What to do with my summer

I'm a sophomore at a semi-target and right now I'm studying abroad and having a hell of a time trying to get any interviews for this summer. It is partly my fault for not applying earlier, so I am not too surprised. If I can't get anything for this summer, what are some recommendations of things to do to spend my time so I can spin it favorably in an interview next year? I know all of the usual things, like keep networking, take classes etc. But if I do something different, like traveling or volunteering, could that still work? Or would I just look as if I had wasted my whole summer.

4 Comments
 

cold call every boutique possible and do an unpaid internship. and try to take as many courses as you can during the summer. so you can spread out the workload for your fall, especially your spring semester when recruiting season comes.

best of luck.

 
Best Response

You're fine. When I was in school I transferred (from one non-target to another) bc I wanted to go to a better party school, and the school I transferred to required you to take classes for 1 summer to graduate, which I did during my sophomore summer. In the fall, I spent 99% of my time researching companies, networking, and cold-calling until I landed an internship for the winter break. I also got a part-time internship in state govt in a finance-related but definitely not IBD/AM during the school year. Combined with solid grades and market knowledge, this was plenty to land me in a top global AM.

If you have good grades and being at a semi-target, do something fun for the summer because chances are it will probably be your last one to do whatever the hell you want like travel, etc.

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