going to be long and intense. So, take the time you have off before you start to relax and unfold. Spend time on things like moving into your housing for the summer, having suits and clothing taken care of, and anything else that may seem mundane before your internship but will be the last thing you want to take care of once you start

✓ You’ll most likely be just coming back from a very “eventful” exchange semester abroad. Give yourself a chance to relax and unwind before the internship starts

To Really Get Ahead

✓ If you’re really stressing out about things, then brush up on your excel and PowerPoint skills. You’ll be using these programs almost entirely, so knowing how to do shortcuts as fast as possible will help you out lots here

✓ You can also brush up on your comps, DCF and other valuation skills. But, again, as you’ll soon find out, most of your time for your internship will be spent on menial tasks that are so easy a monkey could do them

Getting Down There and Planning Ahead

✓ If your internship is in a different city then where you live, aim to get down at least a few days in advance

✓ Familiarize yourself with the subway/transportation system, find out where the local grocery store, laundromat, etc. are, and stock up your room with whatever things you may need for the summer … these are the last things you want to be worrying about over the summer


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Week 1 (Training Week)

Summary

✓ Training will almost definitely be the least hectic week of your internship. Training for internships usually lasts one week from Monday to Friday, running from around 8/9 am to 4/5 pm each day. Your days will consist of lectures from HR, along with training for software your group uses (Excel, PowerPoint, (whatever your bank uses for pitchbooks, etc.) and key modelling information (DCF’s, comps, etc.). Things like how to order dinners, what rules to follow for compliance, and how to use your firm’s IT software will also be covered

✓ For interns working in NYC, your training will be located in the city (very likely could be in Brooklyn or away from Wall Street/your actual office). Make sure you give yourself plenty of time on your first day and try to travel as a group to make things easier. For interns working at global bulge bracket offices in Toronto, your training will most likely also be in New York – your firm will put you up in a hotel and cover all expenses

✓ Compared to when you hit the desk, training will be a joke. Take advantage of free time during evenings to hang out with your friends from Queen’s and make new friends with other interns you’ll be working with over the summer. Feel free to go for drinks after training hours (not too late…) but make sure you arrive on time the next day. Arrange wake-up checks with your housemates to be sure. The last thing you want is to arrive late for training… Be aware if you have assessments the next morning when deciding if you should have that extra drink

Monday

✓ Meet and greet with HR and other summer interns, summer internship overview, compliance and IT info, meet with your group and intern sponsors

Tuesday – Thursday:

✓ Financial modelling training, pitchbook software training, Excel and PowerPoint, etc.

✓ You will most likely be given “homework” for the teachings listed above for each night. Ask older students you know who’ve gone through training at your bank to see if they really matter. Regardless, you should still be putting in a decent effort into these even if you can do a DCF in your sleep

✓ Usually homework is assigned at the end of the day, after your instructor has gone over various topics. The “norm” is for interns to work together on homework, which is taken up the next day. Your homework may or may not be submitted the next day when you come in

Friday

✓ Review of key concepts, final remarks from HR and bankers, etc.


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Week 2 and On…

Week 2 – Hitting the Desk for your First Week on the Job

✓ Your first week will be filled with you getting up to speed with what the internship will entail

✓ You’ll most likely have group intern meetings with your intern sponsor(s) and other senior members in the group to go over what your internship will look like, ground rules, etc.

✓ You will start to get staffed on some projects as the first week progresses … don’t stress out if you’re not getting lots of work to start out with!

✓ Your intern sponsors are super busy and it will take time as a result to get you on staffings

✓ There also need to be enough current staffings for you to be staffed on!

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Make your first week count!

✓ It’s very easy to just sit around and wait for work to come to you during your first week. Make use of this valuable time!

✓ Check in with your junior mentor and see if you can help out with anything or if they have any ideas of things you can work on to get prepared for the next few weeks

✓ Ask if they have any useful industry primers, old models you can work through, or anything else you can try and learn from by spending a few hours in

✓ Familiarize yourself with your bank’s dataroom, pitchbook software, equity research platform, and any other software that may prove useful

✓ Refresh yourself on everything you learned last week from training

✓ Read through anything your intern sponsors sent across

✓ Ensure you know how all technology (printers, scanners, phone/headset) works

Meeting with Your Mentors

✓ Over the course of the summer you’ll most likely be paired up with two mentors – one junior (analyst/associate) and one senior (VP/MD)

✓ Your junior mentor (and potentially senior) should take the initiative to set up a time during your first few days to meet with you. If they don’t nicely ask your junior mentor if you can meet

✓ Come into your first meeting with your junior mentor with some objectives and goals you’ve laid for yourself for the summer. See what your junior mentor has to say and if they have any feedback for the goals you’ve set out. Keep these goals handy at all times while working and review them whenever you meet with your mentor


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Week 2 and On…

What You’ll be Spending Most of Your Time On…“Spreading” Comps✓ Spreading comps is something that many summer analysts work on, lightening the load for analysts

who usually perform the task

✓ Spreading comps refers to the process of inputting information about a company’s estimates from bank’s equity research reports for figures such as revenue, EBITDA, earnings, leverage, etc.

✓ Although this may seem like mundane, boring work, you should be viewing it as a way to make your analyst’s life easier – these individuals are the ones working with you the most over the summer and as a result have a massive influence on your performance review/return offer

✓ Your bank will have you spread comps as an way to see if you have strong attention to detail skills. If so, then you will gain access to more stimulating work. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere!`

Pitchbooks

✓ Pitchbooks are presentations made by your deal team which are presented to new and existing clients in an effort to generate fees from new ideas your team has presented

✓ Pitchbooks usually take 1-2 weeks (can very well be longer) to produce from start to finish. Often your deal team will have several meetings throughout the process of completing a pitchbook to check in on work and modify/add content to the pitchbook

✓ The final pitchbook product is presented by the MD/Group head of the deal team to the management team of the client. People as high as the CFO, CEO, etc. could easily be in these meetings, which are usually held at the client’s headquarter office

✓ Summer analysts usually work on the following tasks for pitchbooks:

✓ Company / industry profiles

✓ Emerging industry trends

✓ Competitor analyses

✓ Precedent deals analyses

✓ Basic financials charts – revenue segmentation, model outputs, revenue and profit growth charts, etc.

✓ Management overview

✓ Any other tasks – deal team bio page, printing and binding books, making requests to your group’s support line, etc.


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Week 2 and On…

Who You’ll be Working With✓ For the most part, expect to be receiving directions from your analysts and associates. They will

usually pass down tasks to you from what was discussed in the meeting from the VP’s and MD’s✓ Expect to also be working on the same kind of work as the summer associates in your group / on your

deal team

✓ Always go to your analyst / associate first with any questions, even if they may be geared towards what the VP or MD on the task has asked for

✓ Most of the time the analyst/associate on your deal team will be handling all the “quant stuff” with the excel model

Following Week 2…✓ As the weeks progress throughout the internship, you’ll find yourself staffed with more and more work.

Hopefully, you’ll also find yourself getting exposure to more exciting and stimulating work too. As we’ll go into more detail later in the guide, everyone has to start somewhere, and proving you can handle the “easy” stuff will allow you to work on meaningful tasks


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Performance Reviews

✓ Your performance review will come down to two main factors

✓ 1. Could you get work done at a satisfactory level

✓ 2. Did your group enjoy working alongside you

✓ Unless you face an unideal circumstance of not there not being enough return offers for interns, for the most part if you don’t screw things up (majorly) you should be okay

✓ Come in on time every day. Work your tail off during the day. Only leave after your seniors have, or are told multiple times to leave for the night because there is nothing for you to do. Don’t dress flamboyantly. Don’t swear ever – Skype, email, washrooms – it doesn’t matter. Etc…

✓ Most banks have two performance reviews – one half-way (mid-term evaluation) through the summer and one at the end of your internship

✓ Most banks try to let interns know where they stand in terms of return offer prospects during their mid-term evaluation

✓ Be in contact with your friends interning at other banks and try to find out what return rates, prospects for full-time hiring is like

✓ Not only is there a risk of you not getting a return offer, but you may also not enjoy the group you are working with, the hours may be brutal, the culture may be toxic, etc

✓ It is always good to know what opportunities are out there

✓ No matter what HR, seniors, other interns say, this is the most important aspect of an internship

✓ Yes, it’s not the end of the world but not getting a return offer can make your life very difficult if you want to pursue investment banking straight out of undergrad

✓ If you plan to re-recruit in banking, a bank’s first question for someone who failed to obtain a return offer will be asking why this is the case

✓ Applying for buy-side opportunities can also be difficult, but usually not as much as re-recruiting for banking

✓ It is paramount to always know where you stand at all times

✓ Check in regularly with your junior member / intern sponsor from time to time to see if things have changed since the last time you have heard from them

✓ Your junior mentor should be “on the inside” and know where you stand


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Homework & Summer Project

Homework

✓ Most banks, especially those in the US will have interns complete homework deliverables throughout the summer

✓ Deliverables often include:

✓ Comparable tables

✓ Discounted cash flow model

✓ Leveraged Buyout model

✓ Merger model (accretion-dilution)

✓ Homework deliverables are usually taught in a group/classroom style setting

✓ Following the lesson, interns are often provided with a blank template to complete the necessary homework and are asked to send back a completed excel file (and potentially an accompanying PowerPoint presentation) to the instructor

✓ The instructor for that topic will evaluate each intern’s homework and provide feedback to the intern (so they can learn what to improve on) and the group intern sponsors (so they know who did well on the homework)

