As the flowers begin to bloom each spring on SMU’s Dallas campus, you may walk by the Cox School of Business on a warm day and notice a gaggle of sophomores in suits. Two years ago, I was one of these excited finance majors, filling my days with phone interviews and my nights with Handshake internship applications. The Avon Dry Cleaners across from SMU saw a lot of me that semester, and on more than one occasion I cleared out CVS’ collection of blister Band-Aids as my #1 accessory with my black heels. After weeks of interviews, I accepted a job for the following summer with Citi’s Investment Banking group in Houston.
A year after my first interview, I broke out my trusty navy suit and reported for work. My Houston group of 10, along with about 100 other interns from other offices, spent our first week at training in New York City. We heard from leaders at Citi and received crash courses in Excel. Our group bonded as we navigated the subway and, most importantly, determined the best time to order Sweetgreen to avoid a line. At the end of the week, we consumed our last slices of New York pizza in Central Park before returning to JFK for our flights back to Texas.
Once in Houston, we spent nine weeks staffed onto various projects, ranging from market research to client advisory and corporate mergers. While we generally worked long hours, the summer was packed with fun events. We even had a mock Summer Olympics within our group and a dodgeball tournament between the interns from every investment bank in Houston. My favorite part of the summer was our intern group project, where each group of four built an Excel model and pitch book for a merger and presented it to our group heads. My group was chosen to present our $15 billion merger pitch to the project company’s CEO, which was an amazing experience. At the end of the summer, all ten of our summer analysts received and accepted full time offers with Citi. As I wrap up my senior year at SMU with graduation looming, I’m beyond grateful for the resources and opportunities I’ve had here, and very excited to start my full time career this summer.
Grace Powers
Class of 2020