Proposing an Unpaid Internship at a Mega Fund

So I already have a FT offer at a top BB. I graduated back in December and have been traveling the world, balling out etc.

I have been put in touch with a friend of a friend at a megafund (Carlyle, TPG, Silverlake) and was thinking about asking him whether I could spend a few weeks basically seeing what he does and just getting some experience in PE.

My two questions are

1) Would they even consider this? 2) How would you approach this? Would you ask outright if they are doing internships or would you recommend just asking whether I can follow my contact around at work and maybe help out?

Appreciate the help fellas.

7 Comments
 

do u really think they will accept you, just because you're willing to go unpaid???? these guys are loaded and they can easily pay an intern 2-3k/per month. You'll end up discrediting yourself by doing this. Ask your friend if they offer any internships/work experience but for fack sake dont mention anything about "willingness to be unpaid". I'm saying this from my own experience.

 

Big firms don't do unpaid internships. It is against employment law anyway. Smaller shops are more open to this because they either dont care or don't know.

Try for a normal internship and if that fails, see if they can help you find another internship. Youre showing desire and networking which is good. Keep it up!

 

Yeah this isn't going to happen for the reasons mentioned above. And you working at a BB soon would only make them less likely to do this (with the information you'd see). Just keep in touch with the contact for a year from now for PE recruiting-it's not that long away!

 

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