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Get someone (ideally your junior mentor) to look over your homework. Try and do as much of your homework on your own as you can, but discuss with your summer interns to see if you are on the right page. Ask your junior mentor if they are willing to look over your homework before you submit it. They’ll know key formatting and group-specific intricacies that will help you. You can even tell your mentor who is marking the homework and they may have more specific suggestions

Summer Project

✓ This usually consists of making a pitchbook or analysis of a deal done either in a small team (2-3 people) or individually

✓ If your internship has had homework deliverables throughout to your summer internship, often your final project will be a culmination of all these projects, along with some more requirements

✓ Start this as early as possible and prioritize your work as much as possible. If you have free time during the last few weeks of your internship (when work tends to be the busiest and your team is making its final notes on if you should get a return offer or not), work on this instead of going for coffee for the 3rd time that day with other interns

✓ Similar to your homework deliverables, always try and go above and beyond … there is no such thing as being a “hardo” for this stuff. Whether it’s adding in extra value-add slides, applying a bear, base and bull case to your DCF, etc., the more you can show them the better


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Section II: Contents

✓Excel and PowerPoint

✓Seamless

✓Taxis/Ubers

✓Office Equipment

Topic


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Excel and PowerPoint

Excel

✓ Learn the alt shortcuts (see the Excel shortcut section of guide) and your bank’s company specific shortcuts/macros as early as possible. Ask other summer analysts and full-time analysts for useful tips and tricks here. These will save you hours, literally

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Always source your hardcodes when spreading comps. Include the file name you have sourced from, the page number, and any relevant comments. On the actual document you are sourcing from, highlight the number you have sourced so it is easier for people to check your sources. Then save a new updated PDF copy so when your analyst checks your work it is much easier for them to see where you are pulling numbers from

✓ Your bank may use a program like BAM SEC where it is possible to copy in a URL link to the exact figure you are sourcing from a company’s filing. This will allow the analyst checking your work to be taken directly to where you pulled the info from. Do this if possible

✓ Be very careful when moving worksheets into another workbook. If you have copied formulas ensure you break all inks

✓ Keep backup files of your work

✓ Use a dotted red-line (or something of that nature) to highlight important numbers. Ensure you are following best practices for your group

PowerPoint

✓ Create quick-access shortcuts for commands you use often: font colour, aligning pictures, distributing pictures, shape height and width, inserting a new slide, and anything else you use often

✓ Use the align feature (Format – Align – select option…) when organizing logos, charts, headings, etc.

✓ Doing so will allow you to have objects aligned perfectly left, centre, right, etc.

✓ You can also align logos and other objects to be aligned bottom, middle, or top, along with distributing objects perfectly either vertically or horizontally. Give it a try with some objects and you’ll see what you mean, it’s easier for you to learn that way than for us to explain!

✓ Often it may be fastest to create a duplicate of the slide you’ve already made to create another similar one

✓ Try to find old decks and templates wherever possible (feel free to ask your analysts/associates) as this will make your life much easier (both faster and more accurate)


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Seamless and Taxis/Ubers

Seamless, Cabs, and Other Expenses…Seamless

✓ If you’re working in New York you’ll be ordering from Seamless for almost every dinner and allotted roughly $25 for dinner (if you are staying past ~6 pm, which in banking is almost every night).

✓ Most banks will also allow bankers to order a second seamless order of $25 if they are staying past 10 pm

✓ Ask full-times for their favourite places to order food from to find out the good places. Talk amongst your intern class as well

✓ A few tips on Seamless:

✓ Be very careful with “hacking seamless”: Filling up your order up to $25 to try and get lunch for tomorrow should not be a problem. Ordering “groceries” for the weekend is a no-no. The last thing you want is for compliance to find out you’ve been using seamless to order orange juice cartons, water bottles, cereal and other items that are blatantly obvious not for dinner

✓ This has happened to interns before … don’t let it be you✓ Avoid falling into a food-coma and ordering food that will make you sleepy for the night. This is

the last thing you want

✓ Try and eat healthy. You won’t have lots of time to exercise during nights and weekends

Taxis and Ubers

✓ If you stay past ~9pm, your bank will most likely cover your cab home for the night

✓ If you take an Uber, your bank will most likely have an expense app you’ll be asked to use to track your cab rides. You will have an option to switch between your personal and business account and must approve a cab ride to be shown as business via your work email,

✓ If you take a taxi, you will need to take a picture of your receipt and submit it to your bank’s expense tracking app, while also manually inputting the costs for the cab

✓ It’s pretty tough to run into HR/compliance issues here. Just use cabs for what they’re meant for – to get home at night and nothing else

✓ This especially applies to ubers, as unlike taxis, HR will be able to see where exactly you were dropped off at

✓ If you’re working on the weekend and plan on meeting up with your buddies after work instead of going home that should be ok. Just double-check


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Office Equipment

Office Scanner

✓ Do a test the first time you use this and ensure you know which way to feed the paper

✓ Ensure you select the following (bold-face represents most commonly preferred options)

✓ Landscape or portrait

✓ 1-sided or 2-sided scan

✓ Color, Black & white, or automatic

Printing

✓ Know what the default setting is for your printer. It most likely will be set to black and white, however for meetings you should always be printing in colour, unless otherwise told

✓ The same list of options applies to printing as they do for scanning

Keyboard

✓ Your keyboard. You should know this by now, but there is no need for your F1 or insert key. For the love of god take them out! They can only do harm. If you’re concerned about your bank wanting keys these back at the end of your internship, just keep them in your top drawer. Consider also removing the caps lock key (can be hit instead of tab very easily and caps is rarely used)


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Section III: Contents

✓Emails

✓Conference Calls

✓Relationships

✓Chat

✓Clothing

Topic


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Emails

✓ Whenever drafting an email always first put double brackets “[]” in the to section. That way if you accidentally hit send the email won’t go through. Remove the brackets when you are ready to send

✓ Only add in the names of people you want to send your email to once you have double-checked the email draft. There is only downside from adding names before you draft an email and accidentally hitting send

✓ Order names by seniority: Group head, MD, Director, VP, Associate, Summer Associate, Analyst, Summer Analyst … the order of summer associate and analyst may vary but honestly it doesn’t matter. Most MD’s won’t care where they are placed in emails … but it can’t hurt to be careful here…

✓ Confirm if you should reply vs. reply all to emails Almost always, people will want you to reply all so that you can keep a thread of emails that everyone can follow. Ask your analyst the first time you need to reply to a message and follow the same protocol for all emails following, unless told otherwise

When sending emails with attachments…✓ Ensure the file is actually attached!

Top-Bucket Tips:

✓ After putting the brackets into the ”To” section, always attach the file before writing the email so you don’t forget

✓ Attach all PowerPoint files in PDF as well. PDF allows the file to be viewed easily if someone opens the email on their phone and some people prefer it

✓ Also attach the link to your dataroom (your bank’s shared saving database) so your team can easily know where to go in to find the work you have sent across

✓ CC your “briefcase” or mobile application to view files, especially if sending to a senior member of the team and in late hours

✓ BCC yourself or check your sent folder to ensure they actually went through. Ask an analyst/summer associate who received the email (or someone who won’t be bothered by a message) if the email went through to them

✓ Acknowledge email requests immediately even if the task will take a while to complete

✓ In banking most people respond to emails within minutes if they are at their desk. Follow this

✓ NEVER EMAIL ANYONE OUTSIDE OF THE FIRM UNLESS TOLD BY A FULL-TIME. GET CONFIRMATION FROM MULTIPLE PEOPLE IF A FILE IS BEING ATTACHED

✓ It is perfectly fine to email FactSet, CapitalIQ, etc. with attachments as your bank has a confidentiality agreement, but still double-check with an analyst the first time. Ask and get a response in writing, not verbally

✓ Depending on the culture of the bank/group, you should not be emailing anyone more senior than an associate, unless you are asked to send out a final deck to the entire deal team

✓ Only send an email, chat, etc. you’d be comfortable being show on the front of the Wall Street Journal


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Conference Calls

✓ Conference calls can take place either with your actual deal team (rare, as you’ll usually meet in your MD or VP’s office), or with the client (and possibly other banks you are working with) you are dealing with

✓ You will hear this from training a million times … take notes on every call!✓ This is almost something that is expected for interns … don’t think about it as going above

and beyond, there are other ways you can actually do this, which we have outlined in this guide

✓ Pay attention when on the call and try not to get distracted, even when the conversation goes away from work

✓ If you’re sitting near / next to other interns, let them know you’re going on a call so they know not to bother you

✓ Learn how to use your headset on the first day so your hands are free to type notes.

✓ Dial into calls at least five minutes early

✓ Be aware that when someone joins a call a beep is sounded for everyone on the phone to hear. Sometime people will ask who joined the call. This is why it is a must to have joined the call before it starts

✓ If you can’t dial in on-time due to something you know of which is out of your control, get a full-time member of the team (ideally your analyst) to patch you in so that the beep does not go off when you join the call

✓ ENSURE YOUR PHONE IS ALWAYS ON MUTE – know how to do this from the very first day. Practice with the other interns multiple times. This is the last thing you want. Seriously.

✓ For any call that has people on the phone from outside your bank this is a must. Even when the roll call is done at the beginning of the call do not state your name

✓ The policy for this may differ depending on your bank. Almost always it’s better to err on the side of caution with things here though

✓ The only time you should consider saying your name (unless told to by a full-time) is when on an internal call with just your group’s deal team. And even then you should only consider saying your name when your MD/VP says something like “Is there anyone else on the call?”


