Can I just walk into a bank and get an internship?
I'm a 17 year old, UK student that will be walking into banks throughout the next two weeks until I manage to secure an internship. My plan is to walk in, ask to speak to a financial advisor and hand them my CV and Cover letter while doing a small elevator pitch, presenting myself, and asking for an internship.
Do you think this is a good idea? I plan to start going to banks tomorrow. Who should I ask for - a financial adviser, trader, broker or investment banker?
I'm doing this because I have no contacts and I've only been able to find one or two day courses at banks. I applied for two, got into McKinsey (although that's management consultancy, they seem to be spoken about in the same sentences as IB) and I failed to get into Merrill Lynch. However what I really want is an opportunity to immerse myself in the culture and environment and banking, and learn from bankers over the course of two or three weeks.
I'm willing to shine shoes, file papers and make coffee as long as I'm able to be in the same environment as bankers, see what they do and hopefully talk to them about their work. How can I convey this?
I doubt I'll be accepted, but I might as well give it a shot and try to get some experience over summer. My biggest worry is that the receptionist won't even let me speak to a financial advisor unless I have a reason.
I'm currently reading up on different positions in banks and their roles. My next step will be to write up a list of banks in my area (London), write a cover letter for each and hopefully start this plan by tomorrow, going to three or four banks a day until I get an internship. I'll go to boutique banks first, so that I can correct anything that goes wrong with my first four walk-ins and then start approaching bulge-bracket banks after I've done at least 5 boutique banks.
What do you think? Should I at the very least try it?
I'm just worried that if I try emailing people, I'll be ignored. At least if I show up, they have to think twice about me since I doubt any student has ever walked into their office and asked for an internship and GLANCE in my CV's general direction. At the very worst they'll say no (can I get blacklisted?), at the best they'll admire my enthusiasm and determination.
Is there anything I've missed out, or that I should read up on? I will be going in a suit, trying to be as charming as possible, but I have no idea if they'll let me speak to anyone, or get past reception.
If you would like to read the CV I'll be handing in, you can find it attatched.
I still need to slightly adjust it to make it one page, change 'acting undergraduate' to something else, and figure out if I can add that I'm going to McKinsey since it's a prestigious name.
Why do you want to work in banking if you live at Charlie's Chocolate Factory?
Very interested to hear more about this oragami boxing. Seems to be a cheap immitation of these true inovators.
So you want to work in I-Banking but you plan on speaking to a financial adviser...
Zycze powodzenia w przyszlosci
Firstly, this will NOT work anywhere other than at a very small boutique as the security guards in the entrance hall won't let you through the barriers to the lifts, let alone anywhere near the receptionists.
Secondly, I don't think you exactly know what you are looking for. You list banker, financial advisor, trader and broker - these are all incredibly diverse roles and won't even be in the same place usually. Figure out what you want to do and then target your efforts.
Am baffled as to how you can figure out what McKinsey is, yet obviously have no idea what investment banking is.
Maybe at a commercial bank?
The FA you speak with might not have a clue what investment banking is either, so you may have something in common.
Not for nothing, but this was how I first tried to break in. Didn't go well.
Please keep your resume to one page.. this is not amateur hour
As mentioned above, you need to learn the difference between a financial adviser, investment banker, trader... even trader can mean totally different things especially if coming from buy/sell side, and then sales & trading, prop desk, PM, etc.
If you have the ball$ to walk into a building to ask for a job I would recommend contacting financial advisers. it is by far the least prestigious of the titles that you mentioned but it is also the easiest position to get. Many wealth management firms would love to get a young kid cold-calling for clients all day. They would also pay for your Series' tests.
Holy shit. I didn't look at the resume. What on Earth could a 17-year old have done that stretches to two pages?
I think OP is trolling us. From resume:
One job description: "Involves a long-term and a perspective that looks at the grand scale, the result of work on any one day will impact the wood and surrounding wildlife for many years." Interests: "Practices origami"
I sincerely apologize about the origami. If true please remove from resume.
Points on CV:
Or who mentored you in poetry.
Unless it was Robin Williams
I've done that in UK before being your age and it did not work. They were mostly turned off by the fact I went to high school in the US...
Thank you, changed my CV according to your advice. Hey, additional maths wasn't too bad and it's made my current year a breeze! Should I cut out the selbourne thing then - too obvious I'm peddling crap? Good point about the C#, thank you.
Why wouldn't I be able to even speak to a receptionist? It's not like I'll be turning up in ragged trackies asking for change. I am planning to target boutiques though.
I listed so many diverse roles because I'm not exactly in a position to pick and choose as to who I want to work with. I'll go with anyone as long as I get to learn about the industry, I'll be fetching coffee and filing anyway. Even if I end up with a broker, I'll be able to talk to bankers after hours or at breaks and learn SOMETHING. Should I be focussed nonetheless?
@mb666: Thanks for the advice, any idea how to let the receptionist let me talk to an advisor? I'd be more than happy cold-calling. Haha the origami was serious! I thought you had to be as interesting as possible, and origami is my most obscure hobby. I'll take the bit about who mentored me in poetry out. Thank you for the advice guys. @Edumundo: Care to elaborate please?
W ogole to ile polakow jest na WSO?
