<p>I'm currently a freshman in college and I'm exploring my options for the coming summer. This past summer I did a finance-related internship at a small firm. I wanted to hear your suggestions for what to do in order to best set up my career.</p>
<p>Some options I'm considering:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>As an aspiring ibanker, I want to do something ibanking-related, preferably in NYC. I know it's near-impossible to land something at a BB as a rising sophomore, but I hear there may be opportunities at boutique firms. Would the best path of action consist of cold calling/emailing people at boutiques and expressing my interest?</p></li>
<li><p>I've heard PWM is possible at BBs for younger kids like myself. Is this a legitimate possibility?</p></li>
<li><p>Summer school somewhere like LSE, taking finance-related courses.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'd love to hear other suggestions as well.</p>
<p>PS:</p>
<p>I've been to a few information sessions at my school as well as the career fair. Unfortunately, all the firms I talked to are looking for juniors/seniors, not freshman.</p>
<p>How would a freshman like myself go about getting a desirable internship in ibanking, or at least PWM or the like? Also, it seems most firms are recruiting for full-time now. When do they start recruiting for internships?</p>
<p>Some things I've considered to break in:</p>
<p>-cold call/email
-trip to NY
-leverage the contacts I have now</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bother going to NY unless you’ve got something lined up. At your age, your best bet will be for unpaid positions, or positions that are PWM, boutique research or back office . While they are not IB, they will provide you with some resume building experience and make for a nice stepping stone into more attractive internships going into your junior and, ultimately, senior years. </p>
<p>Regarding cold calling, you should definitely take that step, but given your age, you should probably stay local and push more for an opportunity to build your resume rather than a dream opportunity.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s always a good idea to call on contacts, but you should only call on those you are very close with. Given the positions you are targeting, you age, experience, etc, you don’t want to reach out to all of your contacts so soon - for now, use friends and your closest contacts, then reach wider once you’ve built a bit of a profile/resume for yourself next year or so.</p>
<p>i was able to land an ibanking internship the summer after my freshman year at a boutique bank in my city… just google “city name investment banks” and see what you can find. get contact info for HR/secretaries if you can and start emailing.</p>
<p>^good idea, summer school at LSE is also a common path for most American students though its expensive and I feel a waste of money. But it might give u something to do instead of sitting down at home. An internship would be way more worthwhile</p>