Summer 2018 Internship Advice for a Clueless Freshman

I'm a freshman at a target school in New England and hope to intern in a trading firm this Summer 2018. Where do I start in looking for internships? Is it too late already -- I saw that jobs are being offered starting August? Some upperclassmen told me that I have a strong chance at such companies, but I have no background knowledge in finance or trading. I've done extremely well in math and programming contests during high school and am taking advanced math and computer science classes right now.

How do I get started, and how do I prepare to maximize my chances of landing an internship?

4 Comments
 

I'm from one of the two schools you mentioned. Currently I'm talking to a few upperclassmen who have done internships, and they all told me not to worry since I should be able to handle it with my mathematical background.

Is spamming HFs and PTs a good idea, and very slightly modifying my cover letter to match the job descriptions?

 

in my experience, applying blindly won't really help you (although you can do it regardless)

i've made it a point to never apply to a place I don't have a referral/OCR at and i think you'll find that doing it that way is a lot more effective

if you can find a position online then message 2-3 people at that company, and with a solid background like yours im sure they'll be itching to help

 

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