How can I impress on a finance internship?

If you’ve secured a place on a finance internship, then top work. This is one sure fire way of gaining exactly the right kind experience you’ll need to take on a finance career—providing you make the best of it! Top-performing interns could well be in line for a graduate role, so making the right impression during your time with a firm is vital. Do well, and you could put yourself right on top of the graduate pile!

Here are a few little hints on how you can impress on a finance internship:

Work hard

Well… yeah. This isn’t too tricky to work out. If you get yourself through the hallowed gates of a top finance firm or investment bank, it’s obviously going to make a good impression if you give every task your all—even if it’s a mundane one! No complaints and taking a proactive, diligent attitude to whatever you’re asked to do will strike a chord with your colleagues and manager.

Don’t be a drone!

Yes, by all means work hard. It’s all very well working your socks off, but you’re going to need a spark of personality in the mix too if you really want to bowl colleagues and managers over during a finance internship. You want people to remember you, right? Just being able to do the job isn’t always enough; an industry that often demands long hours and pressure (particularly if we’re talking investment banking) means that recruiters are looking for school leavers and graduates who will be friendly and interesting people to work with too. It’s a lot of time to spend togethe, you’ll need to get along!

If you’re networking, striking up a conversation on a topic that’s something other than work can be really beneficial in helping you to establish connections and working relationships that could be really useful later when you need some advice for your applications or interview.

Keep up

The pace of your internship is going to be fast; finance firms, banks and professional services firms are all very busy places, and you might be witness to plenty of progress and changes on projects throughout your time with the firm. Take notes from day one on everything new that you experience and learn about and read through each evening. This way, you’ll be able to keep up with what’s going on!

Don’t be afraid to ask questions

The earlier you ask, the quicker you’ll understand what’s going on and avoid problems later down the line. Asking questions is a crucial part of an internship. If you’re asking, it shows you’re interested to know and learn more about the work your colleagues are doing—more brownie points! Just make sure you get the timing of your questions right. Asking when your manager is in the middle of a mid-deal crisis probably won’t go down as well!