Finance Internships aren't that hard to find if you look at the right places!
The past couple of days I have seen a lot of college students genuinely frustrated for not being able to find any decent internships in core finance roles. Even if they do find one, most of them are just end up selling financial products for their employers.
Since I have been through that, fought my way through it and managed to crack the vicious system I thought I would pen down how I did it and how you can too.
Do drop a like and comment so that it reaches anybody who needs to read this.
(NOTE: Finance is an extremely diverse field, so I will restrict my answer to Public Market Investing and Equity Research, something that I "think" I am good at and give a step by step plan of action that worked well for me, which may or may not work for you)
So let us first identify the problem that we have at hand:
1) I don't know whether Finance is right for me or not.
2) I don’t get any good Finance internships without any experience.
3) I don’t have the profile/CV to grab a decent finance profile.
The answer to all of these is one and one thing only. You have got to read and learn about finance before any of the above starts realizing into reality.
Ask yourself. Why would a fund manager hire you for equity research in the first place when you don’t anything about the market? It’s not his job to teach you anything. However, you do need somebody to teach it to you if college isn’t teaching you that.
SO, you have got to find yourself a teacher to learn finance and investing, only then can an employer trust you with their time.
Who will be that teacher? For me it was BOOKS.
Here’s a quote from Charlie Munger
I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you're trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among the eminent dead, but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better in life and work better in education. It's way better than just being given the basic concepts.
Make friends with the imminent dead. You have got to become a book nerd consuming books like you consume your Netflix. Relentlessly!
领英推荐
Wanna know which book to read, in what order and what to expect?
Check out my linktree link and click on the last tab that reads “Learn Investing (Books+Courses)”
I have consumed countless books, essays, podcasts, webinars, etc. These are the best books in chronological order that every investor must read, with no compromise. They start from scratch and take you to mastery level in a matter of a few thousand pages.
Reading them isn’t enough. You must internalize their principles. How do you do that? Start posting your learnings on LinkedIn. This kills two birds with one stone.
When you post, you force yourself to think everything through, which helps you better synthesise almost everything at a much granular level.
“Read when you lack ideas, Write when you have them in abundant”
Besides this, you are also developing a portfolio for yourself that acts as Proof of Work. Personal Example: I had posted my equity research on Asian Paints here, which was read by a Fund Manager of a PMS. Now we are good friends and he mentors me on the subject of studying businesses and investment.
So long story short you are constantly consuming and creating content surrounding finance. Do this for the next 15-30 days honestly without break. If you find yourself getting distracted easily or getting bored, investing may not be right for you and you can replicate the same model for any other field like Marketing, Content Writing or Coding perhaps, to find your calling.
If you still manage to survive, now it’s time to start applying everything in reality. You pick up ET newspaper each morning and read it for 30 minutes. You spend the next 30 minutes googling terms that you didn’t understand while reading that newspaper.
Continue this exercise along with the book reading for another 15-30 days and you already are in the top 10%.
You will realize that you start connecting with like-minded people after your regular content posting here and opportunities now start flooding in. This is the inflexion point, 1 month into the regimen and you will definitely start seeing results.
Double down your efforts and continue on the path. You don't need a plan of action now. Every time you read a newspaper or a book, you will be fascinated by a concept or a stock that will direct you to some other reading. Go There, Stay Flexible, Read Everything and BOOM!
You realize that what you have achieved is far more than a certificate and work experience that any internship could have provided.
Now some students may worry that they might have dedicated 30-45 days to this exercise but they don't have anything to show in their CV. No, that’s a totally wrong way to look at it.
You might not have a certificate, but you have your portfolio of independent research and posts, a meaningful network on LinkedIn which you can easily leverage and a much deeper knowledge of finance that already puts you way ahead of the crowd.?
I think the latter overweighs the former by a huge margin. If you do this consistently, you won’t have to worry about any big brands to intern under, you yourself will become a respected member of the field of study that you are trying to master.
And yeah, that’s it. Even if still you need a certificate for the sake of it, use my YT channel’s name, 10-Minute Finance, as a company and give yourself a fancy profile name and I won't mind giving you a Canva made certificate if it makes you feel any better :)
Stay Safe and Star Learning!
Vanshita Bajaj
Associate Growth Manager | B2B SaaS Lead-Gen | GTM | Econ@DU
2 年This post is so so appropriate! Loved reading it. Makes so much sense, I wish someone would have explained this to me in my first year. :)
Reading law at NLU Jodhpur | Interested in the commercial side of law | JCLG | CIPS
2 年Thanks a lot for sharing this. As a student who took humanities in +2, this is a real eye-opener!
CA Finalist || GT - Corporate and International Taxation || Ex - Assurance intern at EY-GDS || DU || Finance Enthusiast
2 年Great sir, I was already thinking about doing this but not that much sure that this will be the right path. But after reading it got certain about this path and will surely try to follow it.
Accenture Strategy - GN Industry X | Jindal Shadeed | AISSCE (Oman) Rank 2 | Delhi University’23
3 年Absolutely true! This is that kind of practical and realistic guidance we all look for. Thanks a ton!