When I first came across this internship on Handshake, I was almost certain it was a scam. An underclassmen private equity internship posted by a guy called Frank Moneymaker? Any student could smell suspicion from a mile away.

But I applied anyway. 

Now over halfway through this internship, I am proud to say that my data has not been sold to any third parties (yet!). All jokes aside, this experience has been incredibly rewarding and I am thrilled to be a part of Ellery Partners. In addition to developing financial skills, this summer has revolved around being entrepreneurial and–in the least corporate way possible–having fun.

In terms of finance skills, the Ellery internship covers all the bases. While “Microsoft Excel” had always lived on my resume, I was humbled the first day we started working on our deposit project, which involved working through a massive Excel database. Luckily, the internship dedicates substantial time for training and walkthroughs – enough to mold us into hotkey and shortcut gurus. Furthermore, Frank usually dedicates an hour outside of work each week to teach technical and networking practices. Frank absolutely geeks out on investment research and monetary policy, and I can tell you firsthand not to ask him his thoughts on how federal reserve policy is taught in schools. 

At the same time, I have been surprised by how entrepreneurial our responsibilities are. On a typical day, my workflow rotates between crafting outreach messages to acquisition targets (sales), aggregating wins and losses across customer contracts (due diligence), and planning the future internship structure (development). As an intern, you get a taste of everything – which is rare for most undergrad PE internships.

Finally, Frank wants me to emphasize this internship is fun. I’m just kidding – I genuinely mean it. While Zoom meetings generally have a bad reputation, I’ve always felt engaged and high-energy during our daily check-ins/training. A big reason why is that our meetings begin with “questions of the day” – which have inspired anime recs, meme sharing, and recipe drops. No matter how busy the week is, there is always time carved out to connect beyond work. If you worry that finance culture is cut-throat, I can assure you that this is not the case at Ellery. The work-life balance is clear, and we do laugh on the job!

Despite my doubts, this internship has easily become my highlight of the summer. I am grateful for the experiences and friendships I have made over the past two months – and could not imagine it playing out any other way. Don’t believe me? Come see for yourself!