Job Description

Summer Analyst

This past Summer, I receive an invitation to intern at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the New York Madison office to work as a Summer Analyst within the Corporate & Investment Banking division. Excited and dumbfounded by my luck, I eagerly accepted and celebrated – thinking I had made it to a world of prestige, wealth, and rooftop parties. Instead, it was an experience that shattered the biases that I had developed from unrealistic media dramas. Hopefully, this blog post sheds some light on the average life of a financial analyst intern in the world's finance capital. 

Among all the titles I inherited during the Summer, here are my top three in no particular order:

• Excel Aficionado
• Market Researcher
• Fixated Pitchbook User

Now let me give a high level overview of each title.

Excel Aficionado

The first week at the office consisted of 8-hour training sessions with an 'Excel Guru,' who gave us a deep dive and training sessions on advanced excel syntax. The session's overall goal - is for us to learn how to migrate large sets of data from various sources and use excel to manipulate and create data and financial models. The role of an analyst is to perform the 'grunt work' on excel; It's an unfortunate truth that I have had to accept - so long to the intense billion-dollar meeting that I had imagined. Fortunately for me, building models on excel is like building and playing with a puzzle. The challenging aspect of the models is ensuring that the data we imported is accurate and relevant to the story we are trying to tell. Attention to detail is vital with the models; each formula and number needs to be accurate and verified before moving the models to the next stage - the pitchbook. With the amount of time I spent looking at numbers on excel, I can say that Finance Professionals live and die by excel. 

Pitchbook User

Pitchbook meaning PowerPoint - in my case - is used to sell clients the ideas of purchasing or selling a business. Through our analysis of a particular company and industry, we develop data and financial models highlighting key metrics showcasing that a business deal is net positive for the client(s). Our analysis consists of valuations of the business, financial analysis, risk analysis, projections, and captured synergies, among others. I use the adjective 'fixated user' to describe how my manager would dictate every tiny detail on the deck. I remember staying up late at night, contemplating whether I missed something on a deck - not knowing whether I would receive negative feedback for something as minor as using the wrong shade of color or having a misplaced graph by a centimeter on the deck. The pitchbook, in a sense, generates revenue for the team, so it's understandable why so much emphasis is placed on the pitchbook. Selling and telling a data-driven story to our clients is vital to having a successful career, and the pitchbook is a tool to do just that.

Market Researcher

Lastly, my last role is for the research aspect of my role as an analyst. JPMorgan has a team of full-time researchers contributing to its central market research database, so I didn't have to perform my research. However, during my internship, I became obsessed with the financial market within the tech division. The intensity of the environment swayed me as I was placed on a team where everyone was a master in their subject matter - placing an inherent amount of pressure on me to learn as much as possible about my sector as fast as possible. Browsing through the database became a regular part of my morning routine. I wanted to capture something new that would captivate my manager, a 'gold nuggets' of information that I could share during our team meeting to differentiate me from others on the team. I became obsessed, earning the title of the 'obsessive market researcher.'

Concluding Remarks

I enjoyed the experience, despite having my perspective of the financial world shattered. The best quote from my manager captures the finance world within the team at JPMorgan, "work hard, to play hard." Unfortunately, I didn't see the play-hard version of the experience, aside from the occasional rooftop happy hour. My short glimpse into the finance world showed me that a career in finance is rather intense, impactful, and perhaps - unsustainable.

Grammarly report

Correctness -3

Engagement -3

Clarity -4

Unique Words 43%

Rare Words 33%

Word Length 4.7

Sentence Length 20.1