Searching for a first year internship 🙂
Hey all, I’m a first year pre-comm student at UVA and I know the likelihood of me getting a finance-related internship is slim to none but I still want to try my luck. I’ve reached out to some close family friends/connections for references and such but I was hoping I could get some tips or advice from some of you who have been in my position before or can offer some relevant guidance. I’ve been applying to most of the “Summer 2023…” internships I see on LinkedIn and handshake that are open to first years. Should I be aiming to apply to more than 5 per day or how should I go about doing this? Also, if I see that some company I’m applying to has UVA alumni employed should I contact them before or after I apply? Or should I even contact them at all? My resume isn’t anything crazy but I think it’s pretty solid for my first year. Thanks in advance.
Start cold emailing, as a first year you want to make your own internship position rather than apply to structured positions. By cold emailing for an internship your applying for a position that never existed, so you or competing with no one.
How would you suggest finding people to cold email? Are there any specific websites or methods?
Check the U Michigan Banking Guides:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b00e278a2772cd1d9f5d164/t/5bd0e…
Then write your own email and have some seniors (that recruited successfully) give you feedback.
Couple of things I did...
Use Linkedin, go to alumni, filter by investment banking, or investment management, then filter keywords by founder, principal, partner, or director. Should get a lot of results and find their email by going to company website.
Also, a quick google search typing in investment banks near me for either UVA or your hometown.
WSO company database should also give you some results. Also, reach out to upperclassmen and see if they did an internship anywhere interesting as a first year or sophomore, and reach out to them and ask about it.
You are short on time so I'd recommend a search fund. Apply to as many as you can and hopefully one lands.
Just wanted to say thanks to you cuz I had no idea what a search fund was until you mentioned it and that’s what I ended up doing this summer
Glad I was able to help and I'm happy its working out for you :)
On a side note, I would also start looking for sophomore summer internships. Try to reach out to small IB boutiques or middle market private equity firms with at least a one or two dozen people in your local area. NYC would be ideal but that might be a waste of time as local boutiques are more familiar / hold UVA in higher regard. Once you get that, start lightly networking in October with IB/PE for junior summer then ramp it up before Christmas. Try to have 2-3 calls per week until most applications open in Feb/Mar. Hope that helps
Yep that’s what I’ve been doing. I haven’t really gotten any responses yet but I’m certainly going to keep trying 👍
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