Internship as a highschool sophomore?

Hey, I am trying to find an internship as a high school student in Seattle but it seems almost impossible. I don’t have much experience in finance for obvious reasons but I’d really like to get a feel for the industry, even if it means all I do is deliver coffees and just do basic things. Any help would be appreciate greatly as I am completely new to this and just really want to get some experience under my belt. Again, thanks for any help.

I’m sorry if I didn’t format this correctly as this is my first time ever posting.

14 Comments
 

I think your best option at that level would be to shadow finance professionals. Try to take advantage of any connections you might have through parents, extended family, or friends. I find it hard to imagine that any financial services company would HIRE a sophomore in high school, but I don't seek why you couldn't set up a day/week of shadowing.

That would set you light years ahead of your peers and maybe you could get a good gig the summer going into freshman year of college.

 

Hmm I think your best bet would be alumni in that scenario. Since you aren't in college, that means your high school network is going to be your only option. Hopefully your high school has some sort of alumni networking mentoring site? Otherwise it's going to require more work on your end.

Also, especially when you are an upperclassman, keep an eye out for any high school introductory programs or internships via indeed or another job board like that. The positions probably won't perfectly match your intended area of work, but you will be able to have that experience early on which is huge.

 

I agree. Retail jobs or other traditional employment opportunities for teenagers teach you valuable lessons like how to communicate effectively, handle routine responsibility, and deal with difficult people. These are important skills that you will need when you are in college looking for internships, and beyond.

Plus, you will definitely be paid in retail. "Internship" opportunities that high-schoolers are presented with during summers have a higher likelihood of being unpaid; while you can leverage an unpaid internship in other ways, having money in your pocket is helpful both in teaching you how to budget for yourself and also put savings in the bank for college etc.

 
Most Helpful

If you are really passionate about going into IB, I have some recommendations. It isn't really realistic that you will be able to find an internship at your age and with your situation but there are definitely things you can do to help yourself for the future.

  1. Get good grades and get involved in as many sports, extracurriculars and clubs as you can in high school. Your main focus should be getting yourself into a great school where the path to IB would be easier.
  2. Learn as much as you can about the industry and how things work. This would include vocab, basic finance and business topics, accounting, etc.
  3. Try to have conversations with any family connections or friends in the industry as that would be a great way to learn and start to build your network.
  4. Have fun. As someone said, this is your time to relax and be relatively stress-free with no deliverables. Time to relax and have fun becomes far and few between when you hit the real world. Enjoy it while you have it.

Good luck. PM if you want any help, happy to chat.

 

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