MM HF Internship//what does it take?
Current freshman at non target that places pretty well in IB , HF & PE, What does it take to get a big MM internship (P72) Ik citadel has some spots but they’re mainly quant and swe focused I’m more interested in the fundamental L/S space , I’ve been working on stock pitches a lot lately and following markets pretty hard , is it a meritocratic process or do I need to network? Is there anything in specific I need to know how to do really well? Any tips would help
It’s a meritocratic process, and you have to know a lot relative to your age but don’t have to be a full fledged analyst.
I would actually slightly disagree with this point.
Why?
I did the academy 3-4 years ago now, and frequently have interns rotate in my pod and have buddies/mentees assigned to me as well. Generally I'd say there's 2 types of interns that we get for academy L/S.
1) Standard finance archetype: usually on the more talented end of finance aspirants, part of investing clubs and financially literate, pitch stocks with clear thesis (even if they suck, they understand the structure)... The issue is, there's thousands of people who fit this bill in North America, its an incredibly saturated job market and there's always more talent than there are spaces.
The consequence is that there's irrevocably some randomness in what is a meritocratic process and a lot of you guys will just look identical to us. The difference between a coach really liking you vs passing can be as simple as them asking questions on your case study/pitch which leads to slightly more interesting insights into your thought process vs them asking something else which ends up leading to a less interesting conversation.
2) Bright STEM/arts students who display strongly differentiated thinking and raw intellectual capacity, despite little finance knowledge. You need to know what a stock is, but a lot of the time you aren't getting asked technical questions. I've had interns join the team and not know what P/E is despite being given WSP but demonstrating really creative data/analysis that makes us think they'll be a great fit for the job if they get a training program and learnt a lot during the 7/8 week SA relative to their more experienced peers.
Ultimately the academy coaches select people they think are a good fit for the academy, and they really try to get people with non-traditional backgrounds in, even if on paper their answers were less structured in an interview than a finance student's, they still demonstrated a type of thinking that was interesting. The term "meritocratic process" just means there's no nepo and no networking advantage, not that there's an objective way to prepare and get a spot... it's still a subjective lens
I've been wanting to do a write-up on the MMHF internships, and the graduate programs in general. Generally just to share my thoughts on them, what they do well/don't do well and what misconceptions a lot of associates/interns have when they hit the desk. Maybe I'll get around to writing it up when I have some spare time.
How did the summer academy compare to what you thought it was gonna be like before you got there and then the same question from the perspective of working in a pod. Appreciate the insight!
nice mm hf intern discussion
What do you think you were when you got the internship and what do you think helped you get the internship? Can I pm I have a few more questions
This reply is what I was getting at in my post. There wasn't anything that helped me get the internship, I was just myself. Before this, I was going to pursue a PhD and head into aeronautics. Given there's 2 firms that run internships and the competition ratios are incredibly tight, and frankly the selection criteria is pretty ambiguous at the best of times, I'd strongly recommend focusing on recruiting for IB and treating P72/CAP applications as "nice to have" options.
I don't really think you can materially prepare for them outside of working on stock pitches and learning what matters to different names, even then there are plenty of undergrads that make this cut and don't get a spot for w/e reason.
Work on stock pitches and figure out what is moving the stocks you enjoy looking at, is how i'd prepare.
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