The Stern Opportunity

INVESTMENT BANKING
No Crying (at work)
1: Even if it is 4am, before you leave walk around the floor and ask whoever is left if they need any help even if they aren't on your deal team. If someone does take you up on your offer, you will have a champion for the rest of summer. And even if no one ever does, people will know that you cared to ask.
2. Don't ever leave before everyone on your deal team says you can. Really you should just stay until they all leave. It will be a "badge of honor" if they all leave you with the work to finish up because that means they trust you.
3. Pass along compliments that you hear to all levels (Analyst to MDs)...you'll be surprised on how little praise actually gets back to people and how grateful they are to hear it.
4. Don't expect to leave by midnight or get any sleep. If you do get to sleep, be grateful but don't expect it.
5. Don't expect your "project adviser" to help you on your project. They know it is a worthless exercise and won't spend a second thinking about it but you will stress over it and your best "advice" will be from Damodaran's papers/spreadsheets.
6. Don't ever create a deck from scratch. Pull pages from other decks and just change the numbers. Ask a Stern Alum to help you.
7. Never complain about anything to your summer with are are the Stern alumni in your group.
8. Make time to grab coffee with your fellow Sternies...it will be the best part of your day
9. Walk in to work with a smile every day and take time to joke around with fellow Associates and Analyst late at night
10. Look for ways to add value by doing a little more research than asked (if you have the time)
11. Check every number on the page and keep every markup given to you (save up a version before making any changes)
12. Carry your calculator, 2 pens and notepad to every meeting
-Robyn Underwood

PUBLISHING
Develop Relationships
This summer I worked for the Washington Post newspaper in their Advertising Department. My job was to develop a new product -- a wedding planning guide. The stand-alone, free-to-consumers guide was conceived as a way for the newspaper to drive incremental income from advertisers who perhaps couldn't afford to advertise in the paper itself, but who wanted to reach the Washington Post's affluent readership.

The key thing to succeed in your summer internship is to be a self-starter, over-deliver, and develop relationships.

Be a self-starter: The first day on my internship, I went out to lunch with my two bosses and they laid out the project for me -- good thing I brought my notebook with me. It was then essentially up to me to make their vision a reality. That required operationalizing a lot of issues -- like payment plans for mom-and-pop businesses -- that they hadn't identified in that initial meeting. At the end of the summer they told me that they really appreciated how I independently identified and then solved these issues, with minimal guidance from them.

Over-deliver: Arrive early, stay late, have the best Powerpoint presentation at the end of the year, and hit or exceed any numerical targets you might be given for the year. If you can't do the latter, proactively make a plan to mitigate any fall-out from missing those targets.

Develop relationships: Be nice to everyone, don't go in feeling entitled. Have lunch with the other interns, but don't become part of an intern posse -- be sure to have lunch with full-time employees of the company as well, especially from departments or divisions you'd love to work in full-time after graduation. Figure out who is the final decision-maker for full-time offers and make time to meet with that person one-on-one.
-Erin Rupprecht

LUXURY RETAIL
Be Flexible
My Summer internship was in the Luxury & Retail industry working with Louis Vuitton North America (LVNA) in the Business Planning group. During my internship, I worked with the team to develop a strategic outlook for the company and analyze the its performance.  
 
My advice to MBA1s going into the industry is to network as much as possible and take advantage of Stern's New York City location. Meeting people from the industry will not only open up doors, but will also serve educational to learn about various organizational structures at different companies. Also, I would suggest remaining flexible to different roles especially for those making a career switch. An internship is a great way to get initial industry experience on a resume even if the role does not exactly match someone's ultimate career goal.
-Shimul Shah

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Show Your Passion
Last summer I interned with ARD in Bogota, Colombia. ARD is a for-profit company that provides international development consulting and technical services for organizations like USAID. I analyzed projects focused on small and medium enterprise (SME) development in rural Colombia, and how they impacted value chains.

If you are interested in international development, the best thing you can do is to work overseas for a couple of years. Many companies like IDB won’t consider you without this experience.

Organizations also look for a demonstrated passion in the field, besides coursework. Obviously this means becoming active in school clubs like SEA and EMA, but also focusing on online personal branding by keeping a blog, publishing a thought piece or writing for the Oppy!

And above all, enjoy the adventures that a career in international development will open up to you. I took advantage of every opportunity to explore the country, like taking a few days to hike to Ciudad Perdida a lost indigenous city from 800AD high in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
-Andrea Rudert

SALES & TRADING
Tow the line
Fixed Income Trading: Helped traders analyze markets, prepare trades, gather data from Bloomberg and bondstation.  

Trading is a hectic environment. Successfully negotiating the summer with your senior trader is walking the fine line between contributing and showing interest but staying out of their way. Try to learn early on the secrets to your trading desk - for example my trader liked it better when I took notes during the day and saved my questions for after the market closed or during a slow period rather than keep asking him while he was busy. Try to find a small way in which you can add value. For example, my trader focused on the US but each morning when he arrived I had already prepared a quick one page summary of major events from Asia and Europe which happened while he was out of the office so that he was up to speed each morning.
-Cameron Schubert

ENTERTAINMENT/MEDIA
Don’t Panic!
I spent my summer at The Walt Disney Company in the marketing department of the studio. I had three main projects. I worked on a strategy for national partnerships for Disney's film slate up until 2012.

Don't panic! The Entertainment and Media industry operates differently from those industries that typically recruit at Stern. They do not hire interns (or full-time positions) in the Fall, they hire in the Spring when they need people. Great internships start coming up much later in the year, with most students not securing internships until late in the second semester or even early in the summer.
-Jessica Shain

CONSULTING
Do Your Research
Last summer I worked for Capgemini Consulting in their Strategy & Transformation group. As I was not aligned with any particular industry, I got to work on projects in media, retail supply chain, specialty chemicals and in life sciences. I had a great overall experience and will be returning there in the Fall.

The most important advice I could give is to make sure you figure out a way to contribute something meaningful to the meetings you're in and the projects you're on. Read annual reports thoroughly, search your company's knowledge management system for past deliverables in the specialty area your project is focused, read the past deliverables that your company has created for that particular client, go onto the Stern Virtual Business Library and access research that your firm probably wouldn't have had access to. You're not likely going to be able to match anyone on your team on functional area experience, but if you put in the effort, you will be able to impress them with the depth of information you have acquired about the client or industry, where your managers probably wouldn't have had the time to do the research themselves.

Another thing I would suggest is to make sure that you are keeping track of everything you are doing over the internship. At the end of the Summer, you are likely going to be expected to be making a presentation about what you did over the summer and your key takeaways. Make sure you have a running list of what you've done.

Finally, I know everyone says to have fun, but really, you need to walk away from it with an offer. If the company is not the right fit, you can always shop around in the Fall. Have fun when you can, but absolutely kill yourselves working. Its 8-12 hard weeks, but if you do it right you get to enjoy the next 8-12 months of stress free living and possibly, some exciting facial hair come May. In my mind, that's totally worth it.
-Kevin Lazan

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