sam98034

Hi. I'm new to this forum and this is my first post. I came accross this board while trying to look for finance internships online with google. I have never had an internship and was wondering if someone here could help me with my situation. First, let me tell you a little about myself.

I live in Washington state around the Bellevue area. I am currently 23 years old and have finished my first year of community college (I waited a while after high school because I had no clue what I wanted to do). My major is going to be in Financial Economics. I have a 4.0 GPA, currently. The relevant classes I have taken are Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Business Calculus (maybe relevant?), Beginning Excel Spreadsheets, Advanced Excel Spreadsheets, and Accounting 201, 202, and 203. I have read more than 50 books on the topics of investment and finance.

I don't have much professional experience, as far as jobs go. The closest thing I have is my work study job during school as an Administrative Assistant for the MBA program at the University of Washington which lasted for around 9 months. And besides reading, I don't have actual experience in the stock market. I have never owned a stock. My closest thing to investment experience would probably be playing poker.

Anyway, my eventual future goal is to be a fund manager. Either a mutual fund or possibly a hedge fund manager (if they still exist by that time).

So this is my relevant information, I think. Let me know if you need anything else.

Now, based on my goal, what kind of internship program should I look into? Should I look to intern as a financial analyst/researcher? Should I look into stock brokering and sales? Maybe work for a financial advisor? This is my first question. I would like some suggestions as to what road to take if I wanted to head a money management fund.

My second question is how to get on that road. Where can I look to find these internships? What kind of qualifications are necessary to enter such an intership? What can I expect from these interships?

Lastly, as I have said, I have never done an internship, so I was wondering what the pay is like. Are most of these internships paid, min-wage, or uncompensated?

Again, this is my first post, so I appologize in advance if I have done something improper or did not use proper netiquette. I would also like to thank you for patiently reading my post and anxiously wait for your advice.

Treebounders

Okay a couple of things

1. Your "proposed major" does not exist
2. Hedge funds will always exist in some shape or form
3. Try to go to a real college

I would look for internships as:
a. an equity research analyst as a buyside shop (mutual or hedge fund) - gives you an idea of the "mindset" you need for the buyside, valuation techniques for certain sectors and in general, a very comprehensive&broad overview of the mkt environment
b. sales and trading as a trading assistant - you'll basically be a trader's b**** for a while, but hopefully he/she will explain to you what the hell he/she is doing and make you do some semi-important screens and data compiles. A lot of people from s&t make the jump to hedge funds
c. hedge fund intern - good luck.

You may also want to get out of your CC and find yourself in LA/SF. High finance tends to take the brightest kids from the best schools. You'll do your chances a lot of good if you are able to transfer into one (Berkeley, Stanford = your best shots). Good luck.

sam98034

The major exists here:
Financial Economics Curriculum Overview

Many schools don't have that exact major, though, so if I go somewhere else, I'll probably do a Finance major with an Econ minor or vice versa. And I do plan on going to a four-year university, of course. I was leaning more towards the East coast for my BA, however. Would Berkeley/Stanford be better than Ive League for fund managers?

Thanks for your advice. It looks like the researcher internship may be my best bet, then. I was wondering if you knew any tips as far as getting internships. And do you know anything about compensation?

hello_motto

I think finding any kind of internship in finance would be good, like working for free at a PWM.

I don't think you will find something like a trading assistant right away considering you have little or no experience.

sam98034

What's a PWM?

mactonycw

I think PWM means Private Wealth Management.

Treebounders

^Dude, he's doing well in CC and is 23... PWM is going to be useless for him, he's way behind the curve and needs to ramp up.

sam98034

So what's your suggestion Treebounders? I would like to get some job so that I can graduate with a few years of actual field experience, but for free is probably out of the question. I guess it would have to work like this as far as pay goes: The more I get paid, the more the company can expect from me as an employee. The less I get paid, the more I'm going to expect from the company as far as knowledge, training, learning, etc.

hmom5

There are so may people after the jobs you are, you'll probably need to work for free and work 18 hour days if you want an opportunity. A lot of dues get paid for these opportunities.

The ivies or Stanford would give you great opportunities/networks in general. Also high on your list could be Duke, MIT, Caltech or some of the top LACs like Williams and Amherst. Once you're into a target school, the pay is good.

You're going to need high SATs in addition to a great GPA and superb recs, so keep your eye on those balls too.

sam98034

How do you work for free 18 hours a day and go to school and support yourself? And why do you need high SAT scores and a high GPA to be an intern? It's an intern, isn't it? Or were you talking about the analyst position, hmom5?

I'm looking to find a position soon. Like maybe in the next month. I guess I wasn't clear about that. So, yes, the school recommendations are great and everything for the future, but I was looking for something I could do right now.

So what places should I look at applying? Should I search in the yellow pages? Should I try to do things online and email a resume or try to go in person? hmom5, you make it seem like these jobs are very hard to find, so I don't want to go look around haphazardly.

hello_motto

I guess you have to really want it....

cbreeze

It is exceedingly difficult to get an internship in finance as a freshman from a community college. Most of these meaningful internships are reserved for juniors at top schools. You are better off trying to transfer to a top 25 4-year college.

I don't know if you realize being a fund manager is a lofty goal.It is not easy to achieve without top credentials. Top credentials include a high SAT scores and high GPA from a top college.

sam98034

So the advice of this forum is for me to go to a good school and get good grades. That's how I'll land an internship and work my way to being a fund manager. I was looking for something different--I'm pretty sure everyone knows that stuff--but thanks anyway guys.

momofthreeboys

Go to Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed and put Finance Intern or even just Intern into the search and the city you want to work in and see what you can find. If you get too many with just the word intern, then you can refine your search. Indeed is a search engine that searches trade pubs, newspapers, corporate web sites and all kinds of job search postings. That is how my college just finished sophomore year son found his marketing internship this summer. You are 23 which is going to be highly in your favor, you are doing very well in your current college and curriculum...the posters here are not as familiar with non-traditional students as they are the young ones that go to a 4 year college right out of high school. Also search college websites for colleges in the region you want to work. Indeed catches most of the postings, but the colleges sometimes post up (on public pages) local internships. I would definitely look for finance internships. Secondly, most CCs have adjunct profs who are actually working or were recently working in their career field so look at the bios for all the profs, or search out the adjuncts and ask them where you can find an internship. Many interships are with companies who are legally obligated to pay salaries, the unpaid internships are few and far between unless it's an under the table kind of situation or there is some arrangement directly with the college to compensate with credit hours in lieu of salary is what I'm discovering via my son.

momofthreeboys

Just for grins I hit Bellevue, WA and intern and the first one that came up was at Wachovia.....