Internship for Freshman?
I am currently a freshman at a target. I am interested in getting an investment/finance internship this summer. However, I don't really have too much official experience (which I understand most freshmen don't though) aside from a bit of basic self-learning. I have a few questions:
- Is it too late now to start looking? I thought this was the time most firms would be hiring, but I heard that it's already too late...
- How should I go about doing this? I've applied to most of the internships through my school's career website, but didn't really get any responses/interviews. Should I just look up a list of boutique firms in my area and just email someone in those?
Thanks in advance.
Nyc area if anybody is curious
Bump
Honestly it's hard to get an internship in anything as a freshman, no matter what you're going into. The exception for freshmen + sophomores getting big internships comes either through your connections, through diversity, or by the hand of God. It's definitely not too late yet to get something finance-related though.
Look for small PE + IB shops first. Your single best chance is through your family's network. If you have an uncle who owns a shop or if you have an uncle who knows a guy who owns a shop, that's your best chance of getting in somewhere as a freshman. If you don't know anyone, try to network with alumni (people who aren't going to be straight connections to a big bank yet though. You don't want to run through those connections until you're looking for a bigger junior summer internship because you can't just hit them up every summer and hope they'll help out). If you don't have any alumni which fit this bill, try to cold email boutiques around where you live.
As a freshman, it's hard to get anything IB/PE related, and if you get anything finance related then you'll be in a good boat. If you don't find a local IB/PE shop to go to, you can always reach out to local businesses and look for something finance/accounting related. I have a buddy going into consulting (he's a sophomore going to McKinsey this summer through diversity programs) and his freshman year, he worked for a fast-growing protein pancake brand as an FP&A analyst. Sometimes you get lucky because they're just looking for certain types of people instead of specific experience. That first internship set him up for huge things his junior year, as well as his sophomore internship because he stood out among candidates.
If you get ABSOLUTELY nothing, you can always go into a sales role (selling pest control or home security systems or something) and spin it off as leadership + sales + finance experience. A lot of people work for an insurance company called Northwestern Mutual their freshman year because the company claims to set up portfolios when you're really just selling insurance to your friends and family. The internship SUCKS, but it's better than nothing.
You'll do well if you're at a big school. Everyone notices a local name and the prestige carries weight. Just try your best to reach out to anyone and everyone without burning contacts who could lead to bigger things in the future. There's always hope when you're starting as early as a freshman. Also, try to do as many case comps as you can. This kind of stuff is valuable experience, which I wish I knew as a freshman.
Thanks! Ended up talking with a firm and someone said that, if I wanted to, I could become an intern there. However, I followed up and no response for a while. What should I do?
If they have no internships posted online currently, I'd say to follow up again but not pester them about an internship right off the bat. Reach out to your contact and basically have another informational interview, then follow up again after another week or so and ask if they have any available internships you can apply for. The worst thing you could do is just ask like you've already got the internship, even if they told you that you did because it comes off as entitled.
If they do have an internship open, follow up and reach out for an informational interview, then ask a little bit about the internship at the end of your phone call with them. Make sure the conversation is natural and free-flowing instead of leaning towards "hey I want to use you for an internship".
If you want, there are plenty of resources for questions to ask like on this post here: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/how-to-crush-your-informational-in…
Janitor
Target in NYC, so I'm assuming Columbia. I would recommend reaching out to alumni at local boutiques and asking to intern for free.
Try getting an unpaid internship at a boutique -- since you're in NY I assume you can live with your parents. If you can't do that, big name PWM shops are known to sometimes hire freshmen. Both of these roles don't really start recruiting until March in my experience so you should be good to go. Just start cold emailing. Above all, don't listen to any old person's advice that they didn't do anything freshman year and they ended up fine so stop being a tryhard blah blah blah... Unfortunately its not like that anymore. When you start recruiting your freshman internship will likely be the only meaningful thing on your resume.
Would an unpaid internship look bad for a sophomore?
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