【Summer Practice】Aggressive and Forging Ahead - Walkinginto Fruitful Summer Internships with EMF Students

Release time：2021-09-30    

This year, FISF Elite Master of Finance (EMF) students achieved 100% summer internships in early July. Having actively worked and diligently studied, students are making full use of their practical experience in summer and marching firmly toward their career goals. By now all the Class of 2022 EMF students taking summer internships in foreign investment banks have acquired return offers. At the same time, we look forward to good news of other students to acquire their ideal full-time offers!

This session of [Summer Practice] invites three Class of 2022 EMF students that have acquired return offers, Daiqin Bao, Xuelin Liao and Xinxin Zuo, to share their experience and feelings gained in colorful summer internships.

s of great significance to me. This is the first time that I’ve actually experienced the work atmosphere in a foreign investment bank, and got in touch with deals in various industries and various teams within 10 weeks, which makes me learn and grow quickly. After the 10 weeks’ internship, I was lucky that my working ability was recognized by colleagues and leaders and thus I was given the chance to stay long. I expect to further explore and acquire in my beloved field, and know more about UBS so that I can contribute to its future development.

Internship Experience

At the end of my summer internship this year, I reviewed and reflected on the entire process. Now I’d like to share some of my experience with my fellow students:

1. Record and make a backup of each item you have completed. This may increase your working time to some extent, but can largely reduce repeated work in case of any overturn of previous adjustments. I think it’s quite valuable.

2. Communicate often. Think quickly about potential problems and make inquiries when receiving guiding emails. When assigning new tasks, leaders may assume that we have been informed of relevant preconditions. But indeed, our existing understanding may be insufficient, so timely communication is really very important .

3. Follow hot news of the industry. Fragmented time such as daily commute can be used to follow new trends in the industry where you are doing projects. Many times, the news will deepen our understanding of the industry or certain specific topics.

4. Undertake responsibilities voluntarily. In foreign investment banks, most tasks are conducted by a team. So it is important to clarify what you are responsible for as a member of the team, and figure out how much your task will affect the subsequent work of other colleagues.

5. However emergent it is, you should check the basic spelling and grammar before submitting documents. In reality, details undoubtedly affect others’ impression on you. When preparing documents to be presented to customers, in particular, it’s even more important to make clear that you are doing this in representation of the company and you are obliged to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the documents.

In the 10 weeks, UBS as an international investment bank with a sound business system has taught me a lot, such as the skills of teamwork, industrial knowledge in emerging fields and tips in capital operation schemes. The team atmosphere in the company is great, and senior colleagues are all willing to solve my doubts, benefiting me a great deal. I look forward to returning to my team and welcoming new challenges next year!

This year I attended the summer internship program of CDH Investments. I worked in the VGC department (Innovation and Growth Fund) which mainly pays attention to investment of programs in early and growth stage. During the internship I came into contact with different projects and various subdivided industries, got to know a group of outstanding friends and full-time seniors, and luckily obtained a return offer in the end!

The VGC department of CDH is featured of flat teams, in which seniors are all willing to share and communicate while also respecting the thoughts and opinions of youngsters and encouraging each team member to give play to their subjective initiatives. Therefore, during the several months’ internship, I was able to fully experience the investment decision procedures of several projects and explore various aspects of industrial research. Also, I could often exchange industrial cognition and project understanding with experienced full-time seniors. I have improved rapidly over these several months

Internship Experience

I'd like to take this opportunity to give some suggestions to juniors on summer internship application and official employment regarding primary market investment:

1. Firstly, the application. Overall investment firms will not offer many official employment chances for new graduates, so students who are interested in primary market need to make some alternative preparations. Meanwhile, no matter whether there are formal summer internship plans of investment firms, juniors are suggested to communicate more with students around or seniors in order to get informed of the chances of each company to transform daily or summer internships to regular employment;

2. Secondly, during the internship, the complete executive process of investment projects, from initial contact, due diligence, report submission to final approval, places requirements on summer interns from all aspects. Many skills can be learned and trained in the internship. The key is to keep a big-picture thinking, judgment and understanding of the project, and to maintain a positive attitude.

3. During the summer internship, you have to learn to communicate in time, prioritize different tasks, learn about the demands and expectations of your boss, and complete corresponding work sturdily and on schedule. In addition, before taking summer internships from investment firms, the training of certain skills in internships in PE/VCs, investment banks, consulting firms and research institutes is also beneficial.

At last, I’d express my thanks to FISF leaders and teachers for their support and encouragement all the way from my last year at college. They helped me a lot in choosing and making preparation for a suitable career path. May my juniors successfully acquire their ideal offers!

This summer, I completed a 10 weeks’ internship in the investment bank department of Citi, and luckily got the return offer. Though I could not work onsite in Hong Kong due to the pandemic, I still managed to fully experience the working rhythm and contents of a banker with the help of the sound remote office system of the company. I also got to know a group of excellent friends and full-time seniors.

The biggest highlight in the summer internship in Citi is its rotation system. Each intern has the chance to participate in projects of different teams. In the 10 weeks’ time, I cooperated with colleagues in seven projects like medicine, M&A and finance. This system enables us interns to get in touch with and know about various industries while also determining the fields that we are truly interested in through constant practice, making way for our future careers.

In daily work, Citi’s inclusive, amicable, cooperative and innovative culture also attracts me a great deal. Two seniors act as buddy and mentor for each intern to provide guidance in work and instructions in career development. What’s more, the company also organizes a variety of abundant staff activities and small sharing sessions to further enhance our understanding of each department of the company and to strengthen our communication and exchange with senior colleagues.

Internship Experience

Looking back upon the whole internship process, I think the following two points are significant:

1. The devil is in the details. Whether mid-term review or final review, nearly all the interns have received promotion suggestions related to “attention to details”, which confirms the significance of details to such rigorous industries as investment banks. From page numbers, email subjects to checking relations and hypothetical rationality of models, any detail is nonnegligible. This also manifests the foundation of professionalism of investment bank workers.

2. Communicate in time to inform team members and leaders of your work progress. The intense working rhythm requires us to be prepared for multiple simultaneous tasks at any time. Thus, before setting out to work, it is important to confirm with the boss key time nods and expected work results, especially in situations of remote office work where colleagues are not able to be aware of our work progress. Therefore, adequate communication and confirmation in advance of correct understanding and timely feedback within the process to ensure the right direction can yield twice the result with half the effort while also avoiding the awkward case of affecting the project progress due to wrong understandings at the very beginning.

In the end, I want to express great appreciation to all the teachers at the Professional Development Center of FISF for your help and guidance all through the time. I believe my juniors will also obtain their ideal offers!