Advice for Rising Sophomore at an Ivy

Hello, I've done my fair share of looking around on WSO and was hoping for some advice on my path in the upcoming years. I saw a few posts related to this topic, but with recruiting moving so far up I had a few specific questions that were still unanswered.

BACKGROUND
I just finished up my first year at a lower Ivy (Brown, Dartmouth, Penn-non Wharton) with a 4.0 GPA in Economics. I've attained 2/3 leadership roles in various finance related clubs and organizations, am working in leadership role for my part-time job, and was elected to the board of a non-profit that was founded at my school. This upcoming summer, I managed to secure a Corporate Finance internship at a F500 company (on the lower end of the list, but F500 nonetheless). I've also been networking extensively with alumni, and have conducted 15-20 informational interviews over the phone

QUESTION
1. What should I be aiming for as an internship for next summer? With the recruiting cycle moved so far up, and not being a non-diversity candidate, I don't think that I will be able to land a BB IBD internship. Would my best bet be to reach out to regional boutiques and try to land a role in that manner? When exactly should I begin emailing and reaching out to try for a role such as this?

  1. What should I be doing this summer to position myself for recruiting next year? Should I just be following up with my contacts that I've already conducted informationals with? How exactly should I be following up with them? Should I be aiming to get them to submit my resume for me, or should I apply through traditional portals and then try to get them to flag the application?

Thanks so much for the help

 
Best Response

I dont think it is every too early to start. Start reaching out now to alumni/banks stating you are very interested/want to pursue a sophomore summer SA position.

Yes follow up with contacts, let them know how you are doing ask them deals they've been working on/what you can do to best position yourself. Either - does not matter. Best is to see if they bring it up or you could phrase a questions well saying like is it best for me to just apply online/through OCR etc... they will get the hint.... sometimes though you need to be direct

keep in mind though if you secure a sophomore SA BB position, I think I would think hard about if that is where you would like to stay. with all this weird recruiting timeline it could be hard for you to interview/get away from desk as a sophomore intern during your BB gig, people may notice i.e. jeopardize return for next summer etc...

 

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