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Original poster

Second Year Summer Internships

15 replies

11plusNewbie · 05/02/2025 23:13

Just wondered how common it is for an Economics student to do an internship in between 2nd and 3rd year ?
Do employers look at university grades at all ? or do they look more at things like work experience, previous internships if any
thank you

OP posts:
cyclingmum67 · 05/02/2025 23:19

That would be very common.

Employers may look at some of those aspects but, from son's recent experiences of applying for year long placements, only after you've passed the initial stages of online aptitude tests, video interviews etc.

If your DC is thinking about a summer internship, there are a lot in the Finance sector currently being advertised on the following websites:

Bright Network
Rate My Placement

Plus, if