Online internship at an U.S boutique, from Europe?

Would it be a good idea, as an European, to cold-call U.S boutiques for an online summer "internship"? There's a 5-hour time difference between NY and London. This means that if a typical workday is 9AM-2AM NY time, I would be able to work 2PM-7AM NY time. That's a 13-hour overlap and I could work when they sleep, which seems to be a competitive advantage.

I need some IB experience to put on my resume. Given the current covid context, my only option is to cold-call boutiques and offer them to do some grunt work for free. I'm not expecting any kind of real, structured online internship like the ones organized by BBs and EBs, I'm thinking more about communicating through emails/Microsoft Teams and completing Powerpoints, compiling data, etc. I'll be happy as long as I get to put the name of an investment bank/boutique on my resume, even if that means doing tasks even worse than what summer analysts usually do.

I live in the UK and have two alternatives: target London boutiques or target U.S ones. Now, I'm a bit reluctant with targeting London boutiques, since my current university is not that good. I'll study for an MSc at a top London uni next year so I'd prefer to wait until then to start networking aggressively.

What's your opinion? U.S, or UK?

6 Comments
 
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First of all, the visa question may come up. Are you a US citizen? If not: - The bank may not hire you as an employee on a contractual basis (neither FTE nor contractor) due to legal requirements. - Due to this, you can't get paid. I don't know how corporations look at "volunteers" who want to work for them, but without any legally binding framework around it and no pay. It may bring up issues around compliance and how employees are hired, confidentiality, etc. On top of all of this you are also a foreigner in a different nation. - Some companies may be wary of "a random guy calling them from another country" who wants to know what they are working on...

However, I find the idea ingenious; due to the pandemic they may have a hiring freeze or other issues and still would want someone on board. You are obviously motivated and keen to get their brand on your CV.

I would email/cold call them but also have a few additional examples why this is a good idea and how this could be structured.

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Well I think that boutiques are facing the same issues globally, but you sound like you'd kill to get a crappy job at a boutique so I'm just telling you that you'd be better off trying in London than in NYC. His shop apparently has fired people in the US, but all good here in Europe so far... but eh we'll see its just an intership if they are realyl not busy they'll tell him.

 

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