Internships in US as an international
I am a sophomore international student in the US, originally from the UK. I've always had trouble with selecting my desired career path, and to this day I am keeping my options open while still being unsure with regards to what I really want to do. In terms of IB, having spoken to a professor at my school (a fellow Brit) who worked on Wall Street not too long ago, she assured that there was no point applying for IB internships to Wall Street/any US location as an international, as they simply have enough Americans that are as qualified and who won't require lawyer and administrative fees for visa sponsorship etc like I would. In the UK, there are no 'sophomore' internships available, as most undergrad courses in the UK only last 3 years and internships are only offered in the 'penultimate' year of study, i.e. 2nd year. Thus, I am not eligible for any summer analyst positions in the UK this upcoming summer as well.
This brings the question: what should my next steps be? I'm also interested in consulting, but that also falls into a similar bracket where there aren't any sophomore structured programs that I could apply to & be eligible for. The tech startup world is also of interest to me, so I am trying to research/network right now to find opportunities for next summer, but it is proving to be a long and uncertain process. If anyone could anyone provide any valuable insight to this, I would really appreciate it.
First off, your professor is wrong. I'm an international going to a major IB next summer and have several international friends from school going to top BBs/EBs in NY. You have a shot at IB, just gun for the banks that sponsor and don't bother with the banks that don't.
If you also want to recruit in the UK, then apply to Spring Weeks ASAP. You're a sophomore, so you'll be applying for Spring 2021. You'll also be able to recruit for UK IB summer analyst positions during the summer/fall of 2021.
In the meantime, my advice is this: get as much experience as you can in finance (boutique IBs, Corporate Finance at F500s, Asset Management, PE...etc) so that you have a strong resume going into recruiting. To get these internships, apply everywhere you can (Handshake, LinkedIn, other websites) and/or reach out to the team directly to network and see if they would be willing to take on an intern. This will make you standout and will somewhat compensate for you being international.
Last tip. Unless explicitly asked, NEVER bring up your international status. Just go into the process as everyone else. If they ask whether you have work authorization, say yes (you have CPT/OPT). Only if they explicitly ask whether you need visa sponsorship or will need in the future do you have to answer yes.
Feel free to lmk if you have any other question, always happy to help a fellow international
International student here.
Thanks for your message.
Why would you not say you're International and risk to waste your time interviewing with someone that will reject you sooner or later?
I should have clarified. You absolutely need to disclose your international status when recruiting for junior summer. But for the freshman/sophomore internships, I personally didn’t. Reason is, they might auto ding you if they learn your status, but the internship itself won’t lead to a full time job, so it makes no difference whether you’re a US citizen or not. In those cases, I’d advise against putting emphasis on your international status, as you need these internships to later recruit for junior summer
Thanks for the response - really informative! Only issue is that I will be at college during Spring Weeks, so not sure how I'll balance that, my ECs and academics. That is also assuming they'll be virtual.
Do you have a list of which companies sponsor and which don't? it's hard to keep track because it's not openly mentioned
Here’s what I know:
BBs: GS, BofA, CS, DB sponsor.
EBs: Evercore, Moelis, CVP, PJT sponsor.
Other banks: BNP, SocGen, TD, Financo, LionTree, Nomura, and Mizuho sponsor
BB – MS sponsors on a case-by-case basis; UBS also sponsors on a case-by-case basis (almost everyone thinks they don't, but they actually do since I am international and interned and am returning full time)
EB – Know that PWP is sponsoring people from class of 2020; have no info on the policy for class of 2021 and beyond
Also, what the professor said is completely wrong. Do not take career advice from people in academia.
Actually, UBS literally just stopped. And MS says they do, but when I talked to their employees, they made it pretty clear to me that IBD really did not sponsor and recommended that I apply to GCM instead (which is more open to internationals)
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