Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

Not so long ago, we were, just like you are now, young and naïve students who honestly believed that having SSER as our alma matter means that we are cool and smart by default and that anyone, we mean ANYONE in the corporate world would be beyond grateful to give us an internship and later hire us as soon-to-be CEOs, CFOs and heads of anything that moves. Well, the reality likes to hit people in the face.

This is, however, both good and bad news. The bad news is: 95% of interns coming from SSER are, despite their thorough finance knowledge, complete idiots when it comes to real life business (and if they tell you the opposite, they are also liars). The good news is that at some point these students (well, graduates, actually) start being less of idiots and more of somewhat useful employees, and then they get this new duty that can easily become the greatest fun of the whole summer: the interns. 

And this is exactly the point where the ways of the alumni and the paths of the students cross. You have definitely shared the impressions from your internships; this time, we would like to present the supervisors’ point of view. 

Chapter 1: Career Fairs

So, Career fairs are one of the places where you can meet you potential employees face to face and make that magical first impression.  Exciting, isn’t it? Well not so much for the people from the companies actually standing by that stand and having to listen to hundreds of students who tell the same story over and over again. 

Based on our not-so-small-anymore experience from career fairs, three types of students can be identified:

Type 1 – ‘ghost’ people who quietly creep up to the stand, steel some corporate merchandising and disappear, well sometimes they even quietly whisper ‘um… are you hiring at the moment?’.  Well DUH why do you think we are here in the first place? 

Type 2 – arrogant smartasses who start the conversation with a question: ‘so, what do you have to offer me?’. Our answer would be something like: ‘well, we are always looking for fresh new talent and blah blah blah..’ What we are really thinking would be something along the lines of: ‘so, how are your coffee making, ass kissing, excel table formatting, power point presentation design and filing making skills?’ because that’s what you will pretty much be required to do. Never start a conversation with stuff that is completely unimportant to the companies and that is actually YOU. There are a million YOUS, however there’s only one THEM and they are the best in their field (at least they think so). If you actually want to be memorable show your knowledge about the latest trends and the biggest achievements the company has made so far. Everyone loves ass kissing. 

Which brings us to the ‘Type 3’ – the ass kissers. People who know everything about the company and are promising commitment and devotion till death apart (or at least till someone offers a better salary). A word of advice - DO NOT come to every stand at the career fair confessing your love to every company there – that actually makes you a career slut. No one likes them.

By the way, all of the above doesn’t matter if the people you are meeting up at the stand are actually from the HR department. They honestly have no clue what’s going on in the company. So, just grab any HR book read whatever guidelines they have there about such events and ‘play’ by the book. 

Chapter 2: Interviews

Let’s assume now that you have managed to maneuver among the killer qualities discussed previously, you have created a CV and motivation letter which did not make the potential employer sick, and you got an interview appointment.  Let us leave the ‘we are both from SSER, ain’t that just ubercool’ stuff (which sucks, by the way) aside for a while and concentrate on some more general issues first.

Working in the finance industry which is found appealing by some 60% of Economics students (mainly due to ‘they are shitting money in there!’ perceptions) naturally results in quite a number of interviews with potential interns at the beginning of the summer.  So:

Imagine a Y1 student who has just had Acc1&2, some micro-macro stuff, some statistics background; maybe, such student has done his homework and actually knows something about the industry he is trying to enter. Such a student comes to the interview and starts telling a well prepared fairytale, something like ‘Ever since I was a child, it was my dream to work in portfolio management/M&A/whatever fancy industry I have heard of at the university’. Listen attentively: NO ONE BUYS THIS BS. The thing is, such claims sound good only if one can actually prove it (reading The Economist doesn’t count, really). The interviewers are no idiots and they notice each and every movement of disturbance, uncertainty or fear of being caught lying. And again, an average Y1 (or Y2, as a matter of fact) student has no idea about how most of the industries work, therefore swearing eternal love to the company one actually has no idea about will simply look stupid. 

The best one can do is be honest and know one’s stuff – Blair has personally had a interview with a potential intern who claimed being an ultimate fan of econometrical models in investment analysis, but couldn’t explain the difference between standard deviation and variance  - and that was simply sad.  

Chapter 3: The Internship

So you finally got some kind of internship, and you may even perceive it to be a good one.  Your boss is happy as he won’t have to make Excel formatting himself for a while; you are happy about the tasks which you find to be challenging and important. However, unless you do your internship at Cosmopolitan, you really cannot expect to contribute to the wellbeing of the company (or do anything useful at all, but no one expects you to). Therefore, the main task you have is to leave an impression that would not be an obstacle in your future career path searches (believe it or not, the world is small, and marketing parties together with finance and law, so you will be discussed in detail anyway). 

Not to elaborate too much, here’s a little manual for all the interns who care about what their colleagues think and write in their recommendations:

• Your manager DOES NOT CARE about your university or school stories even he/she has attended the same university/school. However, all the stories your manager tells are VERY important and should be listened to carefully and admired.
• No one cares if you had difficulties getting a certain job done. You, as an intern, are mostly given tasks that even a well trained monkey can do. You managed to do it – good for you! You didn’t do the job correctly because you didn’t ask for clarifications/help on time – well, that makes the monkey much smarter.
• The intern should respect the time of his manager and of all the other employees at the company. Your job is significantly less important than the one of your manager’s, therefore, ‘later’ actually means ‘later’. 
• The intern is not allowed to refuse a task that was assigned to him by his manager solely because the tasks seem not interesting. By doing an internship you are required to learn the main processes of a certain industry and you are expected to respect certain rules. However, you can try to affect your tasks with constructive arguments but NEVER refuse to do them.
• Your manager is not your enemy but he/she is not your friend by default either. Inadequate familiarity with your colleagues may produce a wave of resentment towards you. Be humble and professional.
• Sometimes there are really no tasks that are suitable for you during the day. In this case spend your time getting deeper knowledge about the industry. Do not come begging to be let go home or spend your time pointlessly surfing the internet. 

We truly hope most of you did not find anything new in this article. However, if you did, or maybe even recognized yourself in our true stories – don’t be irritated, better learn from your mistakes. Sooner or later, you will become less of an idiot and more of a useful employee and that is exactly what we wish you from the bottom of our posh hearts. 

XOXO,

S&B