Each summer, a new crop of students descend onto Wall Street for financial internships.
A killer internship helps you gain hands on experience and expands your network, arming you with the right knowledge for a future finance career.
To help you navigate through the internship hunt, Vault.com surveyed more than 12,000 current and former interns and provided a compilation of the best internships for 2018. The respondents were asked to review and rate their internship experiences based on an assortment of components. On a scale of 1 to 10, respondents scored their internships for five main areas: quality of life, compensation & benefits, interview process, career and development, and full-time employment prospects.
Vault then calculated the rating for each company and ranked them in order. Take a look at the 10 highest rated internships among investment banks, with comments pulled directly from Vault's intern survey.
Perella Weinberg Partners Advisory Summer Internship Program
Perella Weinberg Partners is a boutique investment bank that provides corporate advisory and asset management services. It was founded in 2006 by notable investors including Peter Weinberg and Joseph R. Perella.
The firm's summer advisory internship program received the highest score among the 10 best investment bank internships. It recruits summer analysts and associates to work in "advisory M&A and restructuring practices." The program lasts for 10 weeks and contains a one-week training session, which hones interns' skills in modeling and analytical expertise.
Score: 9.733
Pros: - "Significant levels of work responsibility. People weren't shy with [about] giving interns analyst-level work, such as modeling.
- Fantastic firm culture. Everyone I've worked with was positive, cooperative, and welcoming.
- Lean teams. Deal teams were small enough that interns were given significant exposure to directors and above."
Cons:"Hours can be long when you are busy. Addition of homework."
Advice: "I initially considered pursuing a bulge bracket bank as a sophomore and a junior intern. However, I am very pleased that I had an opportunity to intern with Perella Weinberg. The access to the senior bankers provides you with an industry experience that larger banks can't provide. The ability to see a project from start to finish teaches a great deal about [the] analysis that you don't receive at bulge bracket banks that have you churn a great number of reps on the same concepts. Most importantly, the relationships you can build at a smaller firm like Perella are truly what make[s] the firm great. Being able to walk into a firm and know almost every single person that works in the office is special in the finance industry and is something that I will certainly cherish."
Evercore Advisory Summer Analyst and Summer Associate Program
The New York-based boutique firm offers a 10-week summer internship program, putting interns on a host of tasks including "attending client meetings, financial modeling, industry analysis, due diligence and process management and execution of transactions."
Score: 9.639
Pros:"The responsibility was a great aspect. We were put onto deal teams as full-fledged members, and expected to bring our own angle and insights to the table. What came with this role was a large amount of responsibility, which, although daunting at first, was a very candid glimpse at what the full-time job would entail. The training program was also excellent, enabling us to step into these roles with the fundamentals and a solid foundation under us."
Cons:"The hours can sometimes be long and unpredictable; however, this is something that comes with any job in investment banking. Relative other banks, the hours were actually quite good!"
Advice to potential interns:"While I had a lot of visibility going into the internship because the former interns and current analysts had spent a lot of time talking to me during the process about the experience, I wish I'd known that the interviews for Evercore are more technical and challenging than most other Investment Banking interviews."
William Blair Investment Banking Summer Analyst and Associate Internships
William Blair, a Chicago-based investment firm, also has a 10-week internship program providing opportunities for interns to learn about the deal process. Interns will get exposure to a wide range of transactions types, including "mergers and acquisitions, public equity offerings, and private equity placements."
The firm recently poached the U.S. head of credit sales and trading from the French bank Credit Agricole and an executive from JPMorgan to join its fixed income team in New York.
Score: 9.140
Pros: "We were allowed to work on live transactions as well as pitch projects, also in direct interaction with the clients that are mostly senior management members of US companies."
Cons: "The fact that it's near impossible to make plans outside of work in advance, because your schedule is very unpredictable, and [you're] often at work late."
Advice to potential interns:"Network as much as possible within the bank and learn the ins and outs of the company. Talk to current and former employees to get unbiased feedback."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider