<p>I came into college with solid experience in finance. I was a pretty successful loan officer during my junior and senior years in high school, and I did a private wealth internship in the summer before coming to college.</p>
<p>Since my matriculation, however, I have done nothing to build up my financial resume. I am a double major in biochemistry and economics (with a minor in math), and since I knew I wouldn't be able to obtain any very fulfilling internships in finance this summer as a rising sophomore, I decided to do summer research in biochemistry. </p>
<p>I feel as though I would be a more competitive internship candidate as a rising junior. I have a 4.0 GPA and several impressive extracurriculars (pres of debate, science research, and student rep at board of trustees' budget/finance committee), but I go to a not-so-great, top-40 liberal arts college. Since CCers have thus far struck me as knowledgeable in questions such as these, I figured you guys are worth a shot :). So what do you think?</p>
<p>What industry in finance are you interested in?</p>
<p>whats your question?</p>
<p>banking or consulting
i am just asking for advice on what i should do to obtain a good internship for next summer</p>
<p>I take it you come from a non-target; given this, it will be difficult for you - no beating around the bush. Are there any alums on Wall Street or in consulting you can contact?</p>
<p>yeah, there are some. i've talked to one of them, and he said that i should only go for a summer analyst position before my senior year.
the thing is, though, my high school record is very strong (as is my college record), so going to a nontarget isn't reflective of poor past performance in my case.
that was just one guy, though. how do you think i should approach an alumnus whom i have never met before? or what tone /direction should i set for my email?</p>
<p>target school only means that they will be coming to your school and actively recruiting you. non-targets, you have to actively recruit them. you get me?
and you should really decide on whether you want to do banking or consulting, they are pretty different. contact the alumni who are in that field and then approach them with what you opened with....</p>
<p>Tomahawk, it doesn't matter that your school's prestige (or lack thereof) isn't reflective of your past performance. If you aren't at a target school, you will still have a much harder time landing a finance or consulting internship. Also, the BB investment bank and big 5 consulting firm internships are targeted almost exclusively at rising seniors (who provide the core of the next year's entry level hires). The fact that you are a junior, combined with your coming from a non-target school, means that you are very unlikely to get one of the top internships. </p>
<p>My advice is this: First pick an direction--finance or consulting. Then, as a sophomore try to take some courses that will give you verifiable quantitative skills. Then, find a summer internship with a mid-level firm/boutique for the summer before your junior year. Do these things and you will have a shot at one of the top dogs when you are a rising senior.</p>
<p>I disagree. A lot of interviewees are caught between S&T and banking. From what I've heard, a lot of firms don't like this b/c it really shows indecision. If you're applying to consulting and banking companies, I don't see any difference b/c they wouldn't really know. However, it is important as to which you'd like to venture into, because they are quite different.</p>
<p>Regardless, any finance internship will really help you at this point. My advice would be to start contacting alumni and try getting a spot at a boutique during the summer, to build your resume, and then try next year at getting a summer position at a BB. By contacting alumni, I mean go to your career center and see who's in banking, whether at a bulge bracket or boutique. Boutiques tend to hire alumni that they feel mroe comfortable with, so this might be a great in for you. If you can't find alumni in boutique banking, then just cold-call, and email and get your resume in front of as many people as you can. A 4.0 is impressive, and SOMEBODY will eventually take you. Once you get that boutique experience, along w/ a 4.0, and if you come from a semi-target, at least, I'm pretty sure you're a lock for lots of interviews come next year.</p>
<p>No offense, but from what I know and from what I've heard, Private wealth and private client internships are garbage and everybody knows it. Its a unpaid waste of time to go get coffee, copy documents, and cold call. Doesn't really take much skill to do that.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the advice.</p>
<p>Why is boutique banking a step down from BB. In other words, how is work in the two places different?</p>
<p>I just started searching for an alumni list, btw, so thanks for the input!</p>
<p>Boutique Banking is NOT ALWAYS a step down from BB. The reason why some individuals think that it is a step down is because boutique banks tend to have less deal flow (many times due to a smaller balance sheet) and therefore have a harder time garnering a renowned reputation.</p>
<p>However, when you look at Lazard, which is a boutique bank, you see that it has one of the most respected M&A practices in the industry and has greater prestige than certain BBs in this aspecgt. Given this, the exit opportunities are equal if not better in many instances.</p>
<p>Basically, when you see top bankers, like Joseph Perella and Stephen Weinberg, leave their BB firm and start their own boutique, they can easily bring business in because company management is familiar with them.</p>