The First Week Sets the Tone
Landing the investment banking internship is a huge accomplishment — but the work is just beginning. Your first week as an IB intern will be one of the most intense, disorienting, and important weeks of your professional life. The impressions you make in those first five days will follow you through the entire summer and directly influence whether you receive a full-time return offer.
I’ve coached hundreds of students through their IB internships, and I’ve seen firsthand how the students who approach the first week with the right mindset and preparation consistently outperform their peers. In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly what to expect and how to handle it.
Before Day One: The Preparation You Can’t Skip
The first week will go much more smoothly if you’ve done the right preparation in advance. Here’s what to take care of before you walk in the door:
Technical Refresh
Sharpen your technical skills in the weeks leading up to the internship. Review the three financial statements and how they link, practice building a DCF from scratch, refresh your knowledge of LBO mechanics, and make sure your Excel shortcuts are fast. You will be thrown into live work quickly, and the analysts and associates on your team will not have time to explain basic concepts. Our technical cheatsheet is a good last-minute review resource.
Excel and PowerPoint Proficiency
IB interns spend most of their time in Excel and PowerPoint. If you’re not fast in Excel — and I mean keyboard-shortcut fast, not mouse-driven — practice now. Learn the most important formatting shortcuts, how to navigate large spreadsheets quickly, and how to build and format tables without using the mouse. Same goes for PowerPoint: you should be able to align objects, format text, and build slides efficiently.
Research Your Bank and Group
Know your bank’s recent deals, your group’s coverage sector, and any major news in the industries you’ll be covering. Read the group’s profile on the bank’s website. Look up recent tombstones. Know the names and backgrounds of the senior bankers in your group. This preparation will help you ask better questions and contribute more intelligently in your first conversations.
Professional Logistics
Have your wardrobe sorted. Know your commute. Set up your work devices and any required apps in advance if IT gives you access before Day 1. The last thing you want is to be scrambling on the morning of your first day because you can’t log in to your computer.
Day One: Orientation and First Impressions
The first day typically starts with a group orientation with all summer interns across the bank — not just IB. You’ll get compliance training, IT setup, HR paperwork, and introductions to the broader organization. This is also your first chance to meet your fellow interns.
Your intern class matters. These are the people you’ll be working alongside for the next 10 weeks, and they’re also future colleagues, references, and professional connections for the rest of your career. Be genuinely friendly, not just politically friendly. Show curiosity and warmth.
When you meet your team for the first time — your desk, your group, your assigned banker — be energetic and engaged. Introduce yourself clearly, ask thoughtful questions, and show that you’re genuinely excited to be there. First impressions are formed faster than you think, and the energy you bring on Day 1 sets expectations for the weeks ahead.
The First Week: What You’ll Actually Be Doing
The first week varies by firm and group, but here’s what most IB interns can expect:
Training (Some Firms)
Many bulge bracket banks run a formal training program for the first one to two weeks — sometimes in New York, where all interns from across the country gather for classroom instruction on financial modeling, valuation, and deal processes. This is one of the most valuable parts of the internship if you pay attention and use the time to fill gaps in your technical knowledge.
Even if the training seems basic, absorb everything. The modeling exercises often use templates and approaches the bank actually uses on live deals. Understanding the firm’s specific conventions and formats will make your work product much cleaner once you start on real assignments.
Deal Team Integration
Once you’re on the desk, you’ll be assigned to a deal team or given your first project. Early assignments are often support tasks: pulling data for a comp set, formatting a slide in a pitch book, updating a model with new numbers from an earnings release. These may not feel exciting, but do them with the same rigor you’d apply to the most important assignment of the summer. Every task is a chance to demonstrate attention to detail, reliability, and speed.
Learning the Team’s Workflow
Pay close attention to how your team works: How do they communicate (email, Slack, Bloomberg chat)? What’s the process for submitting work to a senior for review? How do they handle comments on models and slides? Who do you go to when you’re stuck? Every team has its own rhythm, and the faster you learn it, the more effective you’ll be.
The Most Important Soft Skills in Week One
Ask Smart Questions
One of the most common mistakes interns make is either asking too many basic questions (which makes you look underprepared) or asking no questions at all (which makes it take much longer to get things right). The sweet spot: try to figure things out yourself first, ask specific and targeted questions when you’re genuinely stuck, and always explain what you’ve already tried before asking for help.
