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#1 Internship for Freshmen With Empty Resumes
I applied to hundreds of internships freshman year and got rejected by every single one.
Most kids don’t realize internships that list applications online don’t even consider freshmen.
Don’t waste your time submitting resumes to a bunch of random companies on handshake like I did.
Instead - Cold email tons of smaller firms & convince them to hire you for little-to-no pay.
Having relevant internships on your resume is a requirement to compete for the top investment banks.
Top candidates have 2-3 on there before sending their first networking email sophomore year.
Your best bet is to try and land a gig at a search fund.
These are mini private equity shops known to bring on cheap freshmen to help out.
Here are the three main reasons you should pursue a search fund internship freshman year.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REASON #1 - EXTREMELY RELEVANT & UNMATCHED RESPONSIBILITY
REASON #2 - THEY’LL HIRE YOU WITH AN EMPTY RESUME
REASON #3 - FLEXIBILITY TO DO IT PART-TIME DURING SCHOOL
1 - EXTREMELY RELEVANT & UNMATCHED RESPONSIBILITY
Searchers don’t want to waste time holding your hand.
You need to do your homework & make it obvious you’d be a help from day one.
The first step is getting smart on how search funds actually work.
In a nutshell - search funds are basically one-man private equity shops.
The searcher is typically an ex-banker or consultant that just graduated with an MBA. Their goal is to buy a small business, run it as CEO for the next five years & sell it for a profit at the end. They typically target tiny mom & pop shops with owners about to retire.
These companies are usually in the $5M - $30M range. After taking over as CEO, searchers grow the company with initiatives like add-on acquisitions & geographic expansion.
Searchers first have to raise money to buy the small business. This involves pitching their entrepreneurial vision to a bunch of high-net-worth investors. It’s an attractive alternative investment option for lots of wealthy individuals, as the annual return of a successful search fund is over 35%.
The initial funding is only to be used for the search process. They get $500k & a two year deadline to find a business their investors approve.
The first part of the search is sourcing. It involves tons of grunt work - researching, cold-calling & pitching hundreds of potentially attractive targets. This is why they love bringing on eager young freshmen to help out.
As a freshman you have no credibility. You have to build their trust by doing this grunt work to perfection. If you can impress them with that, they’ll give you real responsibility in the diligence phase which is what will look the best on your resume.
Your friends who intern at bigger companies won’t be given the same level of responsibility. Search funds are startups & give you real, meaningful work if you build their trust. Actually getting your hands dirty is incredibly valuable & is what will impress bankers when you go through recruitment next year.
Here’s an example of what your resume would look like after a search fund internship.
The day-to-day tasks are extremely relevant for banking, especially those listed below.
DUE DILIGENCE - Digging into messy sales / purchase data to draw conclusions on investment risks & highlights like concentration. Building financial models using assumptions for projections. Requesting additional data & facilitating admin tasks like signing the NDA.
CIM REVIEWS - Reviewing 50pg memos (Confidential Information Memorandums / CIMs) created by brokers & giving recommendations with evidence to searcher. Advising on whether it’s worth digging deeper or if you’re better off passing.
TARGET LISTS & OUTREACH - Identifying attractive sub-sectors within searcher’s area of focus. Using databases to compile contact info for potential targets. Creating automated email campaign to send personalized messages to owners & maintaining follow-up schedule.
Even if the searcher doesn’t directly ask you to build a model - build one on your own anyway.
My younger brother interned at a search fund and built a model for every company they got serious with so he could add it to his resume and talk about it during interviews.
If you need a good model template, here’s one from M&I.
2 - THEY’LL HIRE YOU WITH AN EMPTY RESUME
Landing a search fund internship is easy.
You can talk your way into one even if you have nothing on your resume. Searchers have slim budgets & are desperate for help with all that grunt work. You just have to be willing to work for little-to-no pay - which should be a no-brainer because of the doors it’ll open for you in the future.
I’ve helped dozens of kids land these as President of my school’s banking academy.
The steps are relatively simple.
STEP 1 - COLLECT EMAIL ADDRESSES
First go to LinkedIn & clean up your profile.
Then make an account on searchfunder.com & collect emails of all active funds in a spreadsheet
STEP 2 - SEND COLD EMAILS
If you’re lucky, 5% of searchers will respond when you email asking for an internship.
You should send at least 10 emails every morning M-TH if you want to land one in a few weeks.
Use the template below & make sure to include the following details.
Show You Did Your Homework: Take ~10min to research their strategy. Most funds have their own website. Explain why their strategy / area of focus specifically interests you
Direct Ask: In both the subject line & the first paragraph, make your ask clear. Say exactly what you want & when you want it
Your Credibility: Show you have at least some sort of competence in finance / good grades
STEP 3 - PREP YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH FOR THE CALL
Expect one of every 50 emails you send to get a response. Even less of those will actually lead to a call.
This is why nailing every call you get is crucial.
Luckily - If you ace the 2min elevator pitch at the start of the call, the internship’s basically yours.
I organized my elevator pitch into four parts.
1. Setup - Talked about where I grew up & how I chose University of Illinois. Emphasized passion for hockey & how it took up most of my time outside of school. That was my differentiator they’d remember me by.
2. Finance Spark - Had an older cousin that started his career doing 2yr of banking then transitioned to PE & Corp Dev. Liked the sound of the fast-paced, competitive environment of high finance & figured it would be a good fit.
3. Growing Interest - Joined intro to M&A org, consulting org & business fraternity first semester of college to explore interest further. Found M&A org to be the most fascinating which caused me to pursue our investment banking academy.
4. Tie To Opportunity - (*What I would’ve said for a search fund) Have built a solid foundational skillset understanding basic financial modeling & diligence concepts from those orgs. Am particularly attracted to their fund’s focus on healthcare given both of my parents work in medicine. Therefore think I could be a big help to their strategy.
STEP 4 - SCREENING CALL
There are no fancy technical tests or second / third round interviews for search funds.
If they like you after the first call, the job is yours.
After a bit of small talk, take the wheel and set the agenda for the rest of the call. Say you’d love to give a brief intro on yourself then learn more about them and their fund / strategy.
Then after giving your elevator pitch, keep it conversational by asking thoughtful follow-up questions.
Here are a few good examples.
Do you plan to use buy-side brokers or investment bankers in your search process?
Are you an independent sponsor or fully funded?
What are your specific target areas besides what you have explicitly listed on your website?
3 - FLEXIBILITY TO DO IT PART-TIME DURING SCHOOL
Investment banking is by far the most competitive field in business.
To compete with target school kids, you have to start stacking your resume day one of freshman year. The ivy-league kids you’re competing against started networking, studying technicals & adding elite internships to their resumes before even getting to college.
Recruitment happens ridiculously early & the timeline gets pushed up every year. You interview for that post-junior year internship over a year in advance - meaning you only have three semesters on campus to beef up your resume before apps are due.
This is why the part-time flexibility of search fund gigs make them perfect for your situation.
My little brother averaged only 15hr / wk in his semester interning with a search fund. They're also 100% remote & you can get your work done at any hour of the day. This makes it easy to do these part-time during the school year.
You’ll need this flexibility so you can juggle the other prep work you have to do to including
NETWORKING
TECHNICAL & BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEW PREP
LEADERSHIP IN RELEVANT EXTRACURRICULARS
CRAFTING YOUR RESUME
GETTING MODELING CERTIFICATIONS
JOINING CASE COMPETITIONS
KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS
SETTING UP YOUR LINKEDIN
MAINTAINING 4.0 GPA
You can’t fall behind in any of these areas if you want to compete as a non-target.
Cheers 🥂
- Jack