I'm starting my first year at a top target school in Canada, and I was wondering what kind of internships should I be looking for after first year if I want to end up in investment banking?
I'd like to get some good experience after first year, so should I be looking at commercial banking, PWM, etc.? What other decent jobs would be good to target for the summer?
Thanks for any advice.
...in you're first year, it isn't necessary to have a finance-focused internship to be competitive for Full-Time recruiting. See what's availble...honestly, any sort of professional industry internship (marketing, finance, management, PR, et al) speaks volumes compared to a summer job at Wendy's.
i think it might be a little too ambitious to even get a corporate PwM job. Like opt8 said, any job will work, so long as its corporate and not 'joe the construction worker' or 'sally the burger technician.'
With that said, you could still try to get finance jobs at boutiques etc.
1st year internships in finance are hard but definitely not impossible. Avoid PWM - I would've considered it but given its general reputation as BS on this board, I chose not to go for it.
Just check over a variety of sources - school's career offices, doostang, monstertrak, simplyhired, craigslist.
You can definitely find some great places that may be willing to take in freshmen. Just apply to a lot of places. Teach yourself about investing or valuation if you want to go for a HF internship. Again, hard to get but they do exist.
In my search for internships after freshman year, I found craigslist to be a great resource. I told the people that I would be willing to relocate, and sometimes they said they wanted a local applicant and sometimes it didn't matter.
Just to illustrate, I just picked a major American city and looked for internships there: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/acc/801854509.html Not saying you'd get the job, but doesn't hurt to apply and stuff like this would look great for IBD at BBs in the future.
Good luck.
I'd be willing to work unpaid this summer as well if it meant I would be getting good experience that will help me later on. I know the banks don't care, but would that help with my case? Keep in mind I live in Canada.
Would you guys recommend contacting boutique firms in Toronto , and then somehow work in that I'd like to work unpaid? Or do they just not care about freshman/unpaid interns? I think if I wanted to, I could get a PWM internship because I've been in contact with quite a few firms for opportunities, and they were keen on me keeping in touch with them for next summer.
How about "regional" commercial banking (aka. not located in Toronto)?
Thanks a lot for the advice so far, I really appreciate it.
Boutiques are always a good choice. I'd state upfront in a cover letter that you're looking for an unpaid summer position with the firm.
For my boutique, when I was unpaid, my superiors were much more flexible in letting me choose what I wanted to work on. My MD was really interested in getting me work that would be useful on a resume in lieu of pay. Of course, this might be different at the firms you're looking at.
Do PWM this summer to show seriousness of purposes/interest (in all honesty, it's probably all you'll get at this point); aim for a sophomore rotational next summer.
If I do contact boutique firms for an unpaid internship (normally send an email out first if its listed on their website, then one VP set up a phone call with me), what exactly would I be expected to know for interviews, or how should I convey myself when communicating with them (phone call, email, cover letter, etc.)?
I like to stay as humble as possible, so I can say that I don't know that much when it comes to actual finance since the furthest knowledge I have is accounting and economics in high school up to this point. I do read these forums regularly though, and I read the standard banking books, but that's as far as my knowledge goes. Should I read up on anything specific? Or just get really good marks for my first year? I know banks won't be expecting much from freshman, but they must want to see something if I'm planning on working with them.
How exactly should I convey myself to some firms when asking for an unpaid summer internship? All the firms I'd be planning to target would be boutique banking firms in the Toronto area.
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