Trying to receive an SA offer for this summer, have no luck so far. I understand that I have to focus on purely regional botiques at this time, and have been doing so.
What should an approach look like this late into recruiting. Lately I have been cold-emailing people at firms, with a reasonable success rate, with the pure intention of getting a phone call. I never mentioned interest in a job at all. Should I keep doing this and then start asking something along the lines of "What can I do to receive an interview/internship at your firm? BTW I am willing to work for free". Or should I instead cold-email and make it clear I want to work for the company, and offer to work for free right on that first e-mail?
Would appreciate any advice on this topic.
Cold email, say that you are interested in their firm, ask if they are looking for an intern and ask the person to talk to learn more about the firm.
This. There are thousands of tiny boutiques out there. I did this my junior year when I had no luck with SA recruiting at larger banks.
Agreed. Tons of little boutiques out here in Silicon Valley/SF. Hoping to spread as wide a net as possible, to catch at least one fish.
Thanks for the response/advice.
Appreciate the response. So you'd say to ask them if they're looking for an intern in the cold-email itself, or while on the phone?
Also are you suggesting it is better to reach out to the company's e-mail address rather than the people itself? (I have been reaching out directly to people, and it has worked reasonably well in getting a phone call)
Thanks so much
Ask in the cold-email. Reach out to people's work email or LinkedIn
I have typed this up in several other threads, but basically what I would do (and did when I was in your shoes) was attach my resume to an email and fire off something like the following (please do yourself a favor and do not literally copy and paste this word-for-word):
"Hi Mark the MD,
My name is CHECK6, and I'm a junior at Harvard looking to gain some experience in investment banking. I was wondering if your boutique was still looking for summer interns. I have attached my resume for context. Hope to hear from your soon.
Best,
CHECK6"
Also, please don't mention that you are willing to work for free. If I'm not mistaken, February and March are a prime time when boutiques are looking for interns. Don't sell yourself short.
Thanks for that. I am have a somewhat special disadvantage that might force me to work for free if I want to even get an internship, but I will restrain from mentioning that right now. I'll only pull that card if things get really bad and I'm still searching in April/May.
I agree never mention you would work for free, you would seem desperate. Just have the attitude of someone who is willing to work hard and cares about the overall experience more than money.
Just to build off of that, working for free should never be a benefit to a bank. The reason why many boutiques turn you down is not because they cannot afford to pay you, but because they have no work for you. When you offer to work for free after being turned down, you create this situation where the bank might change its mind and bring you on thinking "hey, it's free...we have nothing to lose." and they you're stuck doing admin work all summer long.
That makes sense, and of course I would hope to gain experience at least somewhat related to Banking that I can use not only later on in my career but also to build relationships. I'll make sure to not put myself in that weak spot.
I appreciate your advice, and all your content/things you've done for this forum. Been on this since high school, and you've definitely helped me out many times before, just indirectly. Take it easy man.
Key in my experience is to cold call and then email. You can mention in your email "I tried calling earlier..."
I had a way better success rate cold-calling first. Ask about internship opportunities (don't throw out the I'll be unpaid to start...), and someone may surprise you and pay you a bit. Just gotta keep grinding out the cold emails.
Hmmm...interesting to hear. I definitely feel like cold-calling gives a more direct approach, I just feel like I don't have the balls to do that. I'll give it a go though.
Would you suggest me saying basically the exact same thing as Sil said as a cold-email template? If so, would I use the same thing even if I was connected to an assistant/secretary?
Thanks for the help
@Sil da real MVP. Sharing templates across multiple threads without a shred of arrogance.
He's the mfing plug.
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