Peer Career Consultant Blogs

This Summer 2023, I worked as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Citizens JMP Securities, a mid-sized investment bank in the heart of New York City. I left school around Week 10 to start the internship and took finals on the East Coast, as my internship start date was scheduled for early June. In this blogpost, I’ll take you through a typical day in my life during my internship in high finance. 

In NYC, the in-person culture is a bit more standard than on the West Coast, as everyone was supposed to be in the office before 9:00am every day. I stayed with my uncle in Hoboken, New Jersey, so I had to wake up early for the 50 minute commute. At 7:00am, I wake up, get dressed (typically slacks/dress pants, a dress shirt, and jacket), and eat a quick bite (consisting of a granola/oat bar and a glass of orange juice/water). I head down the stairs of the apartment, and walk towards the bus stop.

Around 7:40am, the bus comes, and it takes me to Midtown Manhattan, where I have to transfer onto the subway, get off after a few stops, and then walk another couple of blocks to the office. Clocking in around 8:40am, you generally want to be earlier than the full-timers, to set a good impression. I greet my other interns and colleagues (analysts/associates and sometimes upper management), and wait for any tasks for the day. These tasks consisted of making pitch decks on PowerPoint, updating Excel spreadsheets with data pulled from financial databases, and doing market research for clients. 

As an intern class, we mostly got lunch together, walking a couple minutes to nearby restaurants or food spots in Midtown. Usually, we’d go to this cafeteria/food area near the other big corporate offices, where we saw a ton of other interns too. We also had lunch catered on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After finishing my assignments for the day and checking in with my mentors and analysts I worked with to see if I was good to go, I left the office around 6:30pm, taking the subway back home to Hoboken. Sometimes, I’d meet with friends for dinner, and on the weekends we would spend time leisurely. However, on this typical day, I would just go home and eat leftovers or dinner with my uncle’s family, which I’m super grateful for as it saved me tons of time and money as I didn’t have to cook or pay for food. I check my Teams a couple more times before bed to see if anything urgent comes up. At around 9:00pm, I shower, watch some YouTube and scroll on my phone for some time, and get ready for bed, sleeping by 11:00pm most nights. 

There’s plenty to do in NYC, and lots of great people you’ll meet if you ever work here. Atypical of my other intern friends who worked in investment banking until the late nights/early hours of the morning, I had a great work-life balance, and my summer internship experience was super enjoyable.