To add to this, the path of least resistance would be to leverage your LinkedIn account (make sure you are connected to your school's career advisers and alum groups to expand your network). Contact individuals that are in your network (preferably VPs as you're too young to take up any MD's time) and send them a msg along the following lines:
"Hi, my name is X and I attend X University studying X. I see that you work as X [position] in X Industry. I am very interested in this field and would appreciate if I could buy you a cup of coffee on your break and learn more about the business."
The goal would be for the VP to drop your resume to a hiring manager when the desk is looking for interns.
Regarding financial advisers, find wealth management companies in your area and contact HR. Ideally it would be a BB firm so you can brand yourself better in the future but there are also a lot of smaller firms that are in the same business. Research financial advisers/representatives/broker-dealer reps in your area. Also, I'm not sure if you'll be able to start cold-calling without passing certain exams. In the U.S. a Series 7 is usually a bare minimum, followed by other Series' depending on the product(s) that you will attempt to pitch. Regardless, there is always grunt admin work to be done at WM firms and it is fairly easy to obtain a position, especially if you show the initiative of being comfortable cold-calling potential clients in the future. I did a summer WM internship at Merrill Lynch during undergrad and I hated it but there are a lot of individuals that make easy six figures. I worked with the mgt overseeing advisers and was told that some of these guys a were making $700k a year (and I was not even in a large city). Of course the hard part was finding client money, but after that it is fairly smooth sailing.
I think that it's a good idea to try it. It can't hurt. You may not get an internship right away, but maybe you can parlay it into a mentorship opportunity.
Do it.
Same person here, different account due to a mix up.
In response to both Asatar and mb666: First of all, thank you for your advice. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to reply to me.
Asatar is the security true for boutique banks? Isn't there a slim chance that in a boutique bank they would send a financial adviser down to see me? Lets say it goes horribly wrong and the receptionist politely tells me to leave. I say thank you for your time and ask if they know a single person that would need an internship, or would be interested in my help. Don't you think that they would consider it for one second? Even if they know nothing about banking, they could probably direct me to one person that they've overheard talking about needing someone to fetch them coffee, or complaining about not having enough people to cold call or file papers.
I agree though, if that is the case with all banks, including boutique ones, I will never get past security unless they send someone down to speak to me.
Unfortunately I don't have any contacts: LinkedIn is not a good option for me. I'm not sure where you guys got the idea that my school is fantastic, it's really not that great. Checking through the notable alumni, the only financier I found was one of the Natwest Three (wire fraud scandal) and is probably in no position to help me since he just came out of jail. I have one careers advisor, who was useless when I asked her previously for help with this. I'll still try though, I'll send ask an old teacher at my school if I can join the alumni group in LinkedIn today.
Do I really need to know exactly which role I'm looking for? Did you guys, at 17, fully know whether you wanted to be a broker, banker, analyst or otherwise? I'm sure there are many positions in banking that I've never heard of. Working with any role in a bank will give me a glimpse into the work of other positions - by helping a broker I may see what it's like to what as an investment banker by getting chances to talk to them and see them work. Is needing to know what you want to go for necessary in itself, or is it a caveat that is looked well upon by people in the industry? I remember when I applied for the course at Merrill Lynch, I didn't get in because they wanted your application to be focussed around the exact role you want in a bank, despite the course being described as a general overview of banking. Is this similar? I'll do it regardless, I won't ignore your advice or my previous experience in applying to Lynch, I just don't understand the logic behind it. And those at my age that are saying 'I definitely want to be a trader', how can you be so sure unless you've specifically worked with a trader, and at least seen some other roles working?
Thank you mb666, when I begin cold calling, I will call wealth management companies first, although I'll have to do a lot more research on what WM do. I'll start with BB banks but at my age and with my complete lack of experience, I'm happy going to boutiques. I can use those experiences as a springboard to try to get into BB banks when there are actually formal application processes, rather than trying to get into BB banks first, which is probably far harder.
I completely understand the paths I should be taking from now, thank you. Research further each role, find out exactly which one I want to do and why, use LinkedIn and start cold calling., starting with WM. Is there anything I've missed? HOWEVER I still want to try to walk into banks. I'll do it for two days, and at worst I'll have wasted two of my mornings, whilst having forced myself to familiarise with the industry and its roles, having compiled a list of boutique banks I can apply to and being able to say that I've really tried everything I can think of. Imagining you're in my position, can you offer advice as to how you would approach this if you had to do it and weren't allowed to ask for internships straight in an email or cold call? Would you use email, or LinkedIn to contact people in specific roles in banks, asking if you can get them a coffee before trying a walk in? What would you say specifically to the receptionist to try to get an adviser (or broker, whatever) to come down to talk to you? Would you target roles which are easier to get an internship in, and if so, which ones?
For a few spontaneous reasons, I've ended up in another country for a week, and when I get back I'll be going straight to my McKinsey course. I'll ask them if they have any better ideas, using your idea of the path of least resistance, but after that I'll be walking into banks unless something amazing happens with LinkedIn, McKinsey or my friend whose parents may be able to help me out. Are you guys interested in hearing how it goes for me? Even if it is just for the satisfaction of saying 'I told you so'! Hahaha thank you for being constructive with your criticism and offering me practical options.
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