Is working for free looked down upon?

why exactly would you even want this? do you think they would take you on because you don't want a salary? Banks have money, the salary isn't the deterrent. the candidate is. It is true they are trying to save money, but the right talent is attracted by the right salary.

If it's for a freshman or sophomore internship, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. If the shop is legit and you're getting some good experience, it will help you with recruiting. And no one will ask in interviews whether you were paid or not. Different story if it's for junior summer

People always seem to have a very categorical take on one side or the other when it comes to this issue. Like most things, “it depends.” Some people may think it shows desperation, others think it shows hustle. Just do what you think is best and it’ll work out fine 

I think if you are qualified, capable, and willing to do the job - you should be paid for it. Even it is for SA/internship, etc.

If enough people work for free (for whatever reason they might have) - employers might get used to it and they won't pay anyone going forward or they might reduce compensation for this group of employees.

If you offer to work for free they’ll think something is wrong with you.

I wouldn't offer it, but just because of the optics of it. If its an informal internship, they already know that they can just offer you an unpaid internship. Its also just a good habit to get into of not low balling yourself.

I encourage you to look at the background of your “career advisors”. Very often they are liberal arts majors who have never even taken a business or finance course much less interned or worked in the industry. 

It's a bad idea and definitely looked down upon. 

It also can be a legal liability and it’s definitely a time drain, which is why it doesn't happen at many reputable firms. 

Liability - the problem w/ working for 'free' is from the firm's view you can be a legal liability if something happened to you on their premises. It raises all kinds of legal red flags. Say you're working for 'free' informally for someone at a boutique and you for whatever reason get injured on their premises, what happens then?   Are you an employee? Or were you classified as a ‘visitor’ for the day as you’re working for free? Not sure if a boutique’s legal division / HR would want to put up w/ this, especially in the US where everyone sues everyone for any reason. Obviously, there are ways around this (credit programs w/ the school, and it differs geographically, etc..) but I’m not sure many decent US firms would want to deal w/ this in general, mainly because they don’t have to.  

Time drain – the bigger problem is you'll be taking away time from ppl who have limited time. Training someone who is inexperienced takes time, often someone senior can do the job faster than take the time to explain it. In an industry where time is highly valued, this is a problem. No one wants a ‘project’ to take on for a few months that will waste everyone’s time, especially for someone who is gone in a few months. With any job, even an internship, you need to prove you can bring something to the table to make someone senior’s life easier. Working for free isn’t that proof as the risk of the 'free' intern subtracting value is way too high.

It’s pure cuckery - no “job” is worth working for free - that’s slavery

It depends. I had no IB experience and did not get a single interview so I took an unpaid internship, but I only worked 15 hours a week. However, that internship opened so many doors in terms of interviews later on. I would recommend it, but don't do it for longer than a few months. Once you start adding value, you should be paid. But as someone said above, it is a good investment into yourself. 

Lmfao working for free is absolutely fine if you have no experience trying to get exposure. All these morons saying it makes you look desperate. So? Who gives a flying fuck what people think. You’re trying to get experience. This is assuming you’re trying to get your foot in the door. If a kid told me this I would respect the hustle not look down on him. Fucking insecure faggots, how can you say working for free is a bad thing. I assume OP has no experience and is trying to be productive with his time. Working for free a couple days in the week would be a great way to get experience on your resume and learn more about the industry. To OP: fuck what these morons say, if you have the opportunity to work for free and have no other options. Fucking take it.

Employers perspective. Liability plus hard to get great commitment out of people if they aren’t being compensated.

Personally I think it’s wrong not to pay someone for work. It creates an unfair environment for those who can’t afford to work for $0. Obviously that’s not a you problem but it’s why I personally have always paid interns. 

