Advice on Reaching Out for Unpaid Internships
Title pretty much explains it. Have been sending tons of cold emails and reaching out to warm connections since the beginning of the year but came up short (for paid positions). Goal now is to do whatever I can to hopefully get something unpaid. Wanted to see if there was anyone out there that ended up in a situation like this and pulled through, and if so what they did to make it happen. Thanks.
I would say for you to land an unpaid internship you will have to have a personal relationship with someone at a boutique-type firm. Usually most established places wont take on an unpaid intern due to all of the bureaucratic red tape.
Even for connections though, what sort of role do people typically ask about? General internships?
Do you live in a financial hub?, Is your university in a financial hub? Is your family willing to pay for travel/rent? Have you saved up any money?
If yes to any of those, reach out to boutiques through emails
I live in Toronto, less than 15 minutes from the financial core. My university is a ways out though. Money wise I'm fortunate enough to have support (for this Summer at least), so I'll give it a shot.
Do you know anyone who interned at these boutique firms? I have helped multiple friends getting an internship at the boutique shop I interned at. These referrals work well especially when boutiques don't have the time and resources to recruit like the bigger firms.
Okay thanks for that tip. I definitely have a few people I can ask. Do you think it's too late in the year to secure something for this Summer? I know there isn't a straight answer, but in your experience did the boutique commit people early?
Not necessarily. Some firms could still be looking since there's a whole month left till summer starts.
I was in your position. I landed at a boutique by making a bunch of cold calls, leaving voicemails when they didn't answer, and following up on the voicemail with an email and my resume.
Good luck man.
Edit: If you are willing to/able to relocate you'll have way more potential targets.
So just gotta push harder then. Got it. Thanks man.
Firstly, I think you should not give up and continue searching, putting a focus on boutiques and smaller shops. I do have friends who did unpaid stints in their junior year, even at investment banking / corporate finance boutiques and smaller shops.
My advice is keep offering to do unpaid and convince the firm why you can still add much value to the team. In your cold emails, attach work samples (pitch decks, any financial models you have done) to further help your case. If you're shortlisted for an interview, print those work samples and be ready to run through the work you have done - showing your proficiency on Powerpoint and Excel would help. All the best.
Will do, thanks. Especially like the pitch book idea.
^this
Have a lot of experience in this, majority of my first year at uni (non-target) was spent searching unpaid internships.... and got about 4 of them.
Keep a spreadsheet of funds / banks / brokers you plan to email along with the email address of the person you are contacting. Based on my experience, you may have more luck outside of the major cities (which is London for me), so I tried to reach out to accountants in my hometown, stockbrokers, wealth managers etc. Not to say you won’t get any luck in the big cities but aim for the smaller firms, the larger firms are far too hard to penetrate for unpaid work, unless you know someone, even then it can be tough.
A lot of people turn their nose up at smaller hometown gigs.... don’t be that guy. Majority of my gigs were small in my first year and it led to me getting an insight position at a BB which led to summer internship then a full time. Take anything you can.
Avoid emailing the standard “contact us” email address, try to do some research on finding the more senior guys and email them with a punchy yet polite message asking if they have anything available for your level of experience.
Happy to share the email I sent back in the day so you can get an idea, PM me if interested.
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