Below is an account of an 18-hour period in the life of an investment banking summer analyst; she works as a corporate finance generalist for Houlihan Lokey in New York.
7:30 a.m.: Wake up to the repetitive beeping sound of my alarm clock; immediately check my BlackBerry. There are a few emails I was cc’d on, nothing urgent, so I brush my teeth and take a shower. After a quick breakfast, I head out the door of my small studio to catch the downtown 6-train.
8:15 a.m.: I feel like a sardine; the train is packed with bankers and tourists (you can easily distinguish between the two: half of the passengers are stressed and tense, the other half are carrying cameras and maps). I get out at 51st Street.
9:00 a.m.: Arrive at my desk; have my first cup of coffee. Begin research (using Bloomberg and Capital IQ) for a project an MD and I are working on (it’s rare for a summer analyst to get this type of interaction with senior bankers; it’s one of the things I appreciate most about working here).
11:00 a.m.: Receive an email from the MD who wants to discuss my research. We meet in his office a few minutes later. The meeting goes well. He’s happy with the report I put together.
12:30 p.m.: A few analysts and I grab a quick lunch at a bistro across the street (I get a salad). Eat at my desk while creating revenue breakdown charts by geography and product segment for a management presentation happening later this month in Canada.
3:30 p.m.: Another MD invites me to join a client meeting, which is starting in less than an hour. I gladly accept the invitation, then start flipping through the presentation books two at a time to ensure accuracy (I‘m on cloud nine to have been offered this opportunity during the first week of my internship).
4:00 p.m.: Leave the office with my deal team to the client meeting, which is just a few blocks away. There are five people present at the meeting. I note that the client questions every financial value and multiple in the book, trying to get a better sense of how the valuation was performed. The meeting goes well. It was a great learning experience.
6:00 p.m.: Back in the office just in time to order dinner from Seamlessweb.com. A group of us order salmon (a favorite in the office). After I eat, I spend a few hours turning around the edits on the management presentation I was working on earlier (the client’s CEO sent the edits).
9:00 p.m.: Start compiling a financial buyers list for another pitch I’m helping with. Capital IQ and Thomson ONE are good sources of information. I look for similar transactions and for buyers interested in investing in the client’s industry.
11:00 p.m.: Finish the buyers list. Spend some time double-checking my work, then hand it off to the analyst on my team. The analyst seems satisfied with what I've done.
12:00 a.m.: Familiarize myself with an accretion/dilution Excel model for another project I’m working on.
12:30 a.m.: Ask the rest of the group if I can help with anything else. An associate says he needs a transaction list in the industrials group.
1:30 a.m.: Finish compiling a list of over 15 transactions using Capital IQ’s screening tools, then email it to the associate and turn off my computer. Leave the office and get in a cab. I’m tired, but happy with how my day went and with the experiences that I had.
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