I completely understand people's perspectives about rightfully being paid for your work, but many times, experience trumps the pay, especially when you don't have any direct experience. I did an unpaid sophomore IB internship at a boutique and got to be on two deals that I could talk about during both SA and FT recruiting. The point is that if you had two options: unpaid IB internship or paid non-IB work, wouldn't it make more sense to take any IB work so you can say you actually did that work and were in that environment? This is assuming you don't need the extra money. In that case, I totally get it. For someone like me who didn't have any impressive finance background in college (no competitive clubs or special networks), this was the only way I could compete with the best IB candidates from my college.

I think working for free does have its benefits. Usually, since they are not paying you, you can get away with putting in jack-shit effort and still listing them on your resume. This is especially useful for school year internships. I listed a WM and IB internship in my resume that were both unpaid. I didn't do jack shit, but I got to say I interned in WM and IB. I ended up landing BB IB for jr SA. 

However, I did still have a great GPA and grinded technicals though.

My question then is if offering to work for free when cold calling boutiques can show commitment and desire to do work and therefore be seen as a "plus" during the process, rather than desperation. Thoughts? Context - freshman trying to find effective ways to get an internship at a boutique bank or small PE firm in my hometown, which sometimes have only 2-10 employees.

If you have no relevant IB experience, I would take it. I was in a similar situation last year for an unpaid PE internship, but it actually helped a lot in securing a SA offer since it looked good on my resume to having PE experience and was able to learn a lot and talk abt it in interviews. With that said, I think someone else also said this, but for unpaid internships - you can get around with doing the absolute minimum and just fucking around all day. 

fuck your career advisor. everybody starts somewhere - get that internship on the resume then you can chase the bag later. besides future employers won't even know it was unpaid anyway so its really a matter of can you can stomach the costs and expenses of working for free for a couple of months (commute, meals, accommodation etc)

and dont worry about the liability stuff, the company will make you sign a waiver or some kind of contract anyways

also fuck optics and fuck "lowballing" - far too premature to worry about those...

We had a guy come into the office with his resume and asking for an unpaid internship. We don't have unpaid interns, but the guy ended up with an interview. I think any reputable firm will pay their interns regardless if they offer to work for free. For most banks, the salary is not the large cost, it's the alternative cost of having senior employees work with interns rather than deals.  

maybe for a startup that doesn't have money....in which case you should be working for equity...to be negotiated

I did an unpaid internship (that I found through WSO). It was in NYC and not only was I not paid, I had to cover my expenses (room and board). Everyone I knew thought I was crazy. But it helped me. I had a STEM undergrad / work experience and was about to do an MBA. 

When I applied for jobs, one of the banks I interviewed at looked at my experience and flat out asked me if it was unpaid. I said yes. But I was honest: I was a hungry kid who wanted to learn more about the industry. I thought it was a rewarding career for someone who was intellectually curious about what makes a business successful and valuable.

I think this is what helped me stand out from all my peers who were job hunting (also had great profiles, good grades, excellent work experience, strong networking effort etc.). I got the job and so far things have been pretty good.

There are very legit employers that unfortunately dabble in those kind of practices. 

Worst case - they result in classism within the organization. Poor, or even normal kids, can't afford unpaid internships in some wildly expensive city. So you end up with either rich kids sponsored by their parents, or kids that end up working 2-3 side jobs, or even living as homeless people because they can't afford the rent. IIRC, there was some controversy with UN handing out either unpaid, or extremely low-paying internships, which resulted in interns basically camping in tents to afford those gigs. 

And then there's the signaling...what does it say about some firm that can't even afford (or care) to pay even some symbolical sum?

Only times I'll approve unpaid internships are if: 

1. They're through school, and you get credits. 

2. They're through some unemployment/training program, and at least you get covered basic living expenses.  

Lots of good points on here. I’m currently doing an unpaid internship, it’s actually proven to be valuable both in terms of getting experience and other people I network with seem more open to helping me out. I didn’t offer to do it for free, the person I was talking to offered to bring me on a couple days a week and I accepted. I wouldn’t say I was desperate, but being a current junior and not having any internships prior to this, it has definitely been very helpful to me. One thing to note, this internship is in my home city, I wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. It would be kinda fucked up if I had to go to another city and they wouldn’t even pay minimum wage.

