Those of you who secured internships freshman year, can you please share your experience
I understand very very few firms will accept freshman interns and 99% of them will not respond to emails. However, those of you who were successful, can you please share your experience?
Did you simply cold-email? How did you word your cold-email? What are some do's and do nots?
Thanks so much
Also I realize its virtually impossible to get an IBD intern as a freshman. I am talking about PWM capital management, hedgefunds, etc.
Got mine through a caddying connection. Biotech equity research at hedge fund. I emphasized many times I was seeking that it was unpaid.
You said it in your post "99%" keep grinding until you find that 1%
Don't go for paid opportunities, target small firms (handful of people), reach to as many firms as possible, go for a learning experience and not something just for a resume boost. You can absolutely get an IBD internship at a small bank as a freshyman(I did it)
Curious, how were you able to "pitch" them that you were up for it in terms of skill/knowledge? In my experience ( I use this lightly because I don't want to sound arrogant), the biggest issue isn't whether it was un-paid or not. Matter of fact I always felt like asking for an unpaid internship showed desperation and under-valuing yourself but putting that aside it seems like a burden for them to have to spend time training you, managing you, giving you work, etc. That's the biggest hurdle for getting an internship so early on no?
Cold emailed Principal of boutique PE shop. Paid position.
Same experience. Most people I know who secured freshman summer internships follow this as well or had family connections to small shops.
Cold email as much as possible. Offer to work for free if you have other means of paying for rent and food. Depending on where you go to school, consider working during the semester.
Cold email small local firms. If you can, email about being an unpaid intern. If you really need the money, maybe expand your email targets to businesses outside of IB and PE, or work a job on the weekend.
Before all, craft a SOLIDLY formatted resume. As a freshman most of my compliments were on how good it looked. I was told it showed maturity. I may have had minimal experience, but at least I came off as professional.
As a freshman you’re usually seen as no value add so you need to sell yourself in the interview process that it’s not the case. So to set yourself apart it’s gonna come down to beating odds and effort.
Apply, apply, apply.
Cold email every boutique Hedge fund - Investment bank - Investment Manager in the state. For every 10 emails I usually got 1 or 2 replies, usually from HR just asking for a resume and cover letter.
I applied online everywhere to any relevant job. Believe it or not I got most traction through Indeed and the school career portal. Regional firms and small shops seem to actually care to look through there.
Utilized my network, e.g. my family friend worked as a petro engineer for a F500 and he was able to get me an interview in the FP&A division. Didn’t get a call back, but shows even F500s might take a look if you can find a way in.
Ultimately, my freshman internship was in regional corporate / middle market banking (covered companies with revenues from 5-150 million during my time there). With minimum wage pay. Originally my manager was reluctant to hire me as I was only a freshman with minimal accounting / finance courses, but he said I was well spoken, ambitious and knew I’d be worth his time since I knew technicals beyond what anyone my age should’ve. So make sure you brush up on basic researchable questions, both fit and technical - walk me through a DCF, why finance, if accounts receivable goes down what happens to cash.
I got one the summer before my freshman year of college by cold emailing 40+ alum of my soon-to-be school.
Got a PWM internship at a name brand bank, it was paid.
neither was finance but i got two internship offers for after freshman year. one was just knowing an EVP at a big company (connections) and the other one was just getting lucky with an online application (i’d applied 50+ places but this company was actually looking for freshmen)
when you cold email these firms, who do you email? Do you email a specific person? or just the HR department
I populated a list of firms within my city which didn't have structured student internship/graduate programs. I collated the firm name, managing director(s) and area of focus (corporate advisory, equities research, funds management etc). I didn't have much of a resume at this stage, but I ensured that I had formatted it properly and listed extracurricular volunteering from high-school, along with retail-focused stints of part-time work. Instead of sending a verbose cover letter for a job which didn't exist - I sent them a personalised connection request on LinkedIn to the effect of: Hi X, I'm studying X at Y and hope we can connect. I'd say circa 70% accepted the request.
Then I'd follow up. I wouldn't mention work at this stage, paid or unpaid - it's a burden for them if they don't already have a structured program. I'd simply write a message about being interested in whatever it was that they focused on and ask to meet up for coffee. From here I'd say maybe 40% of them agreed and then I met them, played to their ego and expressed in interest in their trajectory. I'd then broach the topic of work experience (either during the semesters part-time or during the holiday breaks). If they were reluctant, I said that I'd do it for free and that I just wanted to learn.
Worked out fairly well. Spent some time with a boutique corporate advisory shop (run by ex BB guns), equities research focused on a particular sector and currently am at a (family) asset manager. Some positions paid, some unpaid. I went into each informal interview (read: coffee) with no expectations and at worst, I would walk away with some great advice. I was always appreciative of time given to me, the MD at the corporate advisory shop actually introduced me to his mate wanting some equities research (which was a paid role, concurrent to my classes).
I personally don't think contacting the generic company email address will yield many results (though you should still exhaust all possible avenues). I had friends do this, but to no avail. LinkedIn gave me a much better response rate than emails into a black hole ever did.
Disclaimer: I'm Australian, so may be a different landscape..
I posted on seeking alpha a few times my freshman yr and it was a solid talking point when I got the chance to speak with people in the industry.
I posted on seeking alpha a few times my freshman yr and it was a solid talking point when I got the chance to speak with people in the industry.
I posted on seeking alpha a few times my freshman yr and it was a solid talking point when I got the chance to speak with people in the industry.
A finance internship will help, but if you can't get one it's far from the end of the world. Summer after freshman year I did a data analytics position and had no issues recruiting for summer 2019. Sophomore year you should focus on getting something in finance, but anything quantitative/will teach you excel should be fine for freshman summer.
Old hockey coach of mine ran a wealth mgmt shop. Knew I had a good team mentality and brought me on board.
Could have gone PWM but went with an internship with an upstream O&G company. Leverage your connections in whatever way possible as there is tons of opportunities for you as long as you can get in the right circles.
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