Good question: “I’m working on the DCF and I’m getting a terminal value that seems much higher than the trading comps — I’ve checked the formula twice and think it might be the growth rate assumption. Do you have a minute to check my logic?”
Bad question: “Can you help me with this model?”
Be Available and Responsive
In your first week, you should have a bias toward being available. This means responding to messages quickly, being present at your desk during core hours, and not disappearing for long lunches or errands. You’re building a reputation for reliability, and that reputation is established in the first week.
Show Intellectual Curiosity
The best interns aren’t just good at executing tasks — they show genuine interest in the work. When you’re building a comp set for a healthcare deal, read about the companies you’re researching. When a banker explains a deal structure, ask a follow-up question about why that structure was chosen over alternatives. This kind of engagement is noticed and appreciated by senior bankers who want to mentor people who are genuinely curious about the business.
Be a Team Player
Offer to help other interns when you have downtime. Be pleasant and collaborative in group settings. The team dynamics of your intern class will affect your experience all summer, and the reputation you build with peers matters just as much as the one you build with seniors.
The Return Offer Mindset
By the end of your first week, you should have a clear mental model of what the return offer requires. At most firms, return offer decisions come down to three things:
- Work quality. Is your output clean, accurate, and formatted correctly? Do you catch your own errors before submitting?
- Attitude and reliability. Are you responsive, energetic, and easy to work with? Do you execute tasks without complaining and come back quickly when you need clarification?
- Intellectual engagement. Do you show genuine interest in the work and the industry? Do you ask smart questions and demonstrate that you’re learning and growing throughout the summer?
The technical skills you’ll build throughout the summer matter, but they’re table stakes. What separates the interns who get offers from those who don’t is usually the combination of reliable work quality and a great attitude. Start establishing both in week one.
Common First-Week Pitfalls to Avoid
Turning In Work With Errors
Always review your work before submitting it. Check your formulas, check your formatting, check that your numbers match across exhibits. A slide deck with misaligned boxes or a model with a broken link sends a signal that you’re careless — and carelessness is a serious liability in investment banking, where precision matters.
Going Dark When You’re Stuck
If you’ve been working on a task for 30 minutes and you’re completely stuck, say something. Don’t spin your wheels for three hours and then deliver something late. Let your point of contact know you’ve hit a snag and need a few minutes of guidance. Asking for help efficiently is a skill, not a weakness.
Treating Social Events as Afterthoughts
Many banks organize intern social events in the first week. These are not optional extras — they’re opportunities to build relationships with your intern class, meet bankers in a more relaxed setting, and demonstrate that you’re a good cultural fit. Show up, be present, and engage.
Neglecting Your Wellbeing
The first week is exhausting. New environment, steep learning curve, late nights, sensory overload. Take care of yourself: sleep when you can, eat real food, and maintain some kind of routine that helps you recharge. The summer is long, and burning out in week one is a real risk if you don’t manage your energy deliberately.
A Note on Asking for Feedback
By the end of your first week — or early in week two — consider asking your most accessible senior (an associate or a friendly VP) for brief feedback on how you’re doing. Frame it simply: “I want to make sure I’m adding value and meeting expectations — is there anything I should be doing differently?” Most bankers appreciate the self-awareness this question demonstrates, and the answer will tell you exactly what adjustments to make early, when it’s easy to course-correct.
If you’ve been preparing for this internship with coaching, debrief with your coach after the first week. At Wall Street Mastermind, we stay connected with students throughout their internships — not just during the recruiting phase. Our track record is built on helping students not just land the offer but convert it. You can see how students have navigated this process in our student interview series.
The Bottom Line
Your first week as an IB intern is simultaneously an orientation, a live audition, and a crash course. The students who handle it best are the ones who arrive prepared, stay present, ask smart questions, and approach every task — no matter how small — with the same seriousness they’d bring to a final exam.
The internship is your best chance to land a full-time offer. Treat every day like it counts, because it does. And if you want personalized coaching to help you prepare for — or excel during — your internship, check out our application page to learn how we work with students one-on-one.
Want Personalized Investment Banking Coaching?
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