I'm a rising sophomore at Columbia with next to no finance experience. Solid GPA and I'm self-studying, but I'm just wondering if these tiny sub-10 person offices would be responsive to a cold email
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You're not emailing companies. You're emailing people. They're just like other people.
Establish a relationship and see what comes of it.
Having gotten things out of networking (albeit in Law and in London), your main aim should be to build a relationship with people. Best to reach out to alum (even high school works) instead of completely random people as they are more likely to get back to you (anecdotal evidence but I only had 1 alum not get back to me out of the 15+ I emailed, 50% success with non-alum although I only emailed 5 or 6) and are probably more willing to actually help you (not a single alum I spoke to said no to helping me in some way). It also is a numbers game but I would also tailor each email to the person/bank you are emailing and focus on places with no formal recruiting pathway. It could also be worthwhile to initiate the conversation via LinkedIn and then move over to email. There is no reason why it cannot happen and there is absolutely no downside to trying unless you're an idiot and sign off the email saying "Kind Retards" instead of "Kind Regards".
Thanks for the advice! I'm curious as to what I should include in a cold email/LinkedIn message. Should I express interest in working at the firm or just hearing about their experience? If I do the latter will it come across poorly if I ask them about internship opportunities at the firm on the call? On that note, should I waiti until a second call or a third to pop that question?
And does it come across as disingenuous if they're at a really small firm and I'm writing in the cold email that "I'm interested in hearing about your path to XYZ firm?" Surely they know I really am just there for the opportunity?
And also, at a sub-10 person shop, is it alright to reach out to the founder, or should I ask an analyst or someone midway up the ladder?
You could say “I’m interested in hearing about your pathway to xyz and any potential upcoming opportunities there may be at xyz”. Alternatively you could do something along the lines of “I'm reaching out because I've been following [RECENT DEAL]. [STUFF ABOUT YOU]. I know your time is valuable, but I would appreciate the opportunity to learn more about your work at xyz and any future opportunities to join the team as an Intern.”. These cover both bases so it makes you seem more transparent about your intentions.
People do not think it’s disingenuous that you’re asking about working at a Boutique Bank as it is a good career choice (exposure, culture etc) - it’s arguably more disingenuous to think boutiques can't lead to as good a career as a BB or act as some sort of alternative employment for people who fail to get into a BB.
It generally makes more sense to email a Partner/Director and there is no hard and fast rule as to when to ask about an internship - if you think you made a good relationship on the first call, it is perfectly fine to ask about opportunities. You need to make that judgement on your own.
What’s the point of these types of questions? Why don’t you just send the cold email and see for yourself?
bumping this question: "should I express interest in working at the firm or just hearing about their experience?"
it's pretty easy
how, ive cold emailed so many and its not working
Of course, everyone at my EMEA target does this (ie LSE/Oxbridge/Imperial/Bocconi) and it works fairly well but takes a lot of grunt work. I’d look into automating a campaign if you can. There are ways to mass-personalise emails using AI and openclaw I believe…
I've worked at one of these micro firms as an associate - they're micro for a reason. Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of money and sometimes they're even fully remote because they can't even lease a proper office space. Often they have MDs getting a $150K base (or no base at all) and heavy commissions off the fees.
We'd get these emails all the time, and rarely respond. We'd had absolute legends of resumes come through having gone to all these prestigious schools and stacked internships, and sitting next to my MDs/Founders and showing them the emails and say "don't respond - we can't budget for a new hire right now and you'd be wasting their time". Ironically enough, these firms do a lot of cold-emailing themselves to try and win business so you'd assume they'd have a different perspective/respect for this approach.
As it is, I was getting paid closer to that of an analyst and had to do a lot of analyst work and would've LOVED to have an intern, but would never happen. Was there coming off a layoff before going to a middle-market.
The mandates you do get for M&A are struggling sub-$5M revenue businesses that nobody wants to buy, and other firms didn't want to waste their time on it. These micro-firms are able to generate fees of a 6 month retainer to stay afloat. The win-win for the client is they at least have some good marketing materials to leverage as they try to turn their business around, and a better model build post-process which helps them better organize their books vs just having an exported sheet of quickbooks invoices and calling it "financials".
does that mean that if I volunteered to work unpaid it'd be far more likely? Or would that make me come across as desperate.
the way I see it, forgoing that maybe couple of thousand dollars I'd be paid for my noob work is totally worth it to lock down an internship that could assist me in procuring a job at a BB or EB
To be straight with you, getting an internship at a micro-firm would not help materially for procuring a job at a BB or EB, I'd be already looking into the next tiers (which is totally fine).
With that said, you can get into these firms doing something else entirely even after graduating like Valuation/QoE at an accounting firm for a few years or breaking into the side-door via Equity Research and consider internships around that.
But if you then look at okay something else, break in, than 1 year regional/LMM, then pivot again to EB or BB for all the benefits of an exit into PE, etc - Just know that this is very hard and unlikely.
Be prepared for the fact that once you break into regional/LMM, there's a good chance you'll be there for a while; looking at moves slightly upmarket to RBC or Jefferies. If you pivot too much, things may work against you as well so this is when you'd consider a 3-5 year plan and be okay with the fact you're getting into career banker territory heading to your late-20s-30s and/or B-school.
On a positive note, given your educational background paired with joining a finance club or getting an internship doing something banking-related (and get paid), you can still break into one of these regional or LMM banks, but just know there's a good chance you won't break into an EB or BB and the lateral market is very broken.
This is all under the assumption of a 2024-2026 market. If things go ever back to recruitment in 2021 and you're still junior - then your options open up significantly.
Very possible - I did this before starting my MBA and it worked well. Use that alumni network.
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