Potentially dumb question

I am pretty fortunate to have a workable schedule this semester and have been able to handle my workload at school and home with no problem. My question is, have any of you ever called a place like Charles Schwab or some other retail brokerage to ask to do some BS work for them, without pay? I just can only read so many ebooks on banking before June. I would like to get some sort of experience before my internship, even if it is just speaking the lingo. Any thoughts.

 

Never tried with retail brokerage but it's not a dumb question at all. Schwab may be a bad target though. Larger firms have all kinds of information safeguards and red tape to cut through to get access. Might target some smaller advisory shops. I was trying the same thing with M&A shops to try to get some deal experience. After a handful said no way without even considering it, I got one to do it and it's worked out well.

The way I pitched it was "I will sign any non-disclosure agreements necessary. When business is slow, train me on the side. And when you get busy I can take some of the workload for free." This makes for a great interview topic; Shows real passion for the field.

I have to ask... Why in the hell do you want to work in retail brokerage?

Make opportunities. Not excuses.
 

And if you already have an internship lined up for summer, I would just go to them and ask if you can start some of the training early (online or otherwise). I would think they would respond positively to this. Get the BS out of the way before they start paying you. Say you want to hit the ground running come summer.

Make opportunities. Not excuses.
 
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