How hard is it to get an internship in a finance/equity research position after you graduate? With only accounting background.

So I've had two accounting internships so far and im going to be a senior in the fall.

I realized accounting is quite boring work and is mostly using your company's daily operation data and organizing it.

I want to do something that deals more along the lines of equity research and trading where you can use data/models to make educated predictions and ideas that actually brings in revenue for a company.

In essence I want to do work where I get paid to think and make decisions that have a direct result on whether i make or lose a company money. I don't want to just get paid a wage to help the people making the money organize and report where their money is.

Since it is already the summer of my junior year and i have realized that many financial institutions such as bulge bracket banks (i.e. JP Morgan) only offer internships for the summer of junior year/penultimate year, should i take a fifth year of college and use my new "junior" year summer to do a finance internship?

Or maybe its still possible for me to get a full time finance/equity research/trading job even though my summers have only been spent doing accounting and tax work?

Should i spend more money for a fifth year of college just for the reason that itd be easier to get a finance internship that may lead to a full-time finance job?

Maybe bulge bracket banks do offer recent undergrad graduates finance internships? Even though most of their internship postings state that they really only want undergrad juniors?

Getting a response from people who have been in my situation would be great. A response from an actual recruiter from these types of firms would be great as well.

Thanks

0 Comments

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”