Understanding the various roles in a securities division of an investment bank; Goldman Sachs, London

Abstract

The internship was 9 weeks long and divided into 3 rotations of 3 weeks each. The rotations were in Structured Credit Exotics Trading, Equity derivatives structuring and FX structuring. The first rotation, that is, the structured credit exotics trading was decided by the HCM (Human Capital Management) and the desk employees. The other two rotations were decided by me. The internship was unstructured to the extent that I was expected to ask the employees for some work and then they would give me a portion of their daily work. Hence, the 3 weeks at each rotation would generally mean at least 4-5 small assignments which would extend from a few hours to a week. This helped me to work with many people on the desk and hence get a holistic view about the desk. Talking to all the people on the desk and getting to know their opinion about the business was highly encouraged and appreciated. All the employees of the desk including the senior people such as the MD or the partner were very helpful and cooperative in finding time out of their busy schedule and have a conversation with me. To ensure a well-informed decision to choose my second and the third rotations and to make sure that I get an exposure into all the dimensions of the securities division, there were "daily rotations", in addition to the three primary rotations. There were a total of 10 daily rotations during the 2nd and the 3rd week. During each rotation, I would spend around an hour on a particular desk talking to the employees who work on that desk. These rotations gave me an opportunity to learn about what these desks do and whether that would be of interest to me or not. Also, it helped the desk employees to know me better so that they can decide if they would like to have me on their desk for a full rotation and as a full-time employee, later on. In addition to the primary and the daily rotations, networking and talking to people on other desks were highly encouraged. In fact, I didn't have any daily rotation at the FX structuring desk but through some of the 11M alums, I interacted with the people on desk and on the basis of mutual liking, I decided to have a rotation there. To provide the interns an insight into the broad level business of the firm and the various concerns and issues at senior level, there were "breakfasts" with the senior employees of the firm. We had breakfast interactions with a partner of the Securities division, an MD in the investment banking division and a senior employee from the Corporate Treasury department. These interactions provided insight not into just the firm and its business but about its competitors as well.