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Relationships, Chat

Relationships

Your Intern Class

✓ Get to know your intern class as much as possible and make friends with them! You’re going to spend a lot of time with these individuals both for the summer and hopefully in future years as full-time colleagues!

✓ Don’t view your intern class as “competition” even if you are in an unideal situation where it is known ahead of time that there are not enough full-time return offers for all interns

✓ Try your best from the very beginning to find out who is strong and become very close with them

✓ Use them as your first contact for any questions you may have and to work with on homework projects, etc.

Office Relationships

✓ Banking is very hierarchal – always err on the side of formality until you have generated a rapport with a specific banker/staff member

✓ Be nice to non-bankers – i.e. building staff, secretaries, etc.

Never go for Lunch Alone

✓ In most banks, bankers will eat at their desk for lunch. However, most people will still go as a group to either their bank’s food court, or a local restaurant close-by. Unless something is super pressing, try to travel to lunch as a group – it’s a good way to unwind for ~15 minutes and make better relationships with your summer class or analysts

Chat

✓ If you’re not okay with it on the front of the Wall Street Journal … say it in person✓ Firms like Goldman Sachs have been known to flag things like when someone sends “wtf” in

Skype or an email

✓ Whenever you can tell a conversation may get a bit questionable and you wouldn’t be comfortable with it being in the Wall Street Journal, send “LDL (Let’s Discuss Live) to go chat in person about things


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Clothing

✓ Be careful of how you dress. Always err on the side of caution.

✓ There is only upside in dressing “boring”. Worry about your work not how you look. If you think there’s even a chance someone will “chirp” you over some part of your outfit, don’t wear it. To make your life easier, don’t even pack it for your apartment

✓ Still ensure you look professional and not sloppy. Make sure your suit fits, you don’t wear the same suit/shirt over and over again, etc.

✓ Above all, don’t wear expensive clothing, even if you can afford it from tripling your money in bitcoin or shorting the VIX... People will think you are a snob

✓ Most people in banking where a dress shirt, no tie, and dark suit pants during the day

✓ Regardless keep a couple ties and extra jackets at the office

✓ When making judgment calls about things like wearing jackets and ties throughout the day, base these decisions off of what the norm for your group is and what analysts say

✓ Remember you want to fit in … if everyone in your group doesn't wear ties, you may come across as a complete “hardo” for wearing one. The case may also be the opposite if your group does all wear ties and you’re not looking like a “qual”…

For Guys:

✓ Suits should either be navy blue or dark grey. No black, royal/light blue, or other colours. Ensure you clip the back of your suit if the vents are seamed together

✓ White or light blue shirts, neutral coloured ties without patterns, black or navy blue socks, black or brown leather (ensure the colour matches for your belt and shoes)

✓ Nothing black – suits, shirts, ties, etc.

✓ No square-toed shoes, “banker flow” , aggressive undercuts, cufflinks, “Banker shirts”, pinstripes, bow-ties, suspenders, pocket squares, undershirts, canes (yes this has actually been done…), etc.

For Girls:

✓ To keep things simple, remember the saying, “Dress for your grandma”✓ No skirts that come below the knee

✓ No aggressive heels

✓ Be careful about how much makeup, perfume, etc. you wear. See how much the other women in your group are wearing and then turn it down a couple notches


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Section IV: Contents

✓Meetings

✓Before, During & After

✓Communication

✓Receiving Work

✓Deadlines

✓Under Promise, Over Deliver

✓Managing Multiple Deal Teams

✓Managing Your Workload

✓ It’s Okay to Say No!✓Checking Your Work

✓Checklist

Topic


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Before, During and After Meetings

Meetings

Before Meetings

✓ Email the analyst/associate (most likely not MD depending on what the “rule” is on emailing MD’s) at least 15 minutes before a meeting’s scheduled time asking about print details. Ask the following:

✓ Number of deck copies – Whatever they say, print at least two more. Don’t worry about the minor extra cost or extra paper. Seriously.

✓ Colour vs. black and white – Again, always print in colour, so no need to ask here really. Only if the individual mentions you can print in B&W do so

✓ Single-sided or double-sided. Again, always print single-sided unless told otherwise. The reason is because it allows your seniors to make notes/draw out new pages on the blank sheets

During Meetings

✓ Ensure you always bring a notebook with at least three pages to take notes. Ensure you have multiple pens with you – if someone at the meeting forgets you can lend them one. Keep extras in your pant pocket (pen caps on) to make sure you always have one.

✓ Take notes vigorously and pay attention at all times, conversations can go from an MD talking about his kid’s soccer game last night to terms of the deal in an instance

✓ Ensure you take note of any pages that need to be changed and clarify with analysts following meetings for correct page order. Often seniors will change the order of slides which can get very confusing very easily

After Meetings

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Whenever you are in a meeting and the presentation is marked up by a VP/MD, they will usually hand it off to the analyst or associate to start working on necessary changes

✓ Offer to scan the book and send across to those individuals working on the changes. This is beneficial for the following reasons:

✓ You can send the marked up deck to the entire team so not just one person has the deck, or so that different pages of the one marked up deck are in different people’s hands. Very often multiple people will also be working on the same marked-up page at the same time, so this solves this problem of only one person having the page to see mark-ups

✓ After scanning the deck, you can now print off a copy of the scanned deck which allows you to highlight and cross-off changes you need to make as you’re working on them. This will 100% lead to you avoiding less errors when turning comments

✓ You can give the marked up deck back to the VP/MD (in addition to emailing the scanned deck to them if they want it) so they can see the changes they made if they forget what they wrote down, without having to ask for the deck back. Doing this also shows great initiative!


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Communication, Receiving Work

Communication

✓ ABC: Always Be Communicating

✓ It’s always better to “over-communicate” then not know about important details which can seriously impact work coming together. It is almost impossible to be seen as a “nag” here, but still use common sense

Relationships

✓ If you can tell someone has some time, feel free to chat them up for as long as they’re letting the conversation go for, within reason. Notice if they’re busy or not.

✓ Keep track in an excel document of all the people on your floor, who you’ve talked with, and about what things – these are easy ways to pick up conversations later

Receiving Work

✓ Often you will be assigned work from your analyst or associate either following a group meeting or when they have a moment to explain things to you. Almost always your analyst/associate will ask you to come by their desk or they will come to your desk

✓ Remember to bring your notepad and upon receiving work write down every piece of information you receive. There is no such thing as too much detail here. Consider drawing lines to separate each new slide your analyst is tasking you to work on

✓ If you forget your notepad go back and get it. It is far better to take an extra 30 seconds to do so rather than trying to remember all the info in your head.

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Ask your analyst/associate to send you relevant files and filepaths

✓ Whenever an analyst mentions or shows you a relevant file ask if they can send you both that exact file and the corresponding filepath. The last thing you want to be doing is working out of the wrong file or saving it into the wrong location

✓ Try to ask as many questions here as you can. There is no such thing as a dumb question


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Deadlines, Under-Promise-Over-Deliver

Deadlines

Under Promise, Over Deliver

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Whenever you are assigned a task and someone asks you how long you think it will take give at least double (if not triple, especially in your first few weeks, as you are still getting up to speed) the time you think it will take to achieve things

✓ Things will always be popping up – whether it is other tasks that may take away time, miscellaneous matters you have to attend to, etc… things always come up

✓ It is always better to have something done right (even if it is late) then for something to be done incorrectly but on time

✓ Clarify these with your deal teams so you are 100% aware of things and what to prioritize

✓ Ensure you ask ahead of time of how urgent the task you are working on is

✓ The Halfway Rule

✓ At a minimum, check in halfway through a project and ask to see if what you are doing is the right idea, and if your analyst/senior has any feedback

✓ If something is going to come in late to a team, let the team know this ASAP, rather than just submitting it late or not submitting it at the time it is due

Managing Multiple Deal Teams

✓ Communicating is very key here

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Whenever you are working on a task and you are tasked with more work from a new or existing staffing, ensure you tell that person what you are currently working on and how urgent your current staffings are. Let them know what you have to complete and by what time – this will give them a better sense of your capacity. Ensure you do this before you commit to doing the work, it is beneficial for all parties

✓ This can help you make your workload lighter. It’s better to be on (x-1) staffings where you can do a 10/10 job on each vs. (x) staffings where you can only do an 8/10 job on for each

✓ As soon as you can tell work for Project A is going to take longer than expected, let your analyst on that deal team know immediately and why this is the case. They will most likely be understanding if you’ve been working diligently. Ensure you haven’t been trying to solve the problem on your own for more than 10 minutes at a maximum

✓ In addition, make sure you let any other deal teams (Project B, C, etc.) with work you have committed to do that you will not be able to get to their work as soon as you initially thought, and why this is the case

✓ The more you can be in communication, and the earlier you can let people know of things that come up, the better.


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Managing Your Workload

It’s Okay to Say No!✓ Be hesitant when asking for more work

✓ It may seem in the first few weeks like a majority of your day is spent with nothing to do. That is fine, so long as this is the case with the rest of your intern class. You will be staffed with much more work in no time (hopefully…)

✓ Your group will most likely start you off with everyone being staffed on 1-2 deal teams for the first week or so. Again it is paramount that you start off as strong as best possible. You will most likely be given very boring and mundane work, however there is no reason to make mistakes here

✓ Once you have proven that you can do simple work (spreading comps tables, company overview slides, etc.) you will be trusted with more work (more staffings) and more challenging work

✓ Ensure you are acknowledged for your staffings and ensure your staffer knows about all things you are being staffed on. This is key for multiple reasons

✓ First, you want to ensure your staffer knows what your capacity is like so they don’t give you extra work from not knowing everything you are working on.

