Internship Spotlight: Jaime Bravo

Jaime G. Bravo, FCRH ‘15

I am a senior at Fordham College majoring in Economics and I am currently at J.P. Morgan interning within corporate investment banking.  I work with the client billing team for North America and have been in my role for a year and a half now.  My team deals with a vast number of products such as M&A, Fixed Income, High Grade, Structured Finance and we deal with a couple more but these are our main ones.  Due to the diverse number of products we deal with I have been fortunate enough to learn how they all work.

A usual day at the office begins with a ton of email reading, most of which require immediate response or some sort of prompt follow up.  My email inbox can pile up since I only work 20 hours a week but it is also due to the fact that none of the bankers actually know I am only an intern so they send me request through the week.  I then proceed to have a morning meeting around 10:00am with my supervisor to give her an update on the different projects I am working with and how they are coming along.  It also gives me a chance to ask question about things I may not understand or am having problems with.  That is one thing I have to point out, which is that I have been fortunate to have great supervisors who are always available for any questions.  After I will usually check up on the analyst in my team and check if they need help with any of the projects the are working with.  Most of the time they don’t but if they do its usually just to follow up on a team of bankers who may not be responding to them and just need me to hassle them down because these products are very time sensitive.  I’ll then proceed to sit in my cubical and review expense statements, engagement letters, and company reports for the deals I am assigned to.  This is just one day of the week and usually differs day to day depending on the type of project my supervisor has asked me to work on.    

Now here is an example of how an M&A deal, one of the big products we deal with usually take place and why they are very time sensitive when it comes to billing them.  We have a 90-day window to make sure J.P. Morgan gets paid for its services.  For example let’s say that Auto Company A is interested in buying Auto Company B.  Auto Company A proceeds to bring in J.P. Morgan to facilitate what we would call an acquisition.  J.P. Morgan at this point will appoint a deal team that specializes in the auto industry to do research on both companies and develop a plan to execute this acquisition.  Then the deal team goes on a roadshow, which is usually paid by Auto Company A depending on the agreement settled on in the engagement letter.  What my client billing team is in charge of is basically making sure Auto Company A pays all its fees and that that it initially agreed on. But the reason for the 90 days is that once the acquisition is completed the entire company may change its name from Auto Company A to Auto Company A&B Ultimate.  Company Auto A then no longer exist and we cannot force the new formed Company A&B Ultimate to pay the fees because within the Engagement letter its states that Auto Company A will pay the fees, not the new company that has been created through the acquisition.   This is why the process is so time sensitive, and the bank stands to lose million of dollars in fees.  This is probably the coolest part of my internship, getting to watch multi-million dollar deals unfold and see them follow through till the end. 

An advice I would give to any none business major would be that you don’t have to be a major in business to work in banking.  Most of the skills you need to perform your job will usually be learned after you are hired.  Not just that put the positions usually have programs that will train you on exactly what you need to know for your role.  Which is something that I was not really aware about when I first begun and actually its what always held me back from initially applying to a banking internships.  What an employer is usually looking for is someone who is a quick learner and has a great personality.  People never thing about the personality aspect but you have to realize that the employers are also human and they will be interacting with you and spending ample amount of time with you.  They want to work with someone they are going to like.  My best advise, especially for Fordham College student who are not in the business school is not to be intimidated about applying.  If anything pull out that liberal arts core card, and show them how diverse you are.  The liberal arts core not only tells them you are well rounded but also that you have the ability to learn and manage completely different classes which is a vital skill within banking. 

Lastly, make sure you get an internship while in school in the field you are interested in going into.  This is so important because there is nothing like actually experiencing that profession then actually working in it.  You will never come out loosing anything, even if you end up hating it.  If you hate it, that’s great! Now you know what you don’t want to do and can try something else out.  If you liked it, that’s also great because you now have valid reassurance and experience to back up you career decision. Also internships, regardless of where they are at look great on resumes!