<p>This question has bugged me for a long time. If an internship is an absolute stepping stone to getting a full time offer in finance, are you screwed if you've never done a finance internship before graduating from college? </p>
<p>Since the sophomore and junior year summers are really the only times where you can reasonably vie for an internship, does it mean you've got only 2 shots at going into a career in finance? That sounds harsh.</p>
<p>Someone please explain. Gracias.</p>
<p>No you don't need an "internship". You do need some sort of finance related work experience at some non-university organisation no matter how small, but a formal internship is not actually necessary for getting BB front office positions (contrary to what the bandwagon believes).</p>
<p>Many of the best opportunities for banking work experience won't be advertised on campus, or have any formal recruitment process at all. You have to know the right people, or be lucky. These are boutique opportunities, where you will get far more responsibility and exposure as an intern than if you intern at a BB and are just one of dozens (maybe over a hundred) of other interns doing pretty mindless stuff.</p>
<p>A finance related internship isn't required to work in a BB 100% of the time. You will frequently find at least one exception at a BB where the person is hired as an analyst without a finance related internship while in college. It is fair to say that the majority of people hired as analysts will have a finance background though. You will also find that a good number of people hired as analysts were also interns at the same bank the previous summer. </p>
<p>
[quote]
does it mean you've got only 2 shots at going into a career in finance?
[/quote]
There are people who get into finance after getting an MBA. It is not too late if you don't get hired by a BB out of undergrad.</p>
<p>internship after junior year is pretty much required if you want to be competitive
after soph year - not necessary but depends on how confident you are</p>
<p>if you plan on doing banking after undergrad, go for the internship - who knows what the market will be like when you graduate. Some BBs are drastically cutting back on FT recruiting and only taking some from their SA class.</p>
<p>Yeah that's the other thing. It is way easier to get a BB job if you do an internship with the same bank. At most BBs more than 50% of interns are offered full-time positions (some up to 60-70% or more), and getting those internships isn't nearly as competitive as the battle for full-time positions among those without internships at the same BB. I know at most BBs there are very few full-time openings for non-interns; so it ends up being 6000+ applications for about 15 openings (these are the real numbers for S&T at one BB, directly from HR).</p>
<p>Multiple internships are pretty much a requirement in this market.</p>