Investment Banking Internship as a Freshman
Hello everyone! I will be a freshman this upcoming year and am very interested in going into investment banking. I've learned financial modeling and DCF valuation through online courses, but am eager to get some real experience.
Despite hearing that the junior summer internship is the most important internship for potential investment bankers, I would like to get more exposure to the field, specifically through an internship after my freshman summer (summer of 2020).
I will be an applied math major, but I have formal research experience (healthcare economics at a top university) and am currently an intern at a clinical research organization. As an intern this summer, I spend the majority of my time programming in R (statistical computing programming language) and creating models in Excel.
Could anyone recommend potential ways to go about securing a freshman summer internship in investment banking, as well as firms to target? Additionally, if you have any advice for an incoming undergraduate interested in investment banking, please feel free to PM me. Thank you!
Target, semi-target, or non target? That will make a difference in recruiting efforts for freshman summer, in my experience.
Relatively strong semi-target, very strong alumni base and decent presence on Wall Street. The school has a top-20 business school.
Here's what I did to get my freshman year internship (not in banking, but CRE/AM/PWM) for your reference, coming from a similar target/semi-target position.
First, use family connections and see if anyone they know is in the industry and would be willing to take on interns (paid or unpaid). In my case, I didn't have any connections coming from a really small town, so looked to LinkedIn and start reaching out to alumni during November-January.
Network your ass off if this is important to you, but in the grand scheme of things, anyone can get an IB gig for their sophomore summer. Freshman summer isn't as important for recruiting for junior year as sophomore summer internships, so maybe build up your contacts in IB over the course of freshman year and reach out again during freshman summer.
TLDR: Look for internships in AM/CRE/PWM for freshman summer while networking and staying in touch with contacts for sophomore summer.
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