14 Comments
 

I would be careful with unpaid internships; a lot of them seem to be at garbage shops and provide no meaningful experience.

That said, good unpaid internships DO exist and can be worth it if you’re financially able. I personally did one in IB one my sophomore summer and got great deal experience at a quality place.

 

Agreed. Depends on the situation. My first internship was unpaid, but it was one of the best ones I did because it was basically free mentorship and learning from an industry professional who taught me the basics of investments. I didn't have much market value prior to my first internship, and once I had that under my belt I was able to get 5 more internships all within the financial field (banks & asset managers). Always remember to ask this question: "compared to what?"

 

I currently have two unpaid opportunities to choose from, not sure if I should keep recruiting. Interested in banking and AM

 
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To be legal, an unpaid internship must benefit the intern more than the company hiring them, as determined by seven factors. ... xenderSome employers don't know they've created illegal #internships omeglewhile others knowingly commit wage theft. The U.S. Dept of Labor FLSA laws define what makes an internship. discord

 

IMO - NO! Your time and contribution is valuable and you deserve to be compensated. What that compensation might be is negotiable but dont make the mistake I did (though it was when I worked in Law) thinking experience and their name on your resume is good enough compensation. Its not. They are a business, not a charity and they can afford to financially compensate you in some manner. More so in IB. Side note: I heard of people ****paying**** for internships? Is this really a thing? Really?

 

It’s true - some internships advertise school credit hours in place of compensation. However, in order to get that school credit you have to be paying tuition while you complete your internship, so in essence you are paying tuition to do an internship.

 

I did an unpaid internship for the US government once in the early '00s. It was pretty boring, didn't learn anything and no one ever asked me about it for the next couple of years. I also remember getting my car stolen on the parking lot I used to pay to park on (Essentially I was paying for parking, fuel, food or in other words paying to work!?)

All around pretty shit experience now that I think of it.

 

Unpaid internships can be very valuable for your resume, provided that you are working at the right boutique M&A shop (boutiques are the only shops I know of that offer unpaid internships). In investment banking, if a candidate were to tell me that they put together comps, assisted in research to be used in the CIM, and worked on the firm capabilities marketing materials (which is what most interns do at boutique M&A shops), then he/she would be way ahead of the curve compared to the field.

 

I did two in private wealth management. Spun it into a great position at a top HF. It’s all about whether or not you’re receiving a return on investment working there for free.

 

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