Summer opportunities for an undergrad sophomore

laftexas: Thanks a lot I appreciate it really much, I'll get to it right away!

I am a year behind you, just finished my freshman year, but am in the same boat. Cold call and email local pwm shops. You can figure out some firms emails using their names and some are listed (like mentioned above). Obviously go for the big names first, but reach out to as many as you have to. I have had success with this so far, waiting to hear back on a potential internship offer. If it is at all possible make sure to reach out to FAs that went to your high school or college, they are much more receptive and willing to help. Good luck.

Are you from Hong Kong or in Hong Kong right now? I'm sure you can find a lot of related positions in Hong Kong, or even Shenzhen.

zman: how would I know what local pwm firms are around me?

salavadorkoo: I currently reside in NY, decided to beef up my resume instead of going back to HK this summer, but I'm still having trouble looking for a PWM.

I cold called the local ML branch today but the guy in charge of internships wasn't around so I e-mailed him. I hope he'll get back to me tomorrow with some good news. In the mean time I'll keep cold calling and e-mailing.

Xhongxkongx

I used the website of the chamber of commerce for my area. It should have a business directory. Another technique I picked up from a suggestion on another thread is using google maps. Just search asset management or financial advisors and it should show you locations with phone numbers, addresses and sometimes websites. I had the most success from using the chamber of commerce website.

Also, make sure to call people back like a week later if you don't hear back from them. VancouverCanucks2011 filled me in that if you follow up a second time, you are more likely to get a response. After that I would suggest moving on, although some have had success with trying to contact a third time.

I would suggest contacting as many people as possible. I didn't get any real potential offers until after probably emailing 30 contacts. Also, I just found out today that calling people is much more efficient than emailing people. It is much harder to be ignored.

zman: Thanks for sharing such useful tips. I totally forgot about how I could use Google maps. As for chamber of commerce what is it really? I looked it and it says it's a "form of business network" under wikipedia. I'm running short on time right now but I'll look more into it tomorrow morning.

The gentlemen I e-mailed today in charge of the internship program e-mailed me back telling me to "call him back" tomorrow, so I hope I can spin it off into an internship. Is there anything I need to know about PWM in advance? Like the tasks I'm supposed to do or would showing him that I'm interested enough? Tips and advices would be appreciated.

Just show interest. They might ask you if you have any backround in finance, but won't expect much. They will probably just have you doing more mundane things so they can focus more on meeting clients. From the people I've spoken to, thats what it seems my internship would be like.

And a chamber of commerce is basically a formal business network. Just try searching "(name of your town or a close city) chamber of commerce" and it should pop up. Its purpose is to strengthen businesses by working together, etc. My experience is that have events at different businesses for networking, creating events in the community to support local business, stuff like that. The best resource for you is their business directory just to find out what fin. services businesses there are in the area.

I've been cold calling for a few days now, still no results. A lot of the branch office say they're full. An adviser from MSSB told me that I need to know an existing adviser before hand so they can sponsor me for an internship, given this type of circumstance that puts me out of luck since I do not know anyone in the field of PWM.

I didn't know anyone. I would just keep at it. Eventually, hopefully you will find someone who needs help calling clients, etc. and they'll let you intern for them. Something someone who already went through this process told me was to maybe focus on the young people in the office (i.e. not the VPs or SVPs) because they pretty much are just doing maintenance on their existing accounts. They younger FAs in the office are still trying to expand their book and gain clients, so they are more likely to need the help. Hope this helps.