Schedule your internship into your academic calendar. Good planning for your summer internships will help to ensure that you complete the process. Take a look at your degree plan. Will you have to take summer courses at some point? Are you interested in studying abroad? All of these factors will impact when you will be available to intern. Because timing is so crucial, tough decisions will need to be made. Should you skip studying abroad in favour of trying for a summer internship? It really depends on what your end goal is, and although the international exposure may be a fun, enriching, and potentially beneficial experience, some budding bankers often find that opportunities to build concrete contacts for future employment are diminished during this time. It’s a good idea to have solid networks to fall back on before studying abroad so you won’t have to play catch upon your return.
Streamline your resume. Although you might not have any professional experience in finance at this point in your career, internship recruiters will want to see any experience you’ve had up to this point. Prepare a solid resume with good job descriptions that will impress your interviewers, remembering to highlight skills that smoothly cross-over to working in finance. If you don’t have much to include in your current resume, start working now to build up your experience. You can volunteer to apply the skills you’re learning in school with a number of non-profit organisations that need help in your local community or campus.
Find a mentor. During your first or second year as an undergraduate, try finding one or two upperclassmen with relative experience that you can befriend and seek out for advice. Perhaps they’ve held an internship before or maybe they’re apart of an organisation related to banking. Creating these contacts now will not only help you on your internship search, but they could potentially provide future channels to securing a job as well.
Network. It is no secret that entrance into the banking world is hard fraught. Increase your visibility in investment culture and you will see positive returns head your way. An inside source from a banking internship recruitment team writes that, from non-core schools (think everything other than Ivy League schools), 99% of candidates who were offered interviews had been given a nudge from the inside. The whisper into the recruiter’s ear could come from anyone within the company. This means it’s incredibly important to make connections as soon as you begin your education in finance. Befriend seniors who are about to graduate and cold email associates at firms you’re interested. Join alumi associations and campus groups to cast a wider net. Be persistent without being annoying when looking to increase and leverage your network. You want people to remember you positively, not negatively.
Apply to everything. Submit your resume to multiple firms during your search for a summer internship. The law of chance is in your favour the more opportunities you pursue. Invest your time to scan university internship listings, the local newspaper, banking websites, and any other medium you can think of. Remember you only need one “yes,” even if you get a million “nos,” to land yourself an internship at an investment or banking firm.
Prepare for your interview. The interview process can be taxing, stressful, and, if you’re not prepared for it, a confidence shaker. Enhance your ability to sell yourself to the recruiter by practising interview questions with a trusted friend or mentor beforehand. The exercise will give you the opportunity to get your story straight and you’ll perform with more ease and confidence during the actual interview.
Don’t be intimidated by the prestige and formality of the investment banking process when it comes to applying for your summer internship. Put our internship guide into practice and you will easily find your way to securing that dream banking internship and eventually, full time employment. Remember, preparation and confidence is everything. Good luck!
