Not being challenged in my PWM internship

chrisw
Thu, 02 Jun 2016 16:29:56 +0000

Welcome to CC!

First, because this forum is not limited to banking and related fields, it’s best to define abbreviations. Does PWM = Personal Wealth Management?

If it does…

It is not uncommon for intern work to be menial, especially when the company has no way to hire you for at least two years. One way to think about what expectations you should have is based on your pay. If you are paid <$10/hr, expectations are low - you will be doing the most basic of tasks, none of which will have a direct impact on any day-to-day operations; you will focus on clerical work but only the simple stuff. If you are $10-20/hr, the expectation is probably that you will do mostly basic work but might be able to learn a little more about what wealth managers are doing all day. If you are above $20/hr, you should look to do more meaningful work - perform research, investigate funds, draft letters, etc.

Now, your pay just gives a sense of what expectations generally are for you. If you are paid low and want to take on more responsibility, make sure you are doing your basic tasks well, and then mention to somebody that you want to learn, even if it means just shadowing for a few days. If the group is very small, they probably don’t know how to utilize an intern well - they’re used to doing everything themselves. Further, wealth management can be sticky - for some work, you need certifications.

The good news, no matter what… if you have had no experience before, the fact that you got your foot in the door and got something in the industry this summer is great. It doesn’t matter what you actually do as long as you learn the basics of how a wealth management operation works in the real world. There are no lofty expectations of your experience coming into a future internship; a big company with an army of interns will know that it has to train people…that’s the whole point of the internship. I wouldn’t worry about anything unless you are so bored that you can’t focus on your work and, therefore, aren’t doing a good job.