Internship Spotlight: Brandon Sloan invests with Deloitte Corporate Finance
Sloan at the Deloitte Corporate Finance office where he spent the summer interning. Photo submitted
By Anne Davey, Opinion Editor//
Name: Brandon Sloan
Hometown: Rochester Hills, Michigan
Year: Junior (Class of 2017)
Desired Career Path: Investment Banking
This summer I interned at Deloitte Corporate Finance in Dallas, Texas. I received this internship by submitting my application to Deloitte, going through two phone interviews, and then being invited to a Superday in Dallas, which consisted of six consecutive interviews.
At Deloitte, I became a part of numerous deal teams, building pitch books and confidential information memorandums. Creating a pitch book consisted of compiling market research for each specific deal, screening for publicly trading comparable companies and related precedent transactions in the space, deciding how to position the company to potential investors, create a list of both strategic acquirers and financial sponsors with relevant portfolio companies that could potentially be interested in the company, and lastly creating a valuation range for the company. When building a confidential information memorandum (CIM) we would use information that the company provides us with in order to create a book to send to potential acquirers in order to see if the acquirers are interested. A CIM would consist of many sections, such as executive summary, business overview, industry solutions, potential growth opportunities, and financial overview.
While at my job, the coolest thing I got to do was fly to New York for a couple of days in order to meet with one of the companies with which I was working. Through my internship I greatly improved my Excel and PowerPoint skills. With the enormous learning curve it was very important to be resourceful and also not be afraid to ask questions. My advice for students looking to enter the investment banking field is that you must possess an unbelievable work ethic because it is not a joke when people tell you that they work 100 hour weeks.