Sophomore summer trading internship help
I'm a sophomore at a midwest target (UChicago/Northwestern) and my internship at a boutique Asset Management firm just fell through for summer so now its almost April and I don't have an internship. Ideally I'd want to work at a small prop shop in Chicago for the summer but most of these places don't have any recruiting and I'm not finding many alums on linkedin, so how is the best way to go about trying to land an internship at one of these firms? I've cold emailed HR at about 20 firms and haven't received any responses and our alumni database isn't turning up much either.
I wouldn't e-mail HR. Especially this late in the game.
Just do a general search for Chicago AM firms and explore their websites. If I don't have alumni at a firm I go to their "About Us" or "Team" page and find someone who has ANYTHING in common with me whether it be degree, hometown, or position at the firm that's closest to what I want (what I usually look for). I cold e-mail them asking for an informational interview and at this point I include any internships their firm may offer. Something like:
"I was hoping I could have 15 minutes of your time over the phone sometime within the next week to speak with you about your experience in the investment industry, as well as any summer internship positions your firm may offer."
HR definitely won't be much help to you, but at boutique firms getting friendly with someone on the team who can push your resume to the HR people and make things happen.
Ironically, I just scheduled a phone interview with an MD at a boutique Chicago AM firm earlier this morning using this approach.
Sophomore Summer - Sophmore at target school dead set on going into trading (Originally Posted: 12/27/2012)
I'm currently a sophomore at a target school and I'm dead set on going into trading for internships and as a career. Unfortunately, most places do not take sophomores as interns and my family has absolutely no connections in the finance world.
I currently have some alternatives for this summer in case I don't get any internships (and these alternatives are things that I would really enjoy doing). I just wanted to know how these would look when I begin recruiting for internships in junior year.
My plan:
Since my summer starts in May and ends in late-August, my plan is to tour around 20 countries in Europe with 2 friends for ~6 weeks starting right after classes end at the end of April.
After that, my plan is to work on improving my trading by reading books, mock-trading, and getting investors for a fund I started as a partnership with 3 friends from college. We have around 12000 dollars and trade a few different instruments as a means to gain proper experience as well as knowledge about the instruments and how to trade, which cannot be garnered from mock trading.
I will thoroughly enjoy this but I'm worried whether this will come off well for recruiters next year. In terms of my resume, would you recommend that I find an internship in an avenue of finance that doesn't interest me one bit over the plan I have outlined?
I would definitely take real-world experience over trying to start your own fund with some buddies. As a soph, you should definitely be doing an internship this summer. So what if it's not S&T, you should take whatever you can get. Also, try doing research with a professor for the spring semester, which is another great way to boost your resume. Things that matter: 1) GPA > 3.8 2) experience on resume 3) being involved in the school Hope this helps, and GL.
I agree w Taylor12, go for the real experience; it gives you something concrete to talk about, gives you references and you can read, mock trade or work on your fund in your spare time. And it's not a huge deal for junior year internships..they know how hard it is to land one as a soph. Btw are you referring more to S&T or prop?
Freshman- bb pwm Sophomore- regional boutique Junior- elite boutique Senior- elite boutique/ bb ft offer
Sophomore Summer for Trading (Originally Posted: 10/30/2009)
I was wondering if there was any typical internship for a trader for sophomore summer? I have recently been thinking about trading and I know for sophomore summer for I-Banking an internship in corp fin, corp dev, PWM, etc. is great. But none of those have much, if any, bearing on trading. What do rising juniors do over their summer if they want to go into trading eventually?
There isn't much available unless you are URM to be honest.
My soph summer I took classes and worked at a small communication software firm, it is rare that non-URM have S&T internships as a Soph. If you really want something serious try for PWM or AM I guess just to get a foot in the door and make contacts, but it is not necessary in my opinion.
Def as long as you do something finance related its good. My interviewer for SA S&T did seem to like the PE internship I did summer of sophomore year.
What does URM stand for? Is there some sort of abbreviation key on this website?
"Underrepresented Minority"
As for the abbreviation key, I thought I saw one around here someplace, but I couldn't find it again on a quick search...
Yup URM is Under-Represented Minority, which essentially means minorities that are not asian.
Worked at a major commodity merchant and traded derivatives for the small producer book. Get creative in your search and you can find something good. Think beyond the BB's.
You can look into hedge funds that are not as hierarchical as BBs. But you have to be sharp, quant-wise, to even be considered at these places.
If you are at a target school, Goldman Sachs often recruits sophomores as well (they are interviewed). So if you know your stuff and have a strong academic background, you stand a chance of at least having your resume reviewed.
I also know of several people who participated in Goldman's Spring Break internship in trading and the former Spring Break program at Lehman Brothers - check and see if you can submit an application for those. If you perform well, it can translate into summer internships your sophomore/junior summers.
Breaking Bankers
Chase Us, Break In! http://chasingconsultantsbreakingbankers.blogspot.com/
lots of things out there. you just have to hunt.
There are proprietary trading firms that hire sophomores for the summer in addition to juniors.
my bro in law will be spending his summer on a desk and only a freshman. he cold called
sales&trade sophmore? (Originally Posted: 01/27/2015)
is it possiple to land a boutique sales and trade internship sophmore year? Non target . Can someone list me some boutiques that do sales and trading?Is it even possiple Anyone here from baruch that landed a sales and trade internship?
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