Also I don’t listen to what my career advisors have to say, I’ve found they really don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t mean that disrespectfully but they haven’t been very helpful to me. 

As a young person looking to build a resume, I don't think it's automatically a negative at all. The exposure you get and the resume bullet point can be worth far more than anything you would make that summer. 

As an employer though, if you're giving kids "unpaid internships," you should be fucking embarrassed. 

In short no.  However, it does if you're not able to negotiate / leverage it into a paid position later on.  I've seen too many people over the years who come in as free labor and either stay at the same firm for years making nothing, or have moved onto a different firm in the same unpaid position.  The goal in this industry is always to make money, never forget what you're worth.

I'd say if you're someone looking to gain experience, there's nothing wrong with going for a short, unpaid internship. Of course, make sure you don't necessarily sacrifice up a better paid opportunity in a related finance field or your time in focusing on getting good grades, etc... but sometimes getting those bullets on your resume does pay off. Can say that I've seen people from all sorts of schools, non-target/target, doing this and having it work out in their favor when they land a solid BB role or consulting gig. 

Side note: I did take an unpaid role at a RE IB once and there was a terrible culture/huge expectations of me as a busy student, so just watch out. 

Never ever ever ever work for free. In this capitalistic society, if you're willing to work for free, it just shows that you don't value yourself and you have no back bone. Period.

In any hiring process, previous work experience will always stand out against candidates who don’t have it....

banking is a closed off industry, once you initially get your foot in the door and some experience it becomes much more open. 
 

not everyone is graduating from an Ivy, going through the typical recruiting, and landing as an analyst at a BB bank...if this is not you (and even if it is and you have no other options), 100% worth it. 
 

Anyone saying you shouldn’t be doing this was probably on the track I mentioned before. If you want to break in, and an opportunity presents itself, take it. 
 

In the real world people respect grit. Taking an unpaid internship just as a means to get your foot in the door and get some real experience is a good indicator of how you will be as a potential employee.  
 

your school career advisor does not actually have a vested interest in your success. You have to do what’s best for you.  

This goes back to the grit comment... doing whatever it took to get the job done. 
 

here’s a painful fact: the reason you aren’t getting paid internship opportunities is because there are other better qualified or better connected candidates.

 If you take the internship and someone asks you down the road why you took an unpaid internship and if you undervalued yourself, it’s an easy answer, because you were interested in banking and willing to do what needed to be done to get the necessary experience.  
 

your self worth does not matter to anyone but you, so take the internship.  You may end up hating banking and realizing you don’t want to go into it after all. You may like it, and this could be the opportunity that opened up a career in banking for you.  

if your past sophmore dont do it 

I ended up pursuing unpaid internships in finance after I struck out applying to basically every paid internship that could position one well for an IB SA application. As someone who has literally no connections to the finance industry, it was invaluable in terms of boosting my application and I would argue one of the sole factors behind my ability to get my junior internship, and now my full-time role. I ended up using a good chunk of my savings on housing for the summer, all of which I ended up remaking the following summer during my junior internship. 

The big thing to remember with paid internships that position someone well for an IB application is that there are really only so many of them. For example, I had a paid internship offer with a small, random government agency vs an unpaid internship offer from a small private equity firm. I went with the unpaid internship because it was a much better job to have on my resume for IB applications and because I knew they would never ask about pay during this process. Some of my closest friends were in similar positions, chose otherwise, and then didn't get into any well-known firms for their junior summer. Ultimately, the decision is yours and it's not like anyone will know after the fact. Not all paid internships are created equally, and you need to choose the best option that you have given the circumstances. That being said, I would not recommend it after sophomore summer. 

It didn't work in my case. I tried to get some unpaid position but they didn't interested in me. I think, they prefer to pay an intern who add more value to the firm than a free intern with fewer resources.

Maybe of free internship consider joining a good student society that focuses on finance. You gain a good experience and it boosts your CV. Without doing really shitty jobs or actually losing money on it. 

If you do it right I can be leveraged more than an internship position at some random shop for free.