Does sophmore summer matter?

Hi All

My question is how much does It matter where you intern sophmore summer? For instance, as long as you work at a respectable company doing business/ finance related work (using excel,financial statements) does that look ok for junior summer if you wanna get into a MM bank

14 Comments
 

It will certainly help because it will show interest and drive. Whatever internship you get as a sophomore will not have you doing anything extremely important anyway because any sensible company would never take such a risk with an intern.

 

I would say that it definitely does matter, and honestly I would say get the job where you get the best experience, not necessarily the best name. In all of my interviews these jobs were the main talking points, and it was entirely focused on my responsibilities, barely even mentioning that one of my internships was at a "big name" firm. Obviously take what you can get as a sophomore, but really try and get a great experience if you can

 
leveRAGE.I would say that it definitely does matter, and honestly I would say get the job where you get the best experience, not necessarily the best name. In all of my interviews these jobs were the main talking points, and it was entirely focused on my responsibilities, barely even mentioning that one of my internships was at a "big name" firm. Obviously take what you can get as a sophomore, but really try and get a great experience if you can

Agreed. Sophomore summer I did not have a big name in finance on my resume, but I was the only intern in the office and got a lot of experience that I was able to spin in interviews as developing skills useful in banking and later got an SA offer. Furthermore, it shows that you've got initiative-yeah a lot of it is luck of the draw if you're cold emailing people, but if you think about law of averages, you're bound to get something at some point.

 

No... It can obviously help if you can land a good name, but it won't hurt if you go back to being a camp counselor/work at your dad's law firm and enjoy your last "free" summer. When you recruit for your first real internship junior year, they are going to care a lot more about your grades and leadership activities on campus (these are important) than what you did for 2 months over the summer.

 
HireUp212No... It can obviously help if you can land a good name, but it won't hurt if you go back to being a camp counselor/work at your dad's law firm and enjoy your last "free" summer. When you recruit for your first real internship junior year, they are going to care a lot more about your grades and leadership activities on campus (these are important) than what you did for 2 months over the summer.

I disagree. Almost everyone I know has an internship prior to their junior summer. It definitely puts you at a disadvantage compared to your peers. If you're a rockstar then obviously your fine, but it's definitely harder to get through the resume review process without one

 

Matters, some if the best advice IMO that I received during my sophomore year was to find an internship, I feel it contributed greatly in helping me land my junior year internship.

fdba Emory Blaine and BBA or otherwise trying to find the perfect pseudonym.
 

I got my first BB offer because the MD at my superday was a FIG guy. He covered the company I worked for during my freshman year internship and was impressed that I could speak intelligently about the company's business model and its industry position. Having a relevant internship can make a HUGE difference.

 

Thanks all.

so basically an F500 accounting/ finance internship at least puts you ahead of the game besides those who were able to get into banks or PWM as sophmores? My goal is a MM or boutique decent firm jr year

I Got a dollar and a dream...
 

F500 may do more for you than PWM, because PWM has the rep of being menial bullshit work full of coldcalling. But as the others said, anything you can do earlier on to indicate an interest in finance and gain relevant experience puts you in a better position for junior SA recruiting.

That being said, there are people who have broken into BB, MM, and boutique IBD FT with absolutely zero relevant experience. They are the outliers, clearly, but it does happen.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 
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