How to Prepare for Investment Banking Summer Internship Recruiting

While I’ve written lots of summer internship tutorials, most of them focus on what to do once you’re actually working, or how to prepare for the internship.

Even back in the dark ages (in Internet time, 2-3 years ago) one of the most asked questions here was “OK, but how do I get a summer internship in the first place?”

And since then I’ve gotten many more questions on the timing for summer internship recruiting, how it’s different from full-time recruiting, what to focus on, and what happens when – so let’s get to it.

You Didn’t Get Any Investment Banking Summer Internship Offers. Now What Do You Do?

Summer internship recruiting is over.

Bankers have come to your campus, conducted interviews, finished recruiting, and now they’re back to their pitch books.

But you don’t have any offers.

What now?

No Summer Offers vs. No Full-Time Offers

How to Spin and BS Your Way to Success in Investment Banking

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”

Not sure why you want to do investment banking?

Don’t know what you did in your last job besides watching YouTube?

Haven’t the faintest clue what your “story” is?

Then you need to learn how to spin.

Lying is bad.

But spinning – making yourself seem more impressive than you actually are – is essential.

Just think: it even got a President elected. Time to learn his tactics.

Why Do You Need to Spin?