Advice for sophomore summer internships?
Hey everyone,
For some context, I am a rising sophomore at a target school and have applied to a number of BB's as well as local IB's (started applying late July / early August). I have networked with individuals from the banks which I'm applying but all of the conversations have led to them telling me that it's quite early for me to be looking for internships, although most people I know have either secured a sophomore summer internship already or are currently searching.
I haven't heard back from most banks, although a local IB did let me know to reach out again later this fall as their SA 2024 recruiting begins closer to December. I was just wondering, am I already too late to the party (for sophomore 2024 internships)? I have a freshman summer internship under my belt already but am hoping for an IB internship next summer. Any advice at all would be appreciated, as well as any clarification about the recruiting process at this point in time for rising sophomores.
You're definitely early to the party. Usually your freshman and sophomore year is for building connections with these recruiters so you can land summer internships in the future. Big companies usually look for juniors and seniors. If you want a summer internship right after your sophomore year, I would look at smaller, more local places. I have friends who, when they were sophomores, interned at companies I never heard of.
At the same time, you can look for junior year internships during your sophomore year. Some big guys like Citi start their recruiting process over a year in advance for junior year internships. When a friend of mine was a sophomore, she got a summer internship at Citi for her junior year. So you can start looking for companies who are hiring for summer 2025 as early as December.
I'd like to leave a note: if you don't get an internship for summer 2024, don't feel discouraged. Your junior year internship is the most important.
Sorry, but this comes off as very ill-informed about the current state of IB recruiting. Most of the BBs are already done recruiting for sophomore summer internships or they are currently open. Citi and UBS open in fall, but MS, GS, BofA & RBC are already effectively done recruiting for soph summer and the rest don’t have sophomore structured internships. I would start looking for those boutique shops for soph summer in order to strengthen your resume to recruit for junior summer internships this spring. RBC is usually the first to kick off junior summer (SA 2025) in December, then BB diversity and some EBs and MMs in feb-march, then BB non-diverse and the rest of the EBs straggling into the summer