Hi everyone, I'm Christine. I am an incoming summer analyst at Citibank this summer. I currently study Chemistry at Imperial College of London and am in my second year. I have been asked to write a few words on how to secure a summer internship with an Investment Bank.1. Online ApplicationsMost banks would require a resume and a cover letter or a bunch of questions. I would suggest the Education, Work Experience, Leadership Experience format, all within one page. With the cover letter, I had a short introduction, why I wanted to work for this particular bank, my related past experiences, and other interesting activities that I do at college. I ended the letter reiterating why I am suitable for this role and addressed the letter to the HR responsible for recruiting. This is when networking at the bank's events becomes very important. It allows you to find out their recruiting process, the HR responsible for screening candidates (it will become easier when you know who to email for application update when you want to leverage your offer), talking to existing analysts about the firm (so you know exactly why you want to work for this particular bank and how to answer their online questions), and whether Investment Banking is really for you.2. First round interviewsThe first round interviews for HK banks are around late November and December (although JP Morgan is on an on-rolling basis so they have their interviews a lot earlier). I would suggest to start preparing for them in October and NOT wait until you have received your first interview, because that was the mistake I made and the bank only notified me few days in advance (longest was a week notice). There are normally 2-3 rounds telephone in the first round interview with an analyst or associate (Morgan Stanley would have a second round skype interview as well and UBS only had one round) and you will have to pass all rounds to get to final round. To prepare for these interviews I used the 400 Investment Banking questions and answers you need to know, wall street oasis behavioural interview guide, and the vault guide to financial interviews. I started with the vault guide ‘Corporate Valuation’ section because it was more comprehensive than the 400 Q’s and then the 400 Q’s, and used the behavioural guide as another source to strengthen my competencies. For HK interviews, I would suggest that you memorise all the basic levels questions in the 400 Q’s except the Merger Model and LBO section and make up your own notes for the competency questions as you go along in bullet point format. Also, don’t forget to read about recent financial news (I would recommend Financial times) and to know your resume well and be confident to talk about things that you have written in it (especially finance related experiences). After this, you are ready to ask a few friends to help conduct some practise interviews with you!3. The Super dayMost assessment centres (AC) are in mid December or mid January, I had three ACs during my exam week in January, and I would recommend that you study for them since the start of term if it is the same for you. The format for AC could vary a lot depending on which bank, some only conduct interviews whereas other may have translation test, numerical reasoning tests, and presentation exercise. In terms of preparation, I would say your first round preparation would be sufficient to get you through the final round because the directors and MDs are a bit more tolerant with the technical knowledge than the analysts and associates unless you study Finance and Accounting.I also received offers from Sales and Trading in London, let me know if this is an area of interest and I will be happy to share about it as well.If anything is not clear feel free to ask for further detail here or if you are more comfortable asking privately inbox me on LinkedIn - Christine Siying Wu.Good luck,Christine