Freshman College Summer Internship with Management Firm? Yes or No?

Hello Everyone,

I recently met a classmate that is older and is the floor manager at a Management Firm. They manage a bunch of different companies for some "rich old guy," (this is what my classmate told me.)

I told him I was looking for a summer internship and he said that he could line me up for an unpaid internship at his office, (he said he would vouch for me.)

He said I would work long hours doing somewhat trivial work.

My question to WSO is whether or not I should go ahead and take his offer or if I should try to find a paid internship or even an internship that is dealing more with financials. I've been looking to apply to a local Merrill Lynch branch as well as some smaller financial firms in my area.

I would like to work in real estate, possibly at a REIT, but I'm not quite sure yet.

In advance, I appreciate all your feedback.

Sincerely,

Spencer Ogden

 

I'm tempted to say that as a Freshman (I'm in the same boat as you), you should really just take whatever you can get. We can't be choosers at this point, and you're going to be pretty hard pressed to find firms willing to even interview you as a freshman unless you have some outstanding networking abilities.

Besides, I think the majority of WSO would agree that it is not imperative to have a finance internship your freshman-sophomore summer, so whatever you end up doing is really just icing on your cake.

 

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