I chose to do my placement at SMBC Group because…
I am currently majoring in economics and minoring in philosophy at university and wanted to get some work experience in finance and, if it was possible, in banking. At the time of applying to placements, if I’m honest I didn’t really know what working in banking would really involve.
However, I was sure I wanted to get into a challenging field related to my course, in a company that had an attractive culture and valued professionals, and generally end up somewhere where I could make the most of my placement and learn a lot. SMBC is just that. It’s culture and values are great; people are treated fairly and at the same time pushed to give the best of themselves and develop their skills constantly. From what people I texted from LinkedIn told me, to how my manager carried himself when he interviewed me, I knew that SMBC would be a great place to start my career.
My job involves…
My department is SPD and my team is Real Estate Finance, which provides loans to private equities, funds, individual investors and others who invest in Real Estate assets. My team is divided between Origination, where the deals are analysed when they come in and closed/rejected, and Portfolio Management, where the deals that have been completed are tracked throughout their tenor to ensure that everything is going well.
I usually work on tasks that junior team members (Associate to VP) ask for my help with related to both divisions. Some of the most common tasks I do include making teasers, creating financial models (for cashflow, grading and profitability analysis mainly), making market and company research reports, writing credit application and monitoring papers and designing tools and to help the team. If I’m lucky, I also get to visit assets!
What I enjoy most about my internship…
What I enjoy most about my internship is that I get a similar treatment as any other junior member in my team. I get many opportunities to work on interesting projects, present in front of my team, attend client meetings, give my opinion on deals, reach out to third parties, etc. I know that in other banks this is not the case, and that interns are not trusted with certain tasks and can end up only doing administrative work. Looking back, I realise that receiving the same treatment as anyone else, although intimidating at first, has been key to my development these past few months.
Top tips for future interns considering a placement at SMBC Group…
Be confident. When I was making my applications the hardest thing for me was remaining relaxed in interviews and I believe that the reason why I got into SMBC was that I was genuinely calm and confident that I could get the role.
Moreover, do some research about the bank, your department and team and the general economic environment and how this could affect the products the team focuses on. I personally also looked up some recent deal in Real Estate Finance and that was also helpful.