What is the best freshman summer internship a top 50 school non target with no family connections can really get? I mean through sheer brute force by an ungodly amount of cold emails, just networking constantly, being relentless. Isn't it a boutique IB internship? Obviously those are very rare for freshman.
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Study abroad. Much better ROI than a freshman internship where no one ever does anything material. It can also help you come across as more “worldly” and sophisticated to some interviewers
Forget being worldly, just have fun your freshman summer
PWM or a finance-related role at a startup
Same exact position as you, currently doing PWM atm unpaid. Learning absolutely nothing but good to smack on the resume
Rising sophomore at a non target doing unpaid IB internship rn
Honestly probably PE/HF
Get a search fund asap. The one I did had tons of non targets and a good track record of exits.
I interned at a search fund during the school year and now I'm at a LMM PE firm for the summer. That said, I'm a rising sophomore and have no idea how useful these will look on my resume when I'm recruiting. I'd honestly recommend studying abroad, but if ur dead set on an internship then search fund/PE is a decent way to go.
Here's how I'd rank relevance
Diversity bulge/boutique (very few if any)Smaller local boutiquePEVC or HFCorp devEquity researchAM or PWMCorporate bankingFinance planningAccountingWith cold emailing small PE or VC is very doable (also doesn't have to be in your city, could be remote) though likely it will be unpaid. Don't worry if it's not 40 hours/weekSorry if formatting is weird I’m on mobile
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