Internship opportunities for summer after freshmen year (London) (target school)
I'm about to attend a target UK university this September and was hoping if there are anyways I can land a summer internship at any financial firms after my freshmen year.
I was hoping to spend the summer after my first year gaining experience, preferably in skills involved in IBD (M&A), and practice my financial modelling skills. Are there any go-to boutique firms in London I should try contacting for possible internships?
I've already started enrolling to all the finance-related clubs in my school, but, of course, I'll explore other things that are unrelated to finance during my first year as well.
A fair few people get summer internships for first year but definitely not for any of the main firms. They tend to be underwriting/risk management/brokerage or something or the other. These don't typically have structured recruiting cycles and require networking.
It is doable use LinkedIn Jobs, cold-email firms, and look for internships in stuff like Real Estate, Project Management, Tech, Healthcare, Startups are really good imo. PM me if you need more help.
Network as much as you can; upperclassmen in those finance clubs and alumni from your school will be the most willing to help and have the most useful info. Things like telling you where opportunities are/which firms, possibly flagging your resume or advocating you to HR, or even helping you figure out which group you want and where (culture makes a big difference in how much you'll enjoy the experience and how much you learn).
LinkedIn filters are helpful for finding people and you can look up the email format for their firm on Google. Reach out as early as possible, and keep in touch; have a call or send an email every 1-2 months, a little more frequently as recruiting season gets close. The longer they know you the more they will do to help you out! Don't outright ask for a referral or anything, but say you're looking for an internship and ask for advice; once you apply, send an email or have a catch-up call where you mention you applied and ask if there's anything you can do to best position yourself while you wait to hear back.
People lower on the ladder tend to be the most responsive but have the least influence on getting you to the interview; ask your basic questions to them so you can ask the more impressive detailed ones for the higher up. They usually don't like getting a question an analyst could have answered.
Keeping a spreadsheet of networking contacts and notes on the conversation and applications with login info is SUPER helpful as well.
Do mock interviews as much as you can, and good luck!
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