Specifics about Applying to Internships

During an introductory seminar held in Paris that aimed to provide an overview of the whole London BB internship application landscape, hosted by a company specializing in helping its clients (typically undergraduate business school students) secure internship positions in BB IBD FO and in management strategy consulting, the CEO of this WSO-like company that aims to act as a more powerful substitute to schools' Career Services informed us, aspiring applicants to springs, off-cycles, and summers, that filling out the online application form at a BB for an internship must always be accompanied by having our CV backed up and suggested to HR by a current employee of the firm, otherwise the online application will systematically lead to zero feedback (no response at all), thus the utmost importance of networking in the application process.

And according to this extremely well-versed and experienced finance professional, this holds true even for core target schools.

I would love to hear your opinions on this provided piece of information; about the fact that the online internship application remains obsolete unless there's an internal resume push.

 

Hi Starfall, the silence is deafening, sorry about that.... Any of the threads below helpful?

  • From <2 GPA, to Bulge Bracket and Hedge Fund 1st 2 years in college: from GPA IB porter My first year almost killed my career: I become obsessed ... a porter, to hedge fund intern, and finally, a bulge bracket intern **Yet after going back to school, ... interview for an internship position for a bulge bracket bank. Perceiving it more l
  • Local Bulge Bracket Internship at an Overseas office or Local Internship Bulge Bracket execution trading) with a Bulge Bracket locally. Note: This is not SA, just a professional attachment summer ... in my region but not a Bulge Bracket or 2) A local internship (Equity Sales-Trading, more of ... overlapping areas compared to execution trading Advantages of Local: 1) Able to build a network in a Bulge
  • Non-Target to Bulge Bracket IBD networked quite a bit to land a lower middle-market PE internship my freshman year (just shows you that with ... a summer internship offer at a BB IBD, and will be going back full-time after accepting the return offer. ... about networking, and improved my technical finance skills during my years in college, I figured I would ...
  • Wealth Advisor Salary at Bulge Bracket Banks questions to ask in interviews, and action steps for success in navigating the Wall Street networking ... about the market and he admits it but he has a great personality and people give him their money to ... switched from salary to only commission. Investor1: I don't know if my office and BB is just really ...
  • Bulge Bracket Wealth Management NYC versus small IB in random city? non BB firm? 1st internship 1st job investment banking New York <p class="h4 ... do a brand named internship in wealth management in NYC and network over the summer to get into IB ... Hi, my goal is to go into investment banking but also be in NYC at a large firm. Is it better to ...
  • Bulge Bracket and Elite Boutique Tiers most of your networking, including cold emailing templates, questions to ask in interviews, and action ... steps for success in navigating the Wall Street networking process. Networking Guide Bulge Bracket elite ... strength? If you have real balls, rank them with no ties (1a, 1b). Ranking the Bulge Bracket and Elite ...
  • Official Investment Banking Rankings: Boutique and Bulge Bracket Prestige This is for IBD in the US (NYC specifically) and as of November 2014. Bulge Bracket & Large ... funds interviews, but not as much prestige and opportunities as above Top Bulge Bracket Rankings ... much-- will value a bulge bracket experience, because they don't know what some of the ...
  • Should I stay in bulge bracket firm (WM side) or leave for new summer opportunities? (Junior) I take it and gain different type of experience or stay and keep networking using my bulge bracket email? ... S&T (More on Sales side) or Investment Banking. My experience: in short break down: 1. Bulge bracket ... tutoring company start up as marketing intern Due to workload and personal circumstances, I haven't ...
  • More suggestions...

Or maybe the following pros can chime in... Ranch_Wilder MPP Red_Phox

Hope that helps.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

The Founder & CEO looked convincing as hell and seemed to know extremely well what he was talking about. Plus, there were clues & anecdotes thrown around that really gave him so much credibility.

Wasn't aware of the company's negative reputation..

Thank you for your valuable feedback.

Would you say then that "getting [one's] application flagged [by attending networking events]" is required to get an e-mail/call back?

 

What they do is valuable in terms of technical prep, but again you can prepare yourself alone and you don't need to drop few grands to get in. The company is doing a great job, but not worth the price imo.

Well you attend a networking event, the next day you ask them on linkedin and thank them for their time, in most cases they will ask your CV and will push it to HR. In other cases they will directly push your name to the HR.

 
Most Helpful

It always could help going to a networking event, having alumni or friends/family flag your app, but I've never experienced it (UK based here). I don't go to a top-tier target school, don't study finance/econ/business, and don't have the opportunities to go to networking events (my uni is 6+ hours away from London by train). While there are many at my uni with great jobs through connections, I've grinded through my entire app process -- independently reading, studying, practicing for interviews and ACs, submitting my apps online -- and I have had 2 internships in London (1 major AM internship, 1 BB SA internship) and have a FT Big 4 consulting offer. Note I come from a low-income family so these kinds of opportunities for job prep never were even on my radar, to be fair.

The fact is I don't believe in what these people are selling. Not because it doesn't work, but because I believe with hard work you can break in without help. You just got to be persistent, apply absolutely EVERYWHERE, go to every single interview/ AC you get and give it 1000%, and it def pays off. Also, you'll get more respect for it, hands down.

 

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