top choice for summer 2009 internship

Career Opportunities & Internships Investment Banking
41

<p>
[quote]
Wow varianceswap very generous of you -
did you feel your math training helped out alot during your internship?</p>

<p>also, were there computer science majors in s&t?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It definitely influenced the rotation selections. I don't know if this was because of stereotyping, but the girls mainly had sales roles, and the guys trading (though i guess they preferred them). Quant guys got exotic desks (Structured Exotics, Structured Credit, Currency Options), whereas the very liberal arts majors rotated through fundamental desks (bank loans, equities...etc). Also, there were some in my opinion really crappy desks (securities clearing, execution services...). Because its all part of the securities program, some kids rotated through prime brokerage, execution... which were located in New Jersey... not fun in my opinion.</p>

<p>Overall, having a math background certainly helps... if you think about it, kids with those backgrounds can select from basically any desk. More desks = more job possibilities.</p>

42

<p>
[quote]
thanks for all the info variance. Could you list the various schools all the other interns were from if that's not a problem? Also, what were the most represented majors? Were quantitative majors more represented? How many spots were available in total for the S&T intern class? once again thanks a lot

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Someone from our class posted this on Wallstreetoasis, which i recommend checking out (yeah... basically I read it like 3-5 times a day during recruiting season). Day 1 of the program HR lists the top ten schools and the number of interns, as well as how that compared to last year. This past summer the top ten ranked:
Penn, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Cornell, Duke, NYU, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth</p>

<p>Penn by far outnumbered everyone. From Princeton to Dartmouth, it averaged around 5-7 kids per school. Taking into account there were like 150 junior undergrads, its not extraordinary representation, but many came from a great school.</p>

<p>With that said, there were also some, I dislike to use the term "non-target", so I'll say less-heavily recruited schools. We got a book with everyones name, email, school, picture the first day. Looking through it, schools included villanova, northwestern, st lawrence, princeton, rutgers, middlebury, columbia, penn, penn, penn, princeton, MIT, stanford, MIT, James Madison, MIT, Columbia, Amherset, James Madison, Vanderbilt, Penn State, Virginia Tech, Cornell, Duke, St. Lawrence, Harvard, BC, URichmond, Brown, UMaryland, Harvard...etc. i basically compiled that list by opening to a random page and started typing through a portion of the schools. </p>

<p>With that said, anyone has a chance at S&T. I feel its more of a meritocracy than banking. If you really love the markets and can talk intelligently about them, you're going to get the job.</p>

<p>I have no idea what the major breakdown is. i'll assume most people were economics, but there were definitely a ton of liberal arts majors. Quantitative majors will obviously help.</p>

<p>Total class was around ~180. Around 20 sophomores, 15MBAs. HUGE class</p>

43

<p>Did the sophomores have anything in common--i.e. lots of quant/econ guys, lots with connections, etc.? As a rising sophomore myself, I'm wondering what makes you competitive for these slots.</p>

44

<p>
[quote]
Did the sophomores have anything in common--i.e. lots of quant/econ guys, lots with connections, etc.? As a rising sophomore myself, I'm wondering what makes you competitive for these slots.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I assume a good number of them came in through the GS Sophomore Securities Spring program, which unfortunately I know very little about. I know if you attend you are offered an internship either the upcoming summer or the summer after (or none at all). I never got the interview so I have no clue.</p>

<p>Not sure about quant/econ. If you're really interested in quant work, some of the placed summer interns in the program were strats, basically GS' version of quants. There were a good number of sophomore quants...</p>

45

<p>
[quote]

Wow thanks
btw, did you trade variance swaps? lol

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Haha. I learned about them during a desk visit. They're pretty cool structures.</p>

46

<p>How are you supposed to know all this stuff about finance as a sophomore/junior</p>

<p>btw how many handshakes?</p>

47

<p>hmm...</p>

<p>i think its 18.</p>

<p>22 people total</p>

<ol>
<li> roommate didnt shake his own hand (less than 22)</li>
<li> roommate didnt shake his roommates hand (less than 21)</li>
<li> since everyone shook a different number of hands, someone shook no hands, (less than 20)</li>
<li> ??? odds are that someone shook else didnt shake the roommates hand i dont know</li>
</ol>

