Last month, I was counseling Mr.Vinay Joshi. Vinay is doing his post-graduation (PG) from one of the top business schools in India. He had got an opportunity to do internship with one of the nationalized banks in loan department. During internship, he was supposed to work on startup loans and SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) sector.
Everything sounds fine? Yes, so far.
Vinay had something else in mind for internship. He wanted to do internship in investment bank, but was not sure how to go about it and wanted my advice in this matter.
I saw the projects he had done in first year of PG. He had worked on group assignments like Equity Research, Ratio Analysis, Corporate Valuation, Company Profiling and Financial Modeling.
While discussing with him, I also realized that his communication was good too.
I asked him to follow the strategies which work in such cases.
Strategy 1: Networking
According to one study, up to 60% jobs are never advertised and consider the same percentage for internships too.
When I was pursuing PG, I wanted to do internship in financial analysis, equity research, report writing and industry analysis. My institute offered me an internship with a web startup. The project was in market research. I badly wanted to work for a startup but since the project was not of my interest, I started looking for other companies. Networking with my previous employers was the best option available at that time. Since I had good relations with my previous employers, one of them happily invited me to work on a project where I researched on mid and small cap companies. I submitted a project report where I clearly mentioned a list of best companies to invest into. The CEO was very happy with the project and he even offered me a job there.
Networking with your friends, relatives, previous employers and people on social networking sites like LinkedIn can give an access to right people in the companies.
Strategy 2: Online listings of Internships
Second strategy is searching the internships online. You can google it and find internships online.
If you are in India, visit these sites:
- http://10internship.in/
- http://www.india-interns.com/
- http://www.indianinternship.com/
- http://www.hellointern.com/
I will provide the list of websites for US and International market soon.
Strategy 3: Direct Contact
The third strategy is important one, especially when you have shortlisted a few companies where you want to go for prospecting. Here, you contact the employers directly and ask them if they offer internships. Meet the employers and convince them that you will contribute and add value to the project that you want to work on. In any case, do not bring in the subject of stipend in initial talks. You should give preference to the profile and not stipend at this point.
These are the three strategies that I suggested to Mr.Vinay.
I do not know about other strategies, but, I am sure these 3 strategies will work for Vinay and you. Because, they worked for me too.