✓ Second, you may be given no credit for work where your staffer is not informed of what projects you are contributing to

✓ Try to be aware of how busy the rest of your intern class is compared to you

✓ Don’t brag about how large a deal you are working on or if you’ve been trusted with running an excel model. This is terrific, but there is no need to tell people about this

✓ Don’t complain about being super busy if this is the case. Be grateful you are being trusted with work!

✓ Also be aware that there are most likely other interns receiving little work who wish they were in your shoes and are probably aware that they are in not as good of a standing as you are


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Checking Your Work

Printing Work Out / Double-Check Your Work

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Print every single PowerPoint (and even excel models) you work on to check before submitting

✓ You will 100% catch more errors when you are looking at things in front of you in paper versus on your screen. Trust us.

✓ It may help to do so without listening to music or even going into a quiet room

✓ Highlight mistakes and check them off as you go through mark-ups

✓ Printing out your work also allows you to make notes on things you’re unsure of when showing your analyst or associate. A lot of times you will be unsure of what specific way your analyst wants something done (EBIT vs. EBITDA, LTM or YTD, home currency or foreign currency, and many more…) It is best to number your comments and questions from 1, 2, 3 … and so on, and then place a sticky note on the front of the deck indicating which page numbers correspond to which comments/questions you’ve made.

✓ VP’s and MD’s absolutely love this … and hardly anyone does this (i.e. you will stand out for doing this).

While Working

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ As you’re working on a task assigned to you, keep a list of questions and comments in a word doc

✓ When sending emails/skype messages to your analyst when you check-in, you’ll now have all the things you want to ask them without having to rethink about them. Simply copy paste them all into the body of your message


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Checklist

Top-Bucket Tip:

Print this page (2-sided) & check it over before submitting anything!

✓ It’s best to have a “checklist” of things you look for on all deliverables before sending off

Spelling and Grammar

✓ No double words, i.e. “the the”✓ Periods/no periods at the end of bullets (depends on bank standards)

✓ Do a spell check (F7), even in excel

✓ No double spaces. Do a find search (control+f) and type the space bar twice to check

Ensure all naming is consistent

✓ Dates are all as of the same date in the same format. I.e. “MM/DD/YY” vs. “MM/DD/YYYY”

Sanity check

✓ Do a sanity check things like profit margins and growth rates (you can even use a calculator to be 100% sure)

Units

✓ Ensure if you are looking at a foreign company you have converted properly for international currencies

✓ Using dollar signs where appropriate (top lines, totals, share prices)

✓ Correct use of decimal formatting depending on size of number

✓ Ensure decimal format is consistent

Colours

✓ Ensure blue, black, green, purple, etc. color code is being used properly

Alignment

✓ Ensure that all objects are aligned centre, middle, right, top, down respectively, depending on the appropriate situation


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Checklist

“Scroll test”✓ Ensure that the titles and headings are in the same position for every slide

Refresh

✓ Refresh FactSet and other numbers to ensure they are up to date

Your Group

✓ Your bank will most likely have a page showing all deal team members for all presentations. Ensure it is ranked by seniority, and that it has people’s most up-to-date positions. Double-check with your company’s directory and get an analyst to check off

Fonts

✓ Ensure that font sizes and styles are consistent between pages – the formatting for this may differ by the people you work with for preferences on certain things


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Section V: Contents

✓How to be a Top-Bucket Intern

✓More Useful Tips

✓Don’t Screw This Up

Topic


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How to be a Top-Bucket Intern


So You Wanna Be a Top-Bucket Intern..?

✓ During your internship, you will be ranked amongst your peers in buckets from top to bottom. Ideally, you want to rank as highly as possible…

✓ Having a good ranking will be the only way you can achieve a return offer

✓ More importantly, a high ranking will likely become public knowledge amongst analysts and associates very quickly even if summer analysts are hush-hush…

✓ A high ranking will make you a hot commodity. Every analyst, associate, VP, MD, etc. will want you working on their deal team because they know you won’t screw things up✓ As a result a high ranking will result in you being placed on staffings, and good ones

✓ Higher rankings also lead to higher compensation once you start full-time

✓ All the tips below are what we believe are even more keys to ensuring success throughout your summer in addition to all the info we’ve provided so far

Your #1 Goal

✓ Above all else, try to be as much of an asset to any team you work on

Make friends with your staffer

✓ Ensure your staffer knows how much you are working on and what kind of projects you’re doing. Try and ensure you are getting to work with different people – that way if you have aa not-so-great experience with one team, you’ll have several others who can say good things about you

Be Resourceful

✓ Often Google is your best friend with things, always use it as your first option

✓ Following that, ask a fellow summer analyst/associate for help with things and then reach out to an analyst or associate

✓ Indicate that you tried to look for the info before-hand and how you’re trying to solve things✓ Try and group your questions together and ask them all at once, unless it is an urgent matter

✓ Ask your analyst if it is okay to use your bank’s outsourcing division if you think it can speed things up✓ Offer to take care of work (that you know is within your scope) and do other things to get ahead

Always as for ways to improve/feedback

✓ It is far better to act in this manner than to not and as a result be unaware of where you can improve

Taking Time Off

✓ Don’t take unnecessary time off if possible. If it’s for a family wedding, etc. use your protected weekend (if your bank has one) for it and try to miss as little work as possible. If it is something like a funeral or important emergency, then of course things are different

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Positive Attitude

✓ Banking hours suck – we get it. However, maintaining a positive attitude is still super important for many reasons. No matter how many hours you’ve spent on spreading comps, taking notes on conference calls, or doing other monkey tasks … ensure you keep a smile on your face. At the very least just don’t complain and look like you absolutely hate your life

✓ Remember you’re only there for a few months. Your analysts and associates who are doing much of the same mind-numbing work have been there for months, or most likely years, and potentially with no end in sight

✓ Having a good attitude can also improve the morale of your team. The last thing you want to do is be the intern who complains, etc. Just don’t let this happen above all else

✓ Be nice to non-bankers – i.e. building staff, secretaries, etc.

Don’t Be Cocky✓ Coming from Queen’s, you will most likely be one of the top interns in your group, no matter how

“prestigious” the group is. Regardless, there is absolutely no reason to act like a hot-shot, even if you’re the only one in the group who knows every single excel/PowerPoint shortcut, and can walk through models in your sleep

✓ Regardless of how strong your background is, there will 100% still be things you will be unfamiliar with – whether it’s group specific formatting, how to use new software for obtaining financial info/research (FactSet, Capital IQ, Bloomberg, etc.), your firm’s pitchbook creating software (PitchPro), or other unfamiliar elements. Remember you are still there to learn

✓ The last thing you want is to be making mistakes on things you’ are unfamiliar with as a result of being too confident. Stay humble, be modest and always strive to keep learning/improving on the job

Strive to be an Analyst, Not a Summer Analyst

✓ Rather than setting your goal for the summer to be the best summer analyst within your intern class,, strive to be the best summer analyst you can be. Try to make yourself seen as a full-time analyst

Think

✓ Make sure you always pause and think “why” am I doing something and what matters here

✓ Think of ways you can add value and improve things in any aspect. The worst that can happen is someone shuts down your idea

✓ Obviously don’t walk into a big meeting and recommend a pitch to the MD that should be used for the book… use common sense


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Don’t Miss Deadlines…✓ Most people will argue that the accuracy of your work matters more than if it is on time. Ideally, you

want to have your work done right and on time, but sometimes this is not possible

✓ Missing deadlines over and over again will indicate you are unreliable and not efficient enough for the job

✓ Know your shortcuts! So much time is wasted by using the mouse and not knowing the quickest shortcuts. They make your life faster and easier, along with improving your accuracy, so know these well

✓ Ensure that if something is going to be late, you let your group know ASAP. Missing deadlines is not good, but failing to let your team know until the last minute is even worse.

Managing Stress

✓ The real differentiation among interns starts showing in week ~3-4 when interns start getting tasked with more and more staffings. In a matter of days you can go from being completely bored out of your mind to barely having time to eat, working non-stop from 9 am until 3 am

✓ The last thing you want to be doing is missing deadlines, having errors in your work, and screwing up in other ways. These are the most common reasons why interns start to crumble over their summer and as a result, fail to earn a return offer

✓ Be prepared for this to happen. Before accepting a new staffing let your staffer know what your current capacity is like and how many projects you’re working on. As said earlier, It is far better to be working on (x-1) staffings and doing a good job versus working on (x) staffings and don’t a bad job

Mistakes

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Ask your junior mentor what the most common mistakes are that they’ve made in an effort to ty to avoid those

✓ Keep an active word document going with all the mistakes you’ve made throughout the summer. Most things will (hopefully) be formalities that are group-specific or things you won’t know to begin with (which is okay!), but whatever the case, ensure you keep track of your mistakes and check them in addition to your checklist before submitting any deliverable. Don’t make the same mistake twice!

Make the Most of Your Mentor

✓ Meeting with your mentor can get very challenging, as you both will most likely have busy summers

✓ Upon first meeting your junior mentor, try to set a precedent by asking if you can meet with them on a weekly basis. Doing so will allow them to provide any feedback they may have for you from things they’ve seen from your work directly or heard indirectly from other members of the team

✓ Doing this also gives you the chance to ask them questions, along with allowing the two of you to get to know each other better


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Top-Bucket Tip:

SAVE. SAVE. SAVE.

