What can I do to gain finance experience to apply for internships?

Hi, I am a rising sophomore at Duke, currently have a 3.71 GPA, and my major is undeclared right now. When I do declare, I plan for it to be a double major in Mathematics/Economics finance concentration. My goal is to get a sales and trading internship next summer (2011, I will be a rising junior). I have been reading about what makes a good candidate, and prior finance experience seems to be at the top of the list. Unfortunately, I have no prior finance experience.

Is there anything I can do to change this and get finance experience between now and when I will have to apply for internships? Is there anything else (besides networking) I can do to make myself a better internship applicant?

thanks for any responses

2 Comments
 

obviously read the books...but aside from that...do you have any personal portfolio experience? build and manage a portfolio and document your strategies, beat your target index etc. and you will thus gain credibility within an interview. Another strategy, hard as fuck to actually complete, is round up investors (fund raising to benefit some sort of charity) to do "mock" funding in that you will lock in a said contribution from each and only call upon if your portfolio experiences gains at the end of your contractual term. A grad student at my university did this and it worked out quite well. All proceeds go to charity of course but it is by far the best experience before you actually have real money.

 

Minima quod libero aliquid cupiditate odio et. Et vel et ut ea omnis enim ea expedita. Repellat in vero harum ut odio quia.

looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?

Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Guggenheim Partners 02 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 99.0%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (57) $264
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”