5 Steps to Land a Private Equity Internship with Zero Experience

February 23, 2025

The Non-Target Playbook 

By Jack Kolb

It’s nearly impossible to land a finance internship through online portals as a freshman.

I learned that the hard way and got rejected by over 100 firms.

Instead of building my resume, I spent that summer waiting tables at Olive Garden.

By some miracle, I still broke into Wall St - but banking recruitment has become way more competitive.

The average applicant now has 2-3 relevant internships before second semester sophomore year.

Search fund internships are becoming popular and are perfect for freshmen with empty resumes.

There are hundreds of these mini PE shops looking to hire cheap interns.

Problem is none of them list applications online. You have to hunt them down on your own.

My brother (currently a junior at a non-target) successfully networked his way into one freshman year.

I’ve helped dozens of kids do the same as President of my school’s banking academy.

The steps are relatively simple.

Follow them and you’ll have new bullet points to pad your resume with in a matter of weeks.

STEP 1 - LEARN THE LANGUAGE

Searchers have a tight deadline to find a business to buy, meaning they have no time to waste.

You need to make it obvious you’ve done your homework and would be a help from day one.

Stanford’s Search Fund Primer (https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/about/centers-institutes/ces/research/search-funds/primer) will help get you up to speed on why they exist.

You also need to know the 3 stages of the search process and 2 reasons they’ll hire you as a freshman.

3 STAGES OF THE SEARCH PROCESS

  • 1. Raising Capital - Most searchers are ex-bankers/consultants with fresh MBAs that want to take a stab at running their own business. Instead of starting one from scratch, they pool money from investors to buy one that already has customers, product-market fit, etc.

  • 2. The 24 Month Search - Investors will give a ~$100k / year budget and a deadline of ~24 months to find a business they approve of. The average searcher takes 17 months.

  • 3. Acquisition - The searcher will approach thousands of small, family owned businesses and get serious with a dozen or so. After getting approval from their squad of investors, they’ll sign papers with one and step in to run it as CEO.

2 REASONS SEARCH FUNDS HIRE FRESHMEN

  • 1. Grunt Work - The best targets are tiny mom & pop shops with owners about to retire. Contacting owners is very tedious and involves emailing and calling thousands of potentially attractive opportunities to set up initial conversations. Searchers love armies of freshmen / sophomores to provide extra manpower.

  • 2. You’re Cheap - With slim budgets, they can’t afford to pay interns much, if at all. This is why you stand a chance as a freshman with an empty resume. You should be willing to take an unpaid gig for the hands-on experience. That experience will pay huge dividends further down the road.

STEP 2 - COLD EMAILS

If you’re lucky, 5% of searchers will respond when you email asking for an internship.

Here’s a baseline template and 3 tips to help you land one quicker.

TIP 1 - UP YOUR NUMBERS

After cleaning up your LinkedIn, go to searchfunder.com and make an account.

Collect emails from all active funds that look interesting in an excel spreadsheet.

You should send at least 10 emails every morning M-TH if you want to land one in a few weeks.

TIP 2 - RESEARCH THEIR STRATEGY

Most funds have websites detailing their strategy they use to attract investors.

In the third paragraph of your email, show you did your homework.

Mention a specific detail or two on what parts of their unique approach excite you most.

Then connect that to something (even if far-fetched) from your background.

TIP 3 - BE DIRECT

Your subject line should make it clear you’re asking for an internship.

Also make it obvious you’d be willing to work unpaid in the body of the email.

STEP 3 - MASTER ELEVATOR PITCH

You can 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, the internship’s basically yours.

I organized mine into 4 main parts.

  • 1. Setup - Talked about where I grew up and how I chose University of Illinois. Emphasized passion for hockey and 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 and Corp Dev. Liked the sound of the fast-paced, competitive environment of high finance and figured it would be a good fit.

  • 3. Growing Interest - Joined intro to M&A org, consulting org and 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 and 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?

STEP 5 - RESUME BULLET POINTS

Once you start, you can immediately add a few bullets to your resume that look something like this.

Those in the above are very high-level. You’ll want to add more specificity in yours.

Focus on building experiences / making bullet points relating to the following 4 areas. Having hands-on experience with these tasks will make your resume a standout when it comes time to apply for the top junior year internships / full-time roles.

  • Live Deal Work - Take advantage if a searcher signs an NDA and enters diligence. Valuation is what bankers will find most relevant, but odds are you won’t get that far. Regardless, build a model on your own and toss it on the resume. Here is a blank template from M&I https://mergersandinquisitions.com/dcf-model/

  • Evaluating CIMs - For non-proprietary deals, you’ll be asked to take a first stab at picking apart marketing materials sent over by brokers. Making these marketing decks will be one of your main jobs as a banking analyst, so take these CIM reviews seriously. Here are some examples of what real world CIMs look like https://mergersandinquisitions.com/confidential-information-memorandum/

  • Researching Sectors & Building Target Lists - Searchers pick a broad area to focus on such as “industrial services companies”, but it’s your job to identify the most attractive verticals. Be able to talk about the characteristics you looked for (i.e. growth rates, fragmentation, etc.) and how you used screening tools to narrow your lists.

  • Outreach - You’ll use automated software to script personalized emails to the owners of these businesses. Be able to explain which tactics worked best and how you improved your hit rate. This is similar to the process of creating buyer lists in banking.

Cheers 🥂

- Jack