✓ Most people will have sticky notes on their monitor. For the most part, these are either things they have scheduled, to-do tasks, or checklist items when performing deliverables. There is no need for either on your monitor

✓ The only reminder you should have on your monitor should be to save your work. There are lots of mistakes you can make when performing deliverables, however not saving your work and losing hours of work is as big as they come

Organization

✓ As soon as you agree to something place it in both your Outlook calendar on your computer and your phone calendar (in case you are not at your desk when the alert for your event comes up)

✓ Keep your to-do list on a notepad next to your desk – it’s often helpful to categorize tasks depending on how important/urgent they are (you can use letters or numbers for priority levels) accordingly, especially when leaving for the night ahead of tomorrow’s work

✓ Have your checklist handy near you to check before submitting deliverable

Take Advantage of People’s BiasesAppeal Bias:

✓ Make sure your formatting is as strong as possible. Doing so will ensure that people perceive it as being good quality – take advantage of people’s biases!

Confirmation Bias – START STRONG!

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ If your first few deliverables are outstanding, if you make a mistake in the future people will be more willing to forgive you and think “Oh, it’s okay, everyone makes mistakes”

✓ However, if you start off making mistakes the opposite will happen, and your analyst will be extra careful to look for mistakes when checking your work

✓ It is unlikely you will have lots of work in your first few days. As a result, take advantage of this extra time to make your first few deliverables as perfect as possible

✓ If you start off strong you will be rewarded with more work, and hopefully more stimulating work. Everyone wants to work with all-stars, nobody wants to work with people who make lots of careless mistakes

✓ Have a summer analyst (and even an analyst/junior mentor) look over the first few important things you submit. There is a very good chance they will pick up mistakes you’ve made, especially things that your group does uniquely

Other Useful Tips


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More on Clothing…✓ Summers in New York and Toronto are HOT

✓ The last thing you want to be worrying about in the morning as you’re rushing to work is showing up with sweat stains from wearing excess clothing via a jacket and tie

✓ Have two suits and a few ties at the office hung up on a hanger next to your desk

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ Keep a spare change of clothes at the office – at least one extra jacket, tie, dress shirt, underwear, socks, belt (reversible black and brown), and equivalent for females

✓ This is banking after all – you may have to pull an all-nighter. If that’s the case the last thing you want is to have to wear the same shirt, socks and underwear for 40 hours straight

✓ In addition, you never know if you may spill coffee all over your shirt. The last thing you want to do is have to dish out $100+ at the expensive clothing store next to your office or look like a clown with a coffee stain on your shirt for the rest of the day

✓ You may also forget/mix-up some clothing items in your morning rush. The last thing you want is to be wearing different coloured socks, a brown belt with black shoes, no belt at all, etc.

✓ You can also play hero for a colleague if any of the above happens to them

Templates. Templates. Templates.

✓ Ask your mentor or someone you get to know close (or even anyone in your intern class) for as many PowerPoint, Excel, etc. templates as possible

✓ It will save you immense time instead of building these things from scratch

✓ People will be familiar with the layout of your work

✓ Your accuracy will be up to par – things like font size, styling, alignment, colors, etc. will be correct (assuming the original was and you have not changed those things)

✓ Your formatting will also look stronger

✓ When moving workbooks, formulas linking to sheets from the original workbook will still appear as such

✓ Change the source by clicking the “edit links” to the file you are currently working in

Awkward Awesome Situations

✓ If you get caught in the elevator alone with Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, Ken Moelis, etc. say “Hi” and introduce yourself. The seniors love hearing from the new hires. The worst case is they ignore you. Best case is unlimited…

Other Useful Tips


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There’s no such thing as a bad question✓ Seriously. There is no such thing as asking too many questions or asking “dumb” questions

Top-Bucket Tip:

✓ There is nothing worse than you spending hours spinning your wheels trying to figure out something that you can’t find on the internet, but your analyst can explain in twenty seconds (that was a major influence of creating this guide!)

✓ As we’ve outlined in areas of this guide, be resourceful with your inquiries…Accuracy >>> Speed

✓ Accuracy is everything in banking. There is nothing worse than information that is wrong

✓ Remember there are dozens of other investment banks that offer the exact same product. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both have access to the same information, have the same processes in place, have talented employees, etc… if you stripped away company logos from a deck you wouldn’t be able to tell one investment bank’s product versus as another

✓ This is why accuracy is so important!

✓ Draft out a timeline of each of the individual tasks you need to complete for your analyst

✓ If it seems like you are falling behind with things, let your analyst know immediately.

Don’t overwork yourself – makes it look bad on staffers, you, etc.

✓ There’s nothing worse than trying to prove yourself more than humanly possible✓ Your work will be flooded with errors, you’ll miss deadlines, etc.✓ This also looks bad on your staffers even if it’s not their fault for you working on so many

projects

✓ Use common sense and gauge what the “norm” is for staffings among other interns

Try to Get Good Work

✓ While it is only a short 2/3 month summer, you should be trying to get the best work experience possible – remember you’re there to learn!

✓ Feel free to let your intern sponsors know at your mid-term evaluation that you’d like to have the chance to work on live transactions, etc. Just make sure you word it in such a way that doesn’t come across as arrogant, and also shows your genuine interest

✓ Don’t be deterred if it takes a while to get placed on interesting/live work✓ Remember that you’re only there for a few months and live transactions can take several weeks

or even months to complete. As a result it may not be worthwhile to staff you on such a deal

✓ Also remember that it takes a while to prove you can handle this work, no matter how strong your technical skills are

Other Useful Tips


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Colour Formatting

✓ Blue = Hard code

✓ Black = Formula

✓ Purple = Link to another cell in the same sheet

✓ Green = Link to another cell in another sheet

✓ Never link things to other workbooks!

Fonts

✓ Keep the font style consistent at all times!

✓ Size of font will vary depending on headers, types of body text, etc.

✓ Your bank probably has specific policies on capital letters for titles, headings, etc.

When Away from the Desk

✓ Ensure you check in with your deal teams ahead of time (as early as possible) to let them know if you have an appointment, meeting someone for coffee, have an intern training session, etc.

✓ Try to schedule time when you wont be at the desk as best possible when you know work won’t be too busy if you have a rough idea of your schedule a few days in advance

✓ As soon as you get back to your desk, check your phone and email to see if you missed anything important

✓ Ask someone sitting next to you if they heard your phone ring or if anyone came by your desk looking for you

✓ Even when you’re at your desk, if you turn away from your screen for a second, go to the washroom, start chatting with someone, etc. make sure you check your email right away to see if you missed anything.

✓ Unlike a missed phone call or Skype message where the notification of a new message shows until you acknowledge, the same is not for emails as the notification appears in the bottom of your screen and then disappears after five seconds

Don’t Get too Comfortable…✓ Meeting up with alumni and other people for coffee chats is great, just make sure not to take too long

✓ There’s nothing wrong with hedging your potential return offer and coffee chatting around the street for backups, however ensure you’re aware of how much time you’re out and if people notice/care

✓ People in your office will probably become more relaxed with things like this (taking time for breaks,coffee chats, longer lunches, etc.) as the summer progresses … especially if you are doing well

Other Useful Tips


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Don’t Screw This Up…

Not Screwing Up…✓ At the end of the day, getting a return offer really comes down to doing all your basic tasks at a

decent level (trust us, the bar really is not that high here) and above everything simply not screwing up so badly that you’ve provided your group with a reason not to hire you back

Silly Mistakes

✓ Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of silly reasons you can lose your internship. Don’t let these be the reasons you screw up a strong summer internship!

Not of Age (21) if Working in the USA

✓ Being under the age of 21 (USA) and using a fake ID at a work social event. Even if they are not carding, just don’t do it. Your group will understand

Showing up Late…✓ Working until 2 or 3 am on a recurring basis is probably something you’re not used to and is not easy

getting adjusted to

✓ Depending on the culture of your group, you still may be expected to show up at 9 am (or earlier) and people may make serious note if you show up at 8:45 versus 9 am

✓ It’s best to always show up early but feel free to use your discretion✓ Remember it’s only a few months!…Not Staying Late Enough✓ Again use common sense here to see what the “face time” culture is here✓ Be mindful of what others (summer analysts/associates and analysts) are doing. If you are working

with a group of “hardos” who stay despite full-times saying repeated times that you can go home, then it may still be worth it to stay at work late unfortunately

✓ You should always try to stay later than VP’s and MD’s✓ Before leaving for the day always ask your deal teams if there’s any work that you could hep out

with or things that you could get ahead on tomorrow

✓ If you’ve received indication that there is no work to be done then feel free to leave whenever the “acceptable” time is for your group (this can vary immensely from group to group and bank to bank)

Being a Canadian in a US-Based Office

✓ Be aware that you don’t have a leg-up in NYC as a non-target

✓ Most other interns will be coming from target-schools where they can easily develop networks with several members of your team who can give them the inside scoop on things, etc.

