Intern hours
What are people’s thoughts on interns working usual IB hours?
I’ve always sent my interns home around 10pm - don’t ask them to work weekends ever. I genuinely want them to have as positive an experience as is possible.
However, I’m currently getting slammed on 3 live deals plus a pitch, my analyst pool is down significantly and so it’s just me and one senior analyst doing everything across all projects. I have two actually competent summer interns that I would like to use more which essentially means they will start working the same hours as me and my analyst - probably around 95 hours a week atm.
Is this ok? On the one hand I feel like they will at the very least be getting authentic experience. However, I realise they are extremely new to the industry and don’t want to put unnecessary pressure/strain on them and watch them burn out or not want to come back…
If you need them make them work, it’s going to be very ugly when they start working FT and realise they can’t handle the hours cause you were overprotecting them.
You sound like a great person who who your interns are lucky to work with. I would have an honest conversation with them about the demands of the job and you can even let them know that they are doing well and that is why you want to give them more responsibility. They also probably have only a month or so left. Its much easier to work crazy hours for a couple weeks with a light at the end of the tunnel than it is for those of us who are years into this job.
Overall, don't feel the need shelter them (however heroic that might be in this industry). Coming into my internship summer, I had no idea if I could manage with the stress and hours. For me, I knew the job would be more or less enjoyable content-wise, but I needed to see if I could do this for the longterm. The best proxy there was the internship and if I hadn't gotten worked hard, then I wouldn't know if I could handle it. If I wasn't able to, I would have done something else for FT. Better to find out its not for you while still in college than once you're on the job.
Protect them from seniors with unrealistic expectations and unnecessary workstreams the way you would your analysts and maybe even a little more if you really want to help them out. They will appreciate it.
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