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.
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.
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.