✓ Find someone who will help you out EARLY

✓ … even if it means becoming “allies” with alumni from Western and McGill


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Don’t Screw This Up…

Other Silly Mistakes

✓ Don’t Embarrass yourself at a social function or intern outing whether or not you’re too drunk, and/or showing up late/hungover the next morning after going out

✓ There’s no need to go out on a Thursday night. The “bonus points” you can gain from fitting in with your group more are barely going to help you and the downside is immense if you do something stupid or show up late to morning the next day

✓ Don’t swearing on chat or email✓ Consider even not connecting your phone to your firm’s wi-fi internet as they can track you. There

should be no reason for you to hide anything, but better to be safe than sorry here … especially if you are considering lateralling, etc.. You just never know…

✓ And many more…

Compliance and Confidentiality

✓ To be safe, never send anything to an email outside your group’s directory✓ Your group will have a floor plan and or hierarchy chart with everyone’s name and email✓ Always double-check you’re sending messages to the right email address, especially if they

contain attachments. This may not sound like a big deal but in investment banking you are working with Material Non-Public Information (MNPI). If you’re working at a bulge bracket bank, your firm will have divisions like equity research or asset management which only have access to public information. As a result, if you send non-public information and this gets sent to someone who is forbidden access to this content, it becomes a nightmare and could easily result in you receiving a lost return offer, even if you had a perfect summer

✓ Be careful about what ends up in your bag when you leave for the day. Ensure nothing confidential is printed out in it unless given permission to bring it home

✓ Throw out confidential documents into shredder bin, or locked garbage bins, not just any general recycling or garbage bin

✓ After your summer be careful what you put on your resume. Always err on the side of caution

✓ Don’t take photos inside the office, even for Snapchat✓ Don’t “talk shop” about confidential work you doing outside of your group. Doing so can lead to a

lost return offer

✓ Be careful about this as soon as you get on the elevator. Your elevator may stop at floors that are not investment banking floors, or even completely different floors


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Section VI: Contents

✓Top Bucket Tips – Compilation

✓Overview

✓One Last Thing Before Examining Pitfalls

✓Pitfalls

✓The Return Offer

✓Re-Recruiting for Full-Time

Topic

Section VI: Recap

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Top-Bucket Tips - Compilation

Section VI: Recap

We’ve hyperlinked each tip to its original page source so you can read up more on each topic if you would like!

✓ Make your first week count!

✓ Get someone to look over your homework

✓ Always source your hardcodes

✓ Attach all PowerPoint files in PDF as well, attach the link to your dataroom, and CC your “briefcase” whenever sending emails

✓ Offer to scan the book and send across to those individuals working on the changes

✓ Print every single PowerPoint (and even excel models) you work on to check before submitting

✓ As you’re working on a task assigned to you, keep a list of questions and comments in a word doc✓ SAVE. SAVE. SAVE.

✓ Keep a spare change of clothes at the office – at least one extra jacket, tie, dress shirt, underwear, socks, belt (reversible black and brown), and equivalent for females

42

Overview

✓ We chose to format the “summary” of our guide as mistakes/pitfalls that interns should avoid falling into at all costs. At the end of the day, simply not screwing up anything major will very likely lead to a return offer … especially given your finance background from Queen’s…

✓ Unless your intern group does not have enough full-time spots for al interns (which is very rare), and even still in this case, unless your group can only hire 50% or less of your summer class, not screwing up will help you a long way here too

✓ As a result, we have summarized key sections into corresponding pitfalls an intern can fall into which can lead to a lost return offer

✓ For each pitfall, we have provided an explanation of the mistakes one can make, and more importantly how to avoid falling into this pitfall … with information here linked to the exact areas of our intern guide for you to review

How We’ve Formatted this Section✓ As you can see in the first pitfall listed below (bad attitude), each pitfall is provided with a brief

explanation followed by tips of how to avoid this situation. Each of the tips is hyperlinked to you to the original corresponding section of this guide which covered that topic

Bad Attitude

✓ No matter how many comps you need to hand-spread, how many management bio slides you have to make, or how many revenue segment charts you need to crank out … always try your best to keep a positive attitude. Sulking and complaining are short-term lapses that can cost you your entire internship / return offer

How to Avoid This Pitfall:

✓ No matter what work you’re given … always have a good attitude✓ No matter how well things may be going … don’t get too cocky

Lack of Communication

✓ Communication is everything. Again, it’s almost impossible to over-communicate. Ensure you are always checking in with your staffers, intern sponsors, and deal team members


✓ Always be communicating!

Cracking Under Pressure


✓ Prepare for multiple staffings to come out of nowhere once week 3-4 hits

Section VI: Recap

43

Pitfalls to Avoid

Missing Deadlines


✓ Under-promise. Over-deliver

✓ Manage multiple deal teams effectively

✓ Remember, it’s okay to say no!✓ Use template from your analyst which will improve both accuracy and speed

✓ Always use shortcuts!

Lack of Development

✓ Ensure you are showing progress throughout your internship. Your team will understand that not everyone is starting at the same point of the learning curve. However, at the very least you should be improving in all facets every week of the internship. Ensure you don’t make the same mistakes twice!


✓ Don’t make the same mistake twice✓ Meet with your mentor

Poor Homework Deliverables / Final Project

✓ Take your homework seriously. Making a comps table, or DCF or other valuation model may be easy work for you … if it is, then use these deliverables as an opportunity to shine. The last thing you want is to be doing is making big mistakes (especially ones that nobody else in your summer class is making)


✓ Start these early, work alongside your peers, and ask your junior mentor to look over your homework

Technical Skills not up to Par

✓ The work you will be doing in investment banking as a summer analyst is very straightforward, especially if you have taken finance courses in Queen’s Commerce and even more so if you have been on investment clubs, taken Blair Robertson’s IB Prep Course, etc.

✓ It is still easily possible to not be up to par with your technical skills however. Not knowing how models work,


✓ Know your shortcuts!

Section VI: Recap

44

Pitfalls to Avoid

Careless Mistakes / Lack of Attention to Detail

✓ The work you will be doing in investment banking as a summer analyst is very straightforward, especially if you have taken finance courses in Queen’s Commerce and even more so if you have been on investment clubs, taken Blair Robertson’s IB Prep Course, etc.


✓ Take attentive notes when receiving directions

✓ Print out your work before submitting any deliverable

✓ Make sure you review your checklist too!

✓ Remember to save, save, save so you don’t lose your work

Silly Mistakes


✓ Showing up Late…✓ …Not Staying Late Enough✓ Other “Silly” Mistakes✓ Compliance

Section VI: Recap

45

The Return Offer

IF THINGS GO WRONG, IT IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!

✓ AGAIN, NOT GETTING A RETURN OFFER IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD!

✓ While of course it is the end goal and the only thing that matters if you’re hoping to return full-time for that firm, not converting an internship into a full-time return offer is by no means a death sentence

✓ Yes, it will make full-time recruiting for banking much more difficult than if you had a return offer, but at the end of the day there are still lots of full-time opportunities in finance and other areas of business

✓ Remember – while the bank is taking this internship as an extended interview to see if you’re strong enough to work at their firm, it’s also a two-way street

✓ Take step back and reflect to see if investment banking, the bank you’re working for and the group you’re placed in, are right for you, regardless of if you receive an internship or not

Re-Recruiting for Full-Time Hiring

✓ Factors such as compensation, deal opportunities (“prestige”), the type of work, office location, culture and several others can come into play here. Factors and their significance vary for everyone but are important to consider

✓ You should be going into your summer with a clear idea about all of these factors except culture, which you should try to gauge as early as possible

✓ If you want to re-recruit ensure you are very quiet about things. Even if you trust other summer analysts, it is most likely best not to tell them that you are trying to re-recruit. You never know who they’re going to tell and so on✓ Limit your “circle of trust” for sharing info about this to alumni and students from your school

working at other banks who you’ve known for a long time and can seriously trust✓ Your best bet will be asking your friends from your school (or other Canadian schools)

interning (or working full-time) at other banks about what the full-time re-recruiting process is like for that bank

✓ Expect to need to have a return offer from your bank to even be considered for lateraling to another bank

✓ Start prepping early. Brush up on your technicals from those BIWS guides you memorized just a few months ago and find out what kinds of questions (it is possible to have to complete a financial modelling assessment in excel for interviews) are part of the application process

✓ Check out forums to find info on hiring processes, interview questions, etc. for banks hiring

✓ Have answers prepared for questions pertaining to why you enjoyed investment banking but not the group you were with, while ensuring you stay professional

✓ Remember things like your brand and reputation (which last forever) when re-recruiting

Section VI: Recap

46

Section VII: Contents

✓Excel Tips and Keyboard Shortcuts

✓Finance Lingo

✓Glossary

✓References

✓Closing Remarks

Topic


47

Excel Shortcuts


Basic Commands

Shortcut Function

Ctrl + O Open file

Ctrl +N New file

Ctrl + P Print

Ctrl + S Save

F12 Save as

Esc Exit dialog

Ctrl + C Copy

Ctrl + X Cut

Ctrl + V Paste

Ctrl + Y Redo

Ctrl + A Select all

Ctrl + H Replace

Alt + T + O Options menu

F4 Repeat last action

Ctrl + F1 Show/hide ribbon

Rows and Columns

Shortcut Function

Ctrl +Spacebar Select column

Shift + Spacebar Select row

Ctrl + Shift + (+)Insert cells, rows,

columns

Control + (-)Delete cells, rows,

columns

Alt + A + G + GGroup rows or

columns

Alt + A + U +UUngroup rows or

columns

Shift + Alt + LeftUngroup rows or

columns

Shift + Alt + LeftUngroup rows or

columns

Alt + A + JShow grouped rows or

columns

Alt + A + HHide grouped rows or

columnsNavigation & Data Selection

Arrow Keys Move Around

Ctrl + Arrows Jump to Boundary

Shift + Arrows Select Cells

Arrows Boundary

Shift + F8 Select Multiple Areas

Cell Selection

F2 Edit Cell

Del Delete Cell Contents

Ctrl + Arrows Skip Word(s)

