18-month Lead Time for Wall Street Summer Internships?

[Anonymous]

Wall Street members of a university advisory council told me some firms are recruiting students for summer internships 18-months in advance. If students want a summer internship after junior year, then they must apply in Spring of sophomore year. This is weird, because many business majors do not take any finance until they are juniors. Of course, Wall Street firms historically hired liberal arts majors with no finance classes. The whole process must be relying on social networks and career information acquired outside the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

[Anonymous]

DC should look for on-campus events starting in the fall, sometimes early fall.

[Anonymous]

The process has truly gotten ridiculous - they are fighting each other for kids. A lot of kids go into their first banking job already knowing what their second PE job will be two years later. It creates a major conflict of interest.

Schools want to regulate it but they don't want to fall behind so they can't.

All so you can go work 100 hours a week and be treated like garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

Of course you need finance knowledge, there are technical interviews to get these positions. The interviews cover content taught later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

Of course you need finance knowledge, there are technical interviews to get these positions. The interviews cover content taught later.

Different banks have different strategies. Some want technical knowledge. Some don't care and just want smart kids who they can teach. I prefer the latter.

[Anonymous]

Spring of sophomore year is way too late, you need to start applying well before Thanksgiving. I know many kids who had junior internships in place before sophmore internships.

Also, be prepared for many rounds of interviews and possible fly-ins for final rounds. Sophomore is currently in 7th round of interviews for junior summer internship and may not finish the process before they start sophomore internship (which was only 4 rounds of interviews after technical testing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

That’s not quite accurate. While some entry level finance roles might not ask in depth financial questions, most Wall Street internship interviews, especially for IB, are very technical. DC went through IB interviews in the fall and had to prep for months. They asked detailed financial questions, tested understanding of valuation, accounting, and market trends, and gave case studies to assess how you think. In the end, i bet a decent amount of these internships are secured as a result of who daddy knows.

[Anonymous]

My sister is MD at a big bank. They start recruiting fall of sophomore year and you must have at least a 3.5 GPA at that point. She tried to get a relative’s daughter in, but HR said no bc she only had a 3.2.

[Anonymous]

many were interested in SAT score also

[Anonymous]

It all depends. On schools etc. some schools like at uva its campus recruitment in late fall and spring for internships. Also can be the investment clubs through networking etc. but nowadays a lot of options. Along the spectrum of finance careers. Quants, pe, risk, long short funds etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister is MD at a big bank. They start recruiting fall of sophomore year and you must have at least a 3.5 GPA at that point. She tried to get a relative’s daughter in, but HR said no bc she only had a 3.2.

how university-sensitive are they? Do they look at UMDBC students who apply "cold"? UMDCP?

[Anonymous]

Good grief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

That’s not quite accurate. While some entry level finance roles might not ask in depth financial questions, most Wall Street internship interviews, especially for IB, are very technical. DC went through IB interviews in the fall and had to prep for months. They asked detailed financial questions, tested understanding of valuation, accounting, and market trends, and gave case studies to assess how you think. In the end, i bet a decent amount of these internships are secured as a result of who daddy knows.

I was talking about the internship itself, not the interview.

But no, the interviews are not “very technical” either. They’ll seek out whether you have some relevant knowledge, but it’s more in a “have you prepped for this interview” way than a “do you actually understand finance” way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister is MD at a big bank. They start recruiting fall of sophomore year and you must have at least a 3.5 GPA at that point. She tried to get a relative’s daughter in, but HR said no bc she only had a 3.2.

No one will believe this but the who you know only matters if you are a top candidate. The old - dad knows somone and the dumb kid gets in is not true anymore. The story above makes sense. If the kid had a 3.7 then the MD might have been able to help. Things all changed after the pricelings cases about a decade or so ago where the banks gave jobs to children of Communist party members in exchange for work. All of the big banks redid their hiring process globally including internships to take out the who you know or what you can bring.