Getting Internships / Spring Weeks.

I can't be the only one who gets annoyed at the fact that when people say, "yeah you can still get into IB from a non-target, just do loads of spring weeks and internships."

Can nobody else see that the two are correlated? If you go to a target then you're much more likely to get a spring week/internship, which in turn is likely to land you a job.

So many people about with such stupid advice.

enlightening stuff.

Riveting story, bro

Original post by paper-may

Im at a non target and never applied for spring weeks... didnt even know what they were until I applied for summers...
I have done an internship and now an off cycle

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Reply 4

paper-may

Original post by PrincePauper

Im at a non target and never applied for spring weeks... didnt even know what they were until I applied for summers...
I have done an internship and now an off cycle

Posted from TSR Mobile

Well good for you! What uni are you at? Who did you intern with?

I never said that the correlation was perfect, just that there seems to be a strong link.

Reply 5

PrincePauper

Original post by paper-may

Well good for you! What uni are you at? Who did you intern with?

I never said that the correlation was perfect, just that there seems to be a strong link.

What other correlation were you expecting? Thames valley students to be actively recruited?
All this didnt start last night, its public knowledge

Reply 6

paper-may

Original post by PrincePauper

What other correlation were you expecting? Thames valley students to be actively recruited?
All this didnt start last night, its public knowledge

I think you've missed my point completely.

Reply 7

PrincePauper

Original post by paper-may

I think you've missed my point completely.

But you havent got one! Hence all the other replies!

Reply 8

paper-may

Original post by PrincePauper

But you havent got one! Hence all the other replies!

Zzzz... You boring person.

Reply 9

a10

Original post by paper-may

Zzzz... You boring person.

and you wonder why you don't have any internships?

Reply 10

PrincePauper

Original post by a10

and you wonder why you don't have any internships?

Leave him, let him snooze while others are getting internships...

Reply 11

Indus

Original post by paper-may

I do find this quite strange advice whenever I see it.

Having gone to a target and applied for 10 spring weeks in first year, and been rejected from all without interview, I find it weird that people casually throw about 'get spring weeks and summer internships and you'll be fine' advice. I can only presume that they're posters who either have applied for spring weeks and picked up 3 or 4 (hence not appreciating the competition for them) or they haven't actually applied for spring weeks.

Either way, you can make it from a non-target. It will be harder, but it can be done. You just need to work hard to pick up work experience and extra-curriculars; and i'm not talking spring weeks here. I firmly believe that anyone can get work experience (outside of official internships) if they want it enough. If you have no family contacts, then there are many small accounting firms, small advisory shops etc, and a lot of people appreciate it when they find someone who is genuinely interested in learning more about the industry. If you want it enough, then you will be able to get some work experience, which does help in terms of securing a more official internship. Another way to get work experience is to go on one of those programmes where you pay around 1-2k for a months experience. Obviously this is a lot of money, but I personally made over 1k working in a shop prior to my first year at university. If I was to work during university then I could easily make the money to afford one of these schemes; which when you have no work experience is well worth the money in my opinion. When I secured my first non-official internship I went from getting rejected without interview for all spring weeks to securing about half a dozen front office interviews with bulge brackets and elite boutiques. Secure an offer and that's about 9k right there to pay back the 1-2k spent on an internship.

On top of getting a bit of work experience, extra-curriculars are also massive. I know a good few people who had no experience, loaded up on extra-curriculars and have gone on to secure many front office interviews. On top of this, networking is massive; I don't think it's any coincidence that most of the banks where I got interviews this year, were the ones where I had attended the networking event and (i think) impressed someone in a high position.

I do agree with the fact that it is bad advice, but there are other ways to make it from a non-target, and many people do manage it every year. You just have to focus on being in the top 10% out of everyone applying rather than the top 50% of everyone applying (roughly speaking).

Reply 12

paper-may

Original post by PrincePauper

Im at a non target and never applied for spring weeks... didnt even know what they were until I applied for summers...
I have done an internship and now an off cycle

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Another completely vague wishy-washy statement.