Internship Spotlight: Miguel Zaldivar-Giuffredi ’25, Goldman Sachs
Miguel Zaldivar-Giuffredi ’25 spent his summer learning about energy sector finance as a member of the Goldman Sachs Global Natural Resources Group.
We asked rising second-year MBA students to check in from their summer internships, where they applied the lessons of their first year at Yale SOM.
Internship: Goldman Sachs & Co., New York City
Hometown: Miami, FL
Pronouns: he/him/his
The SOM class you’re using on the job: Renewable Energy Project Finance; Financial Statement Analysis
Go-to work lunch: Eataly
After-work routine: 30 minutes on the rowing machine, sports highlights, a few pages of David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years
Favorite thing about internship city: NYC offers some of the best Saturdays on earth. You can surf at Rockaway beach, grab steak dinner at Peter Luger, and see a garage rock band in Bushwick—all in a day.
My job as a summer associate with Goldman Sachs’s Global Natural Resources (GNR) group is to grow into a team that leads high profile engagements across the world. Within the investment bank, GNR advises enterprises in the energy, chemicals, metals and infrastructure sectors at different stages of their life cycles. Strategies can include mergers and acquisitions, carveouts, capital raises, shareholder activism and more. To grow into the team, my role is to be a part of pitches and active deals, collaborating to submit materials, sharing my own analytical views and supporting valuations.
I chose Goldman Sachs GNR for its vantage point into the energy sector, the team culture and the firm’s track record of successful client service. I was able to pursue my personal interest in the energy transition by working with a solar power company; an independent power producer; a mining company divesting from coal; and innovative strategies for data centers to source renewable power. I was also impressed by the GNR group’s cooperative approach to the intern class — for example, pairing us with full-time buddies who take an active role in mentoring us. More broadly, it helps that Goldman Sachs is a global institution with a strong track record and long tradition of quality. It’s a company that has spun out central bankers, Nobel-winning economists and distinguished investors.
To prepare for this new environment, Yale SOM offered me several resources including great faculty, student-run clubs and a tightly bound network. During my spring term, I enrolled in Renewable Energy Project Finance (REPF), a course taught by Goldman Sachs alum Dan Gross, whose work was even mentioned in one of my team’s calls during the internship. Even before taking REPF, the student-run Finance Club prepared me substantially. Students recruiting for banking at Yale are tightly knit and work hard to prepare for the internship. The club provides great technical training for future associates and links together a strong network of friends across all the banks, particularly at Goldman Sachs.
Yale itself is an awesome network. On day one of training, I realized that Yale, between former undergrads and MBA students, was very well represented in the GNR group. This provided me with an immediate group of peers that I could feel comfortable with and lean on for support. Early on, SOM alumni at GS organized a happy hour for the four SOM interns to meet us, check in on how we were feeling and share their candid advice. The event set a great tone for the summer.
I have made some special friends here and have not felt fearful competitive pressure. The interns come from all the best MBA programs, and we’ve built a strong camaraderie. We make mistakes, learn and grow together. I even hosted a lasagna dinner with the undergraduate summer analysts from Yale and lined up a potluck for the broader pool of MBA interns within GNR to cap off a great summer.
The easy friendships may come down to shared interests that led us to such a specific group. Most of us joined the GNR group to facilitate deals that will lead to a more sustainable energy and industrial landscape. It’s very motivating to see these values in my peers, and it’s consistent with those of my friends back at SOM.
Now at the halfway mark of the MBA, my SOM friends and I will get together to grab dinners across NYC, chatting about our different summer experiences. Some of us are going into the nonprofit sector, others into investing, consulting, corporate strategy or tech. The main principle that brought us together in New Haven and now in NYC is a collective ambition to unlock a better world and society via business. At dinner, below the aroma of freshly served dim sum, we share fun anecdotes and hearty laughs. There is excitement for our futures, and we are only at the start.
