I Did A Sales & Trading Internship. Here Are Some Hard Truths.
Before starting my sales and trading internship, I expected to sit at desks and learn how to be a trader: how the markets work, what the products are, and how the desks operate. I expected the internship to be a 12-week training journey. It wasn’t. If anything, I did not even feel particularly noticed for most of it. It was only in the last two weeks that people seemed genuinely shocked by some of the things I could do that I had not really advertised about myself before, especially given my technical computing background. That was also when I got the return offer. In the end, the humility paid off. Holding back, observing first, and then showing what I could do when it actually mattered paid off.
What the internship was really about was judgment, pace, curiosity, and, most importantly, making other people’s lives easier.
Looking back now, these are the 10 biggest lessons I took away.
1. Brand yourself, don’t bare yourself
Do not be “yourself” in ways that are irrelevant to the job
As harsh as this may sound, I mean it practically. You do not need to present every part of your personality at work, especially not in a professional environment like banking.
People are not trying to figure out who you are as a person. They are trying to work out whether you are useful, switched-on, and easy to put in front of colleagues or clients. Personality is a performance and a transaction in banking. Bring the version of you that is thoughtful, professional, and commercially aware. Your hobbies are performing to clients, that’s all.
2. Small talk, big signals
Small talk is social signalling
A surprising amount of workplace conversation is not deep. Many conversations are a test. People mention restaurants, holiday destinations, neighbourhoods, sports, or places they have been because it helps build social fluency. They may get excited at the mention of a particularly fancy city restaurant, or a specific tour guide in a tourist destination who helped them out one time.
I’m not saying to fake your experiences, but be aware that connections will be made based on these facts. Your class-related experiences are assets, especially when it comes to sales. People will always ask you what you got up to on the weekend; the more relatable the pastime, the better. Perhaps you went camping, hiking, or to a certain restaurant. As long as you are not obviously trying to show off, they will lap it up. Sports are particularly common: cycling, hiking, boating, swimming, and tennis seem to be the most popular pastimes.
3. Don’t ask to ask, ask to think
Ask difficult questions, not lazy ones
There is a huge difference between asking a question because you are engaged and asking one because you did not bother to think first.
The best questions are the ones that show you have already tried to understand the problem. Tell them how you have tried to reason through it and what the missing piece is that you still do not understand. Give them some numbers and examples and let them help you solve the problem.
Do not ask why the team does things a certain way. That usually does not go down well. Good questions make people see you as thoughtful. Bad questions make them think you want to be spoon-fed. Initiative is key.
4. Be the fix, not the friction
Become the troubleshooter
Every team values the person who can calmly fix problems. When something breaks, an error appears, or some manual process is messy, you lean in instead of stepping back. Even as an intern, you can become known as the person who figures things out, chases missing details, and keeps things moving. That reputation is incredibly valuable.
This also means troubleshooting among the other interns. Help your fellow interns out, help them avoid conflicts, and troubleshoot their problems too. You should not feel that you are in constant competition; you should feel solidarity with your fellow interns. Do not brag about how you helped others. They will see that you did anyway.
5. If you see an opportunity to automate something, act on it
One of the easiest ways to stand out is to save people time. If a task is repetitive, manual, or error-prone, think about how it could be automated. In many teams, that might mean VBA, Excel tools, scripts, or just a cleaner process.
Do not just suggest it in theory. Build something small, test it properly, and show that it works. People remember interns who reduce friction. The main metric for whether you get hired is whether you provide value.
6. Fast is good. Right is better. Both is best.
Speed matters, but so does clean execution
In markets, people value responsiveness. If someone asks for something, they usually want it now. Not soon, not tomorrow. Drop everything and do it.
But speed alone is not enough. You need to be quick and accurate. A fast answer that is wrong creates more work. A slightly slower answer that is structured, checked, and useful builds trust. The goal is to become somebody who can deliver quickly without creating risk. Always provide sources for the information you are returning to the person who asked you to do the task. Provide links and resources. Build trust.
7. Don’t predict. Prepare.
Do not make dramatic market calls for the sake of sounding smart
Early on, it is tempting to sound impressive by making bold predictions. Usually, this is a mistake.
A much better habit is to think in terms of scenarios and hedges. What happens if the market goes one way? What happens if it goes the other way? How would you protect against both cases? This makes your thinking more balanced and far more useful. People respect judgement much more than overconfidence. Admit you have no idea what is going to happen, but that you know how to deal with all cases.
8. Read the room, then read the news
Pay attention to economic and market news
You do not need to become a macro expert overnight, but you do need to know what is going on.
If inflation data has just come out, if a central bank has changed its tone, or if there has been a major geopolitical shock, you should at least know the basics. Asking intelligent questions about current economic news shows awareness and genuine interest. In a sales and trading environment, that is the minimum standard.
You can also have an opinion about what has happened, cite historical events where similar things happened, and ask what others think. People often love talking about their opinions. Get them talking. But never unleash your political opinions.
9. Give feedback upward as well
Internships are not just about being assessed. They are also about showing maturity.
If you have thoughtful feedback on the internship, share it professionally with your hiring manager or team. That might be about onboarding, training, communication, or how interns could add more value. Done well, this shows confidence and investment in the organisation rather than passive participation.
Organise your intern group. At the end, organise your group to buy office doughnuts. Organise your intern cohort to give feedback on your presentations. It is not all about competition. This will be noticed.
10. Don’t just do the task, trade up.
Never just complete a task exactly as given if it can be improved
This was probably the biggest lesson of all.
If somebody gives you a project, do not treat the instruction as a ceiling. Treat it as the starting point. Ask yourself: can this be automated, made faster, made clearer, or made more robust? Even if the improvement is small, that mindset makes a huge difference. The best interns do not just execute tasks. They upgrade them.
Finally…
A sales and trading internship teaches you much more than technical finance knowledge. It teaches you how professional environments work and how people think. I swear that internship taught me more about human psychology and behaviour than a psychology degree. You will learn how people communicate, how trust is built, how value is created, and how quickly small habits can set you apart.
The people who stand out are rarely the loudest or the flashiest. They are usually the ones who are sharp, useful, and proactive.
This article is also posted on Medium on my account @alexpavic.
