Cold calls to middle market IBD works?

Hey guys,

I'm looking to secure an internship for the fall/spring and just wanted to know if places like William Blair / piperjaffray / Cowen / SunTrust respond to cold calls/emails for internships. I will not be cold calling/emailing alums at these firms.

I will try later this week and just wanted to gauge the difficulty so I can properly allocate my time between networking/cold calling.

Any success stories?

Peace

EDIT: I should mention I'm shooting for non-NYC branches.

14 Comments
 

Schedule an information interview first. Once enough rapport has been created, ask him for future internship opportunities. Don't cold call asking for internships. Your success rate will be significantly lower.

You have time so generate as many contacts as possible.

 

Wait sry iNoob.

Are you sure they would be willing to schedule an information interview for just 1 person? Also, I have just recently sent a number of emails for internships in the winter and summer of next year. I haven't received any replies back, but so far I sent these emails a week ago so Im assuming they ignored me. But, I sent an email to an alumni a month ago for a PWM internship at Merrill, in NYC, and was successful I just need to prepare paper work for the internship.

 

Yes they would. If you just cold call them asking for an internship without them really knowing you, this is what they will probably think " Kid has balls, but who the fuck is he?". But what you want them to think is "Hey I remember this kid. Cool guy, let me see what I can do".

Obviously there are exceptions, but you get the idea.

Also, if you have the choice, forget about emailing prospects. Just call them instead. Only email them if you don't have their number. If you get their voice mail, indicate your intentions and tell them you will follow up with an email in which you should remind them and leave your contact information.

Be persistent, but don't be desperate/annoying.

Hope this helps.

 
iNoobYes they would. If you just cold call them asking for an internship without them really knowing you, this is what they will probably think " Kid has balls, but who the fuck is he?". But what you want them to think is "Hey I remember this kid. Cool guy, let me see what I can do".

Obviously there are exceptions, but you get the idea.

Also, if you have the choice, forget about emailing prospects. Just call them instead. Only email them if you don't have their number. If you get their voice mail, indicate your intentions and tell them you will follow up with an email in which you should remind them and leave your contact information.

Be persistent, but don't be desperate/annoying.

Hope this helps.

YES

ALSO: keep the message short and to the point without sounding like a tool. Practice before calling if you have to.

Get busy living
 
Best Response

Since I received about 5 PMs, I'll post here. Cold calling is more art than science, it sucks and the best thing to do is to start early in the year with it. First I love to make a list the night before of 20 firms I'm going to call the next morning. To win at cold calling you have to be consistent, the average I have heard is a 2% positive rate, so to get anywhere you have to make lots of calls. Secondly, know what you are going to say, you don't need a slick script, just say your name and why you are calling, that is often enough. Don't go on and stutter your way through, stand up and smile, your demeanor will carry over into your speech. Thirdly be polite and follow up.

I treated each office as completely separate and oftentimes the HQ and branches run internships very differently. MMs vary a lot in terms of whether they do everything out of the HQ or branches are largely autonomous. Oftentimes with non-NYC based banks there will be a HQ internship, an NYC one and a few others in the smaller offices. In the southern MM I interviewed and went to the second round at the people in HQ had no idea about my NYC interview.

I hope this explains it feel free to ask anything I neglected.

 

I find that even cold emailing with your resume will do - caveat is that you need to have a kick ass resume to be called in for an interview. Cold calling will be better if you don't have "wow" credentials, and if you are early in the process, you can try and schedule for informational interviews.

 

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