Incoming Junior. How to land the prestigious summer internship.

Hello

I am struggling to wrap my head around how to network with professionals in a good manner. I'm getting good connections with my alumni through LinkedIn, and I'm reaching out for informational interviews over the phone. Some of them have even said they would pass my resume over to HR. However, does it really help me when I apply there for my summer internship online? I'm usually a conversational person, but I feel like I'm annoying the heck out of my alumni. Is this a normal thought lol.

For context, I'm currently working a summer internship at a large insurance company as a producer. It is unrelated to what I would like to work in later on (credit, AM, ER), but I've learned a lot about insurance and it's a good resume builder. Would my recruiters consider this good work experience? 

Any thoughts on this topic or general tips on landing a summer internship would be greatly appreciated)

(4.0 finance major semi target)

7 Comments
 

Hate to break it to you but most SA positions opened in January and people have offers for post junior summer by march/april of Sophomore year. And since you don't have any explicit experience, it will be pretty hard to get a FT analyst position. Your best bet is prob MBA

 

What is a semi-target? That doesn't sound promising.

Overall, don't listen to the idiot prospect. Recruiting for summer at this point maybe a little rough, but it is certainly not too late. There is still potential for some MM recruiting to occur at your school (depending on how "semi" of a target you're at. This is why I always encourage people to transfer their third year if they do not go to a target school and they're in Finance). The 4.0 should be helpful. Failing everything else by like October, give an M&A Advisory (like Transaction Advisory Services at one of the Big Four would be a good one) internship or a Private Equity internship a swing, then try for full-time recruiting at a regional boutique or LMM, then maybe lateral after your first year full-time.

Full-time recruiting fucking sucks though, and (in my opinion) will be at least 5x harder than internship recruiting.

As for networking, I went to a pretty networking-heavy (in terms of the alumni culture) target school, and I never really found it helpful. It was good for getting a lay of the land and understanding the culture of certain banks, but it would seldom "make the difference." I feel like (for internships), it mostly comes down to applying online. Again, though, networking can be great for getting info on the team after you've scheduled an interview. I networked a ton however, and reflecting on it, it was pretty much a waste of time.

Also, MBAs are stupid.

 

Semi targets are schools with good connections with some BB’s. For context, I think my school ranks top 25. I was not aware that I should be applying this early in the fall for summer internships. Is there anything I can do to get a leg up to increase my chances of landing an internship?
 

I appreciate the insight on how your networking results went. I felt like if I spammed every single alumni it would be counter productive.

 

So I'm assuming somewhere around the Georgetown/UVA/UNC/NYU/Umich level? Although those are all target schools, so I assume not?

If you're around those, however, you're probably in a decent spot. I would reach out to your career center and ask their thoughts. Again, if it's October and you have nothing, I would veer toward a PE/VC/TAS internship. A girl at my shop had a VC internship and I had a TAS internship. Full-time recruiting into IB is definitely an option (just a more difficult one).

 

Was in your position with a worse GPA. I would not have my hopes up for top BB or EB, but there are still opportunities. I would send out hundreds of emails weekly and know your story/technicals for every call.

Also would look into getting a part-time internship during the fall. 

 

There’s hope for me yet lol. Do they really offer juniors a fall internship? I was thinking about joining my schools portfolio group during the fall, but would internship experience be stronger on my resume?

 

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