Summer Internship Recruiting: Down, But Not Out

So, do summer interns still get recruited even in the midst of a financial crisis? Are internship programs being eliminated altogether? Which offices are actually hiring interns? Is anyone safe?

I’ve been getting a lot of these questions lately as we move into summer recruiting.

The short answer: most of your fears are overblown, though they are not without merit.

Why? Well, I hate to sound like a consultant but all comes down to a cost-benefit analysis.

How Summer Interns Get Full-Time Offers

“Summer means various things to various people, but one thing it means for most people in finance and all of New York is: interns. I’m told there is a similar wave of little political interns towards D.C. this time of year, but frankly, I’m not even certain they get paid.”

-Sheer Suckers, The Leveraged Sellout

As we approach the end of the summer and move into the fall recruiting season, all the summer banking interns out there have to think about their next moves.

The first step in that process: figuring out whether you’re getting a full-time offer, or whether you’ll have to search for “strategic employment alternatives.”

While there’s never a 100% accurate way to tell if you’re getting an offer or not, you can improve your chances considerably if you know how banks make decisions.

10 Investment Banking Internship “Don’t”‘s: How Not To Screw Up

I’ve given some internship tips in the form of a summer intern success guide and an avid reader gave some tips from his firsthand experience, but it’s often easier to give advice on what not to do (as with fashion).

Without further ado, here are the top 10 summer intern gaffs I’ve observed, both at my office and from friends’ stories.

This list applies to both Summer Analysts and Summer Associates – your role is the same, except Associates will get a bit more responsibility.