Cold emailing with the intent of setting up a meeting and subtly asking for an internship

I am a freshman at a target school who is about to finish up their first semester of college. I am an out of state student so I've been looking for small boutique banks to reach out to where I am from. The major city in the area that I am from has a similar population to Oklahoma City - nowhere close a market like New York or Chicago.

I have an intent of cold emailing one person (a VP or MD) from each bank and hopefully setting up a meeting with them, and then subtly asking if they would take me on as an intern over the summer at the end of the informational interview. I was wondering if it would be unprofessional to straight up ask for an internship? A part of me says that you would never get what you don't ask for but the other says it might be frowned upon.

Also, I was hoping someone would be able to read over my email that I have written via PM?

3 Comments
 
Most Helpful

The thing with cold emailing is that its purely a numbers game. Not everyone is going to have the time to talk to some college kid about what they do for a living, especially if you're trying to contact MD's. You have to structure your email so that it caters to their background and the industries they work with specifically. Specific deals they worked on, market trends, technical questions, etc. You have to give them an incentive to want to talk to you. Don't include questions about internships in the email. Most of the time it comes off as pushy and not very genuine. If they respond and you're able to set up a phone call, you can mention internship opportunities at the end of the conversation. These people aren't stupid, they already know what you want. You have to put in the effort to reach out first and attempt to get to know them before they can help you out professionally.

 

I haven't mentioned anything about an internship in the email draft I have written nor was I ever planning to. I knew that was out of the question. In my draft, I referred to how we had a similar background as we are from the same area and both went out of state for college. After doing some research, I learned that the bank he works for is one of the few registered FINRA Broker-Dealers in the area, so I mentioned that. And then I pretty much said that my goal is to learn as much as possible about investment banking/mergers and acquisitions and more specifically, the bank he has worked at as he has had a very long tenure there. I found it intriguing as to why he has stayed there for so long.

 

Magni vel explicabo voluptatem aut ad. Labore omnis eum autem deserunt magni deleniti. Est molestiae est aut rem similique distinctio rem.

Sint omnis neque eum. Atque dolore ipsa voluptatem molestiae perspiciatis. Sint pariatur quia est est.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (80) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”