Arrows Word(s)

Alt + Enter New Line in Cell

Ctrl + Enter Edit and Stay in Cell

Tab / Shift + Tab Go Left / Right a Cell

Common Built-In Functions

=SUM Sum Numbers

Alt + = Sum Adjacent Cells

=COUNT Count # of Entries

=AVERAGE Average

=MAX Maximum

=MIN Minimum

=SUMIF or =SUMIFS Conditional Count

=SUMPRODUCT Multiply and sum range

=abs Absolute value

=if Conditional

48

Excel Shortcuts

Workbooks and Worksheets

Shortcut Function

Ctrl + N New Workbook

Ctrl +tab Switch Workbook

Shift + F11 New Worksheet

Alt + E + L Delete Worksheet

Ctrl + Page Up / DownMove to Left / Right

Worksheet

Alt + H + O + MMove / Copy Worksheet

Shift + Ctrl + PgUp/PgDwn

Select multiple worksheets

Alt + H + O + R Rename Worksheet

Alt + H + O + T Change Color of Tab

Basic Formatting

Shortcut Function

Alt + H Format Menu

Ctrl + 1 Format Dialog

Ctrl + Alt + V Paste Special

Ctrl + Alt + V + T Paste formulas

Ctrl + alt + V + V Paste values

Alt + H + FC Font colour

Alt + H + H Fill colour

Alt + H + B Border options

Alt + H + 0 Increase Decimal Places

Alt + H + 9 Decrease Decimal Places

Ctrl + B Bold

Ctrl + I Italics

Ctrl + U Underline

Ctrl + 5 Strikethrough

Ctrl + Shift + & Add Borders

Ctrl + Shift + (-) Delete Borders

Shift + Ctrl + (-) Character Formatting

Shift + Ctrl + ! Number

Shift + Ctrl + @ Time

Shift + Ctrl + # Date

Shift + Ctrl + $ Currency

Shift + Ctrl + % Percentage

Alt + H + O + I Auto-fit Column Width

Alt + H + O + I Autofit column width

Alt + H + O + A Autofit row height

Alt + H + O + W Set Column width

Alt + H + O + H Set Row Height

Display and Printing

Alt + W + F + F Freeze panes

Alt + W + Q Zoom

Ctrl + Mouse Wheel/Trackpad

Zoom

Alt + P + S + P Page Setup

Alt + P + R + SSet Print Range to

Selected Area

Ctrl + F2 Print Preview

Dates and Times

=Date(year, month, day)

Creates new date

=Networkdays(start, end date)

Business days between 2 dates

=Eomonth(start date, # months)

Last day of month after # months

Ctrl + shift + ; Current time

Ctrl + ; Current date

For more information on improving your excel skills (highly recommended), you can find the Breaking Into Wall Street Excellence with Excel course here!


https://samples-breakingintowallstreet-com.s3.amazonaws.com/BIWS-Excel-Shortcuts-2007-to-2013-Plus.pdf

49

Useful Lingo

General Terms

✓ Soft check: Save a version of the file in your shared folder server

✓ Fire drill: Work that needs to be done a tight deadline (usually a few hours later that day)

✓ Tying numbers: Ensure that numbers (for example an EBITDA figure for a projected year) is the same wherever it appears in different pages

✓ Baked in: A figure that is incorporated into the math of a formula

✓ Turn (comments): Make changes to edits that a senior has made following a meeting

✓ Mark-Up: When a VP/MD (most senior person other than the group head) on a deal team makes changes to a deck at an internal meeting

✓ Staffing: A vague word used to describe any work/project you have going on.

✓ Deal Team: A group of people within your group working on a pitch or live transaction. Deal teams range in size but are usually consist of 3-5 members (1/2 analysts, 1 associate, 1 VP, 1 MD)

✓ Intern Sponsor(s): Usually an analyst/associate who is in charge of your intern class. They will receive feedback from all deal teams you work with and are most in control of your return offer fate

✓ Deal teams: Teams you will work with (ranging from analysts to MD’s) on pitches and live deals✓ Staffing: Being put on any kind of work – live deals, pitchbooks, comp spreading, etc.

✓ Top-Bucket: The highest category rank interns (along with analysts and potentially other position levels) can receive

Positions (Listed by Seniority)

✓ MD: Managing Director

✓ ED: Executive Director

✓ VP: Vice President

✓ AS: Associate

✓ AN: Analyst

Find more helpful acronyms and key words you should know in the glossary section of this guide!


50

Finance Lingo

Industry and Product Groups

Lingo Meaning

TMT Technology, Media & Telecom

FIG Financial Institutions Group

HC Healthcare

DI Diversified Industrials

REIT Real Estate Investment Trusts

NR Natural Resources

C&R Consumer & Retail

M&A Mergers & Acquisitions

ECM Equity Capital Markets

DCM Debt Capital Markets

LevFin Leveraged Finance

Lingo Meaning

PE Private Equity

S&T Sales & Trading

ER Equity Research

IBD Investment Banking Division

IM Investment Management

HF Hedge Fund

WSO Wall Street Oasis

BIWS Breaking into Wall Street

Finance Industry

WTI West Texas Intermediate (Oil)

LIBOR London Interbank Overnight Rate

The Journal The Wall Street Journal

ForEx / FX Foreign Exchange

YTM Yield to Maturity

ETF Exchange Traded Fund

USD/CAD U.S. / Canadian Dollar

CAD Canadian Dollar

NYSE New York Stock Exchange

TSE / TSX Toronto Stock Exchange

FICC Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities

Before You Prepare Your Stock Pitch…YTD Year to Date

BS Balance Sheet

IS Income Statement

CFS Cash Flow Statement

The Dow The Dow Jones Industrial Average

10 K A Company’s Annual ReportLTM Last Twelve Months

DCF Discounted Cash Flow

LBO Leveraged Buyout

While You’re Reading the Globe & Mail…

Goodes Gossip

OCR On Campus Recruiting

ComSoc Queen’s Commerce SocietyQUIC Queen’s University Investment CounselQGM Queen’s Global MarketsQFAC Queen’s Finance Association Conference!QPCG Queen’s Private Capital GroupBCC Business Career Centre

FT Full-Time

Firms

GS Goldman Sachs

MS Morgan Stanley

JPM JP Morgan

BAML Bank of America Merrill Lynch

DB Deutsche Bank

CS Credit Suisse

CPP Canada Pension Plan

OTPP Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan


51

Finance Lingo

Lingo Meaning

EPS Earnings Per Share

EBITDAEarnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortization

COGS Cost of Goods Sold

CapEx Capital Expenditures

NAV Net Asset Value

CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate

IRR Internal Rate of Return

WACC Weighted Average Cost of Capital

FCF Free Cash Flow

LT Long-Term

Key Financial Terms

Lingo Meaning

NI Net Income

Dr Debit

Cr Credit

GAAPGenerally Accepted Accounting

Principles

IFRSInternational Financial Regulation

Standards

AR Accounts Receivable

AP Accounts Payable

COGS Cost of Goods Sold

(N)PV (Net) Present Value

Accounting Terms

Key Financial Ratios … And How to Calculate Them

Ratio Formula What it Means

Price to Earnings (P/E) Ratio

Price per Share / Earnings per ShareHow much an investor pays for $1 of a

company’s earnings

Inventory TurnoverCost of Goods Sold / Average

InventoryA company’s efficiency in cycling

inventory

Dividend Yield Dividend per share / Price per ShareThe percent a dividend makes of the

company’s current share priceDividend Payout

RatioDividend / Net Income

The percent of earnings distributed to shareholders through dividends

(Profit) Margin Net Income SalesThe percent of a company’s sales that

remain as net income

Current Ratio Current Assets / Current LiabilitiesAssesses a company’s ability to meet

short-term obligations

Debt to Equity (D/E)Ratio

Total Liabilities / Total EquityMeasures the relationship of how much

capital has been borrowed

Interest Coverage Ratio

EBIT / Interest ExpenseHow well a company can meet its

interest payment obligations

Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)

Net Income after Tax / Invested CapitalInvested Capital = Total Debt + Total

Equity

How much profit a company is generating for every dollar invested

For a glossary explaining these and many other terms, turn to the next page!


