How to get an internship in trading

First off, love the name. 

I didn't get my role in a traditional way but can still give hopefully some insight. Trading is a little different from IB in terms of credentials and academic prestige. Yes, you still need to be smart, articulate, and intellectually curious, but you don't need to spend months learning financial modeling and grinding out excel practice sets.

Networking is absolutely huge in S&T. It is still very much a relationship business. While the algos and electronic trading has taken some of that away, people here still value relationships as much as they do work ethic and intelligence. Top tips I'd give:

Understand the product that you are trading. If you're fresh out of school, they won't expect you to know much. But, please understand something about it. My desk does bonds and they would scoff at anyone if they had zero clue what one was. But they also understand you never learned how they trade and that you need time to learn that. Just make sure you ask questions and remain interested.

Be personable and articulate. You are talking a lot. Either with clients or colleagues. You are at your desk for ~10-11hrs every day with no breaks. You have to mesh well with the desk. Outside of business, you should be able to click with the other guys. Personality is huge. We have interviewed several people who were very smart, but they had sub par social skills and we passed. We won't take someone who lacks intelligence, but being great at conversation and connecting with others is a huge plus.

Have an unparalleled work-ethic. You will be brought on as a junior. You will be treated as the lowest man on the totem pole. And, for the first 2-3 months, you will do nothing but the most boring and tedious work while you study to get your finra licenses (useless without them). This is half to make you use of some of your down time, but also to prove how much you're willing to do to be successful. If you think grabbing lunch is beneath you, you're gonna get canned really quick. All your bosses did it and you will too. Yes sir, no sir, and try and find positives in the daily grind.

My rec on what you should do, just cast a wide net. These guys get hundreds, if not thousands, of applications. You should still do that, but be personable. Send them an email, call them on the phone. Yeah, you'll probably get chewed out by some (wouldn't want to work for them anyway), but the best guys in the business will appreciate your effort. Reaching out to new clients and building a business is part of the gig. If you do that with a desk, they will absolutely respect it and either help you improve or even give you a shot on the desk. Worst thing that can happen is they hang up on you.