48

<p>No the answer is 10. The max number of hands anyone can shake is 20 (22 - self - roommate) and the min is 0. Since there are 21 people and all give different responses, that covers all the integers from 0 to 20 inclusive. Your roommate can't shake 0 hands because that makes it impossible for anyone else to shake 20 hands. The person who shook 20 hands is roommates with the guy who shook 0 hands. Your roommate can't shake 19 hands because he didn't shake hands with the himself, the guy who shook 0, and the guy who shook 1 (he only shook with the 20 handshake guy). The guy who shook 1 is roommates with the guy who shook 19. Repeat this process a bunch of times or just note that when n and 20-n are distinct, these people must be roommates. So just solve 20-n=n which gives n = 10.</p>

49

<p>my top choice: a boutique/middle market PE shop or a small hedge fund</p>

50

<p>GS S&T Offer Rate is going to be incredibly low this year.</p>

<p>150+ individuals competing...You do the math.</p>

<p>CS S&T Offer Rate was roughly 40% with FI around 20%.</p>

<p>A few other banks are seeing rates that are hovering around 50%.</p>

51

<p>If I'm at a CC (transferring) with no finance exp and just part-time IT work should i still try for mm/boutiques or wait until i transfer? :O I know Russiky_Bear did this, but his background/ec was crazy (and ended up getting into haas)</p>

52

<p>trying now doesn't hurt but you shouldn't reasonably expect anything until you transfer to a 4-yr college</p>

53

<p>
[quote]
How are you supposed to know all this stuff about finance as a sophomore/junior</p>

<p>btw how many handshakes?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yeah... its a lot of information at first, but after a while you just get used to the jargon. read wallstreetoasis, liar's poker, monkeybusiness, and talk to friends and upperclassmen</p>

<p>Weasel got the handshake question right.</p>

<p>
[quote]
GS S&T Offer Rate is going to be incredibly low this year.</p>

<p>150+ individuals competing...You do the math.</p>

<p>CS S&T Offer Rate was roughly 40% with FI around 20%.</p>

<p>A few other banks are seeing rates that are hovering around 50%.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I know right... jeez, not looking good for me =/</p>

54

<p>i thought of pairing the roommates, (20-0,19-1, etc.) but i didnt put that much analysis into it...</p>

<p>Variance, were there a lot of westcoast schools represented? i saw that stanford was on the list, but any others? or do most students who live on the westcoast take jobs in Frisco and LA?</p>

55

<p>
[quote]

i thought of pairing the roommates, (20-0,19-1, etc.) but i didnt put that much analysis into it...</p>

<p>Variance, were there a lot of westcoast schools represented? i saw that stanford was on the list, but any others? or do most students who live on the westcoast take jobs in Frisco and LA?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>After you mentioned it I flipped through and I don't recall seeing one UC person there. There were maybe one or two strategists from CalTech, but other that and Stanford, I really don't remember ever meeting or knowing of anyone from a west coast school. there were some UTexas people, if that counts as west... Assume they must be elsewhere.</p>

56

<p>to be honest i dont quite get the obsession with doing a GS gig for S&T. i myself am not a big fan of their superstar culture, and the interviewers i had from FICC are the biggest dicks i've seen.</p>

57

<p>random question, for internship cover letters would you guys recommend writing out a "custom" letter for each resume submission, or should I just have a general sample which I tweak for each app?</p>

58

<p>related question, are cover letters really that important?</p>

<p>I'm just assuming everyone writes something about how passionate and hardworking they are, etc.</p>

59

<p>Yes, they're fairly important, especially if you're "applying" and not asking people to forward your resume to HR.</p>

<p>If you have access to Vault, they publish a pretty good guide to cover letters. Also, check your school's career center for cover letter workshops.</p>

60

<p>I think its good to have a standard one, and then edit it slightly so you have one for BBs, one for boutiques, one for hedge funds...
Sometimes you will have to segment them even more, so for like evercore if you had "evercore is one of the most established boutiques...", you obviously have to change it a little bit to fit some of the newer ones such as moelis/centerview...</p>

<p>but yea, don't spend too much time on them because they really don't matter all that much. for consulting however, the MBB firms sometime want you to list your office preferences on the cover letter, so make sure they're decent.</p>