I am a freshman at a southern semi target and i'm just wondering when is the crucial time to secure internships if we are being realistic. I have 1 relevant summer internship under my belt and i'm not sure what to do this upcoming summer or if my current experience would be sufficient for future recruiting. Is it better just to relax for a summer rather than try and build up my knowledge for the future.
I still have the opportunity to work with my previous employer but the job is much more related to legal work than to finance specifically (even if it is still the same industry). Should I try and search out an opportunity more finance related or continue with the previous work I was doing
On another end of the spectrum would it be a smart idea to just take the summer for personal development with soft skills (playing golf and relaxing) and a little bit of hard skills (with just research on industries and maybe looking over some modeling material). I'm a socially involved guy so a summer off could let me just chill with my friends and just hang out too which would be a plus because there isn't going to be that many opportunities to have a long period of time off like this.
TL;DR: Look for finance internship, work with past employer (same industry), or personal development stuff for the summer following freshman year
EDIT: My previous internship was not a legal specific internship but I was more so saying that it had legal document evaluation in regard to certain metrics of the industry.
look for a finance internship. intentionally skipping a summer of work experience is a terrible idea from a recruiting perspective. Assuming you want to pursue finance, why would you actively choose to go back to the legal focused roie? its really not relevant
This is what I was told by contacts around March of this year when recruiting kicked off for 2019 SA... if you haven’t been able to land an internship for your sophomore summer by now, you’re likely gonna be dinged if you apply without one. I wouldn’t say it’s an end all be all but just be wary of trying to go the route of neglecting an offer.
I presume recruiters see it as 1. Either a lack of real passion for finance 2. You probably aren’t as desireable as a candidate compared to who does have an internship lined up
Freshman summer isn't as important as sophomore summer, but you should really try to get something to have on your resume. If your plans are just to hang out and play golf nothing wrong with that but maybe get a 6 week internship, little shorter so you don't lose your entire summer, but gets experience and you can put more then 1 month on your resume.
I would not do the legal internship, something finance related will make your life easier when you're recruiting sophomore and junior years.
To your title, the competition isn't I wouldn't say overhyped... IB roles are super competitive and have very early recruiting. The earlier you can get exposure to anything finance the better
No, competition for "high-quality" internships can be intense. For example, one internship posting on a career site (own website, linkedin, and etc) can easily get 100 - 5,000 resumes and teams usually only select ~10 candidates to interview for a first round.
**I am referring to non-SA Program internships that are high quality (good AM/PE managers/MM/boutique banks).
I took my freshman summer and worked as a camp counselor and still got a BB internship offer my junior summer that lead to a return offer. There's no set path, try to diversify yourself and not be such a cookie cutter applicant. There's life outside of finance. Create a story you want to share in an interview and don't be worried about what people are doing around you man. Getting caught up in the internship comparison race isn't the move.
But don't sit at home and just play golf. Go do something interesting for at least half of your summer
I think what comes before internships is networking. Instead of mulling through job boards and applying for every finance role you see for a few hours, use that time and reach out to alum on linkedin. Hit up the ones who work in sub-sectors of finance you're interested in. Not only will you learn a lot from them which is the whole point of internships/career development, but they'll respect a young gun taking initiative early on and open you up to internship opps. Finally, it goes a long way when a professional sees a kid reaching out as a freshman/sophomore and not a senior with a month or two left until graduation. Then they just know you're using them.
You should probably try to do something more productive with your time other than crack stick all summer. 3-4 months is a pretty long time
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