Applying to Investment Banking as a current Freshmen
Recruitment has started for 2024 summer internships, and I would like to land one for my sophomore summer internship. What can I do to increase my chances of landing now? How can I actually manage to land one of these internships without many qualifications as a freshman? I attend a nontarget University, but I have decent qualifications thus far, with a decent network but nothing to pull a job just yet. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated. I am sure it will be easier to apply for the 2025 cycle but I need to land something for Summer 2024.
Bro u cannot recruit for 2024 roles as a freshman, read the requirements to apply. The banks website will probably say something like "Required graduation date between December 2024 and June 2025". You can start networking for your 2025 summer internship.
Do Americans really network 2 years before their internship?
it depends. some ppl network like right when they get into college and some start maybe 6-14 months later
In 2025 I will be a junior, though. So I won't have anything done during my sophomore year. Which from a nontarget means I pretty much wouldn't be able to land anything. Its just extremely frustrating as I have networked with 300+ bankers and have good qualifications otherwise. Applying to 300+ internships throughout the year and landing just a search fund is rough...
Went thru the same thing as I am from a non target but it gets better, trust me
Gotta reach out to small boutiques
I guess this is what I will do. I have already applied to 300 or so internships for this summer, and all I managed to land was a search fund.
Regional boutiques, cold emails.
be diverse … actual advice i was given by multiple ppl i networked with lmfao, should’ve listened
Well.... unfourtanely this isn't really possible. How am I supposed to land a junior internship without landing something for my sophomore year? Recruitment is already open. I have a Search Fund internship for this summer, but I won't really be able to land something without a sophomore internship. I've networked with 30+ bankers already but none of them have hiring power.
OP, listen closely.
Recruiting for junior summer internships occur during the sophomore spring/junior fall of your college career. Junior summer internships are how the vast majority of students get into investment banking. They do this by getting a full-time return offer for post-graduation after performing well in their junior internship.
Investment banking internships for BBs/MMs do not exist for sophomore students, unless you’re considered diversity (and even then, those positions offer limited opportunities/exposure/experience).
Certain regional boutiques without complex HR/diversity/non-diversity recruiting may have open spots that you can apply for during your freshman/sophomore summer. Most students who are lucky/hard-working enough to get these positions, can use these experiences (which are rare) as a resume-boost to obtain better recruiting opportunities for their junior summer, becoming a “stand-out” candidate.
If you’re a freshman/sophomore, I’d focus on…
(1) Getting a high GPA (3.5+ at least, 3.7+ if possible)
(2) Learning about investment banking, and actually understanding whether you want to pursue it
(3) Participate in finance extracurriculars/internships (e.g. your school’s investment club, case comps, etc.)
(4) Network hard your sophomore spring — deadlines often shift for applications open/closing at firms, so time it correctly. Use your alumni network well, or cold email (I did both).
Any junior summer offer in IB, is a step in the right direction. But you must do the following (amongst other things, it’s not as linear as this site — and myself — make it sound, sometimes).
Wishing you all the best ahead. Don’t over-stress about banking recruiting just yet, you’ll have a whole semester (if not more) to do that in your 2nd year. Just work on making yourself as valuable and unique of a candidate as possible, and learn about the industry.
Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate it.
Also OP, you should have a fairly high GPA if you attend a non-target, as opposed to semi-targets or targets where 3.5s/3.7s may be acceptable. It’s just a way to screen the resumes and filter out unfavorable candidates.
I have a 3.96 as an honors student at the moment, hopefully, I will maintain it. Currently, I am junior by credit hours, which seems to do more harm then good as the recruitment process is highly structured.
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