52

Glossary

Analyst: A person who studies an industry sector and makes BUY, HOLD and SELL recommendations.Also, a different term referring to entry-level career position in many investment banks

Asset: An item with economic value that is owned or controlled by an individual, business or government

Asset Management: Fund managers investing, typically, in the financial markets, on behalf of their clientsto achieve better returns than a given benchmark

Basis Points: One hundredth of a percent. A basis point is used to measure changes in interest rates

Bear: An investor who sells believing prices will fall

Bid Price: The price at which the market maker will buy

Blue Chip: A well-established company with a good record of earnings over a long period of time. Thesecompanies are favoured by investors seeking safety and stability in the markets

Bonds: A government, or company can raise capital by issuing a bond. Bondholders receive interest (a‘coupon’) and the capital is repaid at maturity. The difference between bonds and loans is that bonds canbe traded between investors (who are lending to the issuer)

Boutique Bank: A non-full service investment bank that specializes in just M&A and restructuring withinbanking. Some boutique banks also have asset management or other operations outside of investmentbanking

Broker: An intermediary between a buyer and a seller, receiving commission on the trade

Brokerage: The payment from the client to the broker

Bulge Bracket Bank: A term used to describe the largest and most profitable multi-national investmentbanks, who also have operations in retail operations, insurance, asset management and other divisions.Usually get on the biggest deals

Bull: An investor who buys believing prices will rise

Buy Side: Institutional investors that hold their customer’s money and make buy or sell decisions on theirbehalf. Examples of buy side organizations include mutual funds, pension funds and trust companies. Abuy side firm will utilize a sell side firm to execute the trading of securities

Call Option: The right, but not the obligation to buy stock, shares, or futures at a specified price within aspecific time period. The investor buying the option pays a premium to the seller of the option

Capital Markets: The market for long-term funding, eg bonds and equity

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA): A globally recognized U.S. qualification by a range of professionals inthe financial services industry

Chinese Walls: Information barriers within investment banks to manage potential compliance and conflictof interest issues


53

Glossary

Clearing: The mechanism for making transactions happen: matching the buyer and seller, making sure thebuyer has the cash and the seller has the securities

Commission: Fees paid to investment banks by clients for buying investments on their behalf

Commodities: Goods such as oil, petrol, metal or grain

Credit Crunch: The term that has come into common usage to refer to a severe shortage of money orcredit. The start of the global credit crunch can be dated to August 2007 when default rates on sub-primeloans in the U.S. housing market rose to record levels

Credit default swap: Insurance-like contract that transfers credit risk. The buyer of the swap makespayments to the seller in exchange for protection in the event of a default. Banks and other institutionshave used credit default swaps to cover the risk of mortgage holders defaulting

Debt: Money owed to creditors/lenders or buyers of debt securities

Debt capital markets (DCM): An investment bank division responsible for issuance and pricing of debtsecurities (i.e. bonds)

Derivatives: The group term for financial contracts between buyers and sellers of commodities orsecurities. Includes futures, options or swaps. Derivatives allow profit from the rise (or fall) of a commodityor security, without actually buying the underlying good

Equity: Otherwise referred to as shares. Shareholders own a percentage of the company, and have a sharein profits, as well as control via voting rights

Equity Research: The research division of an investment bank where analysts who each cover a certainsector or industry write “buy” or “sell” recommendation reports for the companies they cover

Dow Jones Index: Usually refers to the Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJII), an index of share prices forthirty very large U.S. stocks

Equities: Securities representing ownership interest possessed by shareholders in a corporation – stock asopposed to bonds

Equity: The net worth of a company. It represents the ownership interest of the shareholders (commonand preferred) of a company

Equity capital markets (ECM): The investment banking division responsible for structuring and pricingthe issuance of equities, such as at IPO (Initial Public Offering – flotation of the company on the stockexchange)

Exchange: A venue for companies to publicly and centrally offer their investment options to investors

Fixed Income (FI): Debt instruments of corporations, government or agencies characterized by a fixedinterest rate and a stated maturity date. An example of a fixed income investment is a bond, because abond regularly pays a fixed amount of money (interest) to its holder until maturity


54

Glossary

Foreign Exchange Market (ForEx or FX): An over-the-counter market where buyers and sellers trade thecurrencies of different countries

FTSE 100/250 index: The index of the 100/250 largest companies on the UK stock market

Futures: A contract between two parties to trade a commodity or security at a fixed price and a fixedfuture date

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP): The methodology for preparing company accounts– it varies from country to country. This accounting method is used in the U.S., and no other countries

Hard market: A scarcity of a product or service for purchase, as opposed to a soft market, in which theproduct or service is readily available

Hedge: A strategy offsetting the possibility of loss by holding two contrary positions in different financialinstruments

Hedge fund: A private investment fund that uses a range of strategies to maximize returns, includinghedging

Initial Public Offering (IPO): This is the initial, or first offering of common stock to the public

Insider Trading: criminal offence made by trading on knowledge of non-public information

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): Universal financial reporting method that allowsinternational businesses to understand each other and work together. Not used in the United States. Usedin Canada and 110 other countries

Interest Rates: Lenders demand interest on loans. The rate is dependent on future inflation expectations,as well as the ‘real interest rate’ – the rental cost of money. Borrowers might pay extra on top in order tocompensate lenders for the credit risk

Investment Bank: A bank providing financial services for governments, companies or very wealthyindividuals, as compared to commercial banks, which provide loans and savings accounts to the generalpublic

Investment Management: The buying and selling of securities (see securities) and assets (see asset)within a portfolio to achieve investment objectives

Investment Trust: Similar to unit trusts – collective investment but with a different structure. Investmenttrusts’ value fluctuates with demand for shares on the stock market. The price of an investment trust doesnot necessarily equal the price of its underlying assets

Junk Bond: Bonds that have little or no collateral or liquidation value and are typically very risky. As such,they offer a higher rate of return than safer kinds of debt. Also known as high yield debt

Leveraged Buy Out (LBO): The takeover of a company funded by high-risk bonds or loans

Leveraging: Using debt to supplement investment. An institution that has borrowed heavily in addition toits funds or equity to finance growth is said to be highly leveraged


55

Glossary

Leverage Finance (LevFin): Finance which takes advantage of the ratio between a company’s debt andequity, often associated with relatively high risk and returns. It is also the name of the group in aninvestment bank which provides advisory for these opportunities

Libor: London Inter Bank Offered Rate. The rate at which banks offer money to each other

Liquidity: The ability of an asset to be traded quickly without changing the market price

Market Capitalization: The value of a company’s stock, which gives a picture of the company’s size. It iscalculated by multiplying the price of shares by the number of shares outstanding (in the public markets)

Market maker: A bank that is obliged to offer to trade securities in which it is registered throughout thetrading day

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A): Negotiating the buying and selling of companies or parts of companies.This also describes the division of investment banks that consults companies on mergers and takeovers

Money Market: The market for short-term funding such as certificates of deposit and treasury bills.Money market securities typically have a maturity of less than one year

On Campus Recruiting (OCR): Recruiting that happens at Queen’s. Firms (usually Canadian and Globalbulge bracket banks in Toronto) who have targeted Queen’s as a school they want to recruit from will posttheir application on the Queen’s Commerce portal and will typically also visit the university for aninformation session to help students know more about these banks

Options: Similar to futures, but provide the buyer with the right rather than the obligation to completethe contract

Portfolio: A collection of securities held by an investor. Also known as a ‘fund’Principal: An investor who trades for his/her own account and risk

Private Equity (PE): A high risk and high return investment, holding large stakes in illiquid companies

Proprietary (Prop) Trading: Trading carried out using the firm’s capital on its own behalf

Pure risk: A type of risk where the only consideration is the possibility of loss. Speculative risk in contrastoffers the possibility of loss or gain

Put Option: The right to sell shares at an agreed price on a future date (see call option)

Restructuring: The reorganization of a company’s finances, often employed when the company isexperiencing financial difficulty

Risk Management: Management of the pure risks to which a company might be subject. It involvesanalyzing all possible risks and determining how to handle this exposure through trading out, ortransferring the risk with derivatives

Secondary Market: The trading of securities. The ‘primary market’ means the launching (issuing) ofbonds and equities for the first time


56

Glossary

Securities: A generic term for bonds and equities

Securitization: Turning something into a security, for example, combining the debt from a number ofmortgages to create a financial product that can be traded. Banks owning securities that includemortgage debt receive income when homeowners make mortgage payments

Sell Side: Used to describe brokers who sell securities to customers and the research departments ofbrokerage firms that make recommendations to their clientele. (See also buy side)

Settlement: Once a deal has been made and clearing taken place, stock and cash transfer between sellerand buyer

Shares: A certificate issued by a company for general purchase entitling the holder to ownership rights,including dividends from any profits the company may make. Also known as stocks

Short Selling: When investors borrow an asset, such as shares, from another investor and then sell it inthe relevant market hoping the price will fall. The aim is to buy back the asset at a lower price and return itto its owner, pocketing the difference

Spread: Difference between bid and offer price – one way in which banks make profits

Stag: Speculator who buys shares at issue to sell them as soon as they trade on the market. Also calledflippers

Stagflation: A combination of stagnation and inflation, when economic growth slows as prices continueto rise

Sub-Prime Loans: High-risk loans to clients with poor or no credit histories

Superday: The final round of the interview process. Usually consists of 3-7 interviews and lasts for 2-5hours. Final offers are typically given shortly after Superdays to successful applicants

Swap Rates: The borrowing rates between financial institutions

Trading Floor: Where all trading desks sit within an investment bank

Toxic Debt: Shorthand for types of assets that have caused severe problems for the financial institutionsthat held them since the onset of the credit crunch. U.S. sub-prime mortgage debt was the original toxicdebt.

Underwriting: The guarantee (which is offered by a bank in return for a fee) to buy to find the buyers foran entire issue of stocks and shares

Unit trust: The trust issues units which represent holdings of the underlying shares. The fund is dividedinto units which investors trade with the fund management group

Universal bank: A bank offering financial services typical of both investment and commercial banking toconsumers and small businesses as well as corporate clients

Yield: The total return on a security expressed as a proportion of its price


57

References

✓ Queen’s Commerce Banking Intern Alumni Interviews✓ Reddit and other Forums


58

Closing Remarks

Thank You for Reading Our Guide!

We hope it proves to be valuable over your summer endeavours!

Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns and feedback!

Best of luck during your internships!

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal:

It is the courage to continue that counts.“ – Winston Churchill


finance internship guide - qfac · if your internship is in a different city then where you live,...

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