It always struck me from my personal interactions with them that lots of what tech industry interns do is have a good time...
Usually though IBD/Corp Finance Summer work consists of assisting with pitches which includes menial work like powerpoint design, spreadsheeting, pitchbook creation etc. If they are on a live deal work may include due diligence etc.
I have a STEM education (PhD in Organic Chemistry) and consider myself a bright person (you are free to disagree). The guys that I knew that were good at banking were very skilled and intelligent. There is no way I could spend an afternoon in training and perform at their level.
Could you spend a year and get up to speed? Sure.
And compared to your intelligent banker friends, you could absolutely be up to speed in six months, in terms of technical skill, industry knowledge, product knowledge. If you can master o-chem, you can master corporate finance. Check out the rest of this thread for more descriptions of the work...your qualifications are way overmatched for what the work actually is.
And he was right.
Attitude is what separates good bankers from bad bankers.
I don't disagree, although arguably M&A requires less specific domain knowledge for a new starter than say what might be required within structuring or DCM teams. Also I'm curious as to why you left banking?
On top of that, everyone knows how to do a sales pitch, most are comfortable in a suit talking to execs, and classes in marketing, management, accounting, and computer science are all mandatory.
Finance courses at a proper business school are highly demanding, and the technical abilities of the students who attend are on par with any STEM major...
Reread my comment, I could take a kid with a "good attitude and train them to be a good summer intern in an afternoon." In fact, I have actually done that. Let's define what I mean by "good." Week 1: a good summer intern needs to know how to make PIBs, bind books, spread comps, use Google, learn from mistakes, and most importantly, know when to ask questions. Of course, as they get real experience and prove themselves, they get more responsibility -- just like with any other job. For example, I've had superstar interns building merger models for live deals after a couple months.
Knowing the "basics" (Excel, Bloomberg/FDS/CIQ, etc) isn't that important on Day 1 since they'll learn those things. I mentioned STEM students, in particular, because they can usually speed up the learning curve.
And remember, I'm talking about banking. Trading is a whole different animal.
They work a normal work week. 40-45 hours/week. No clue what we pay them, but they are paid and provided housing. We usually hire a few of them full-time when they finish school and they're generally very successful employees.
I assume they have a good time. They're 20-21 years old; I hope they do. Stressing at a desk sounds like a pretty lame way to spend your 20s.
It does not have to be something important. The person requesting the research may hardly look at it. But there is always work to be done. When you think about it, there is so much information in the financial world that there are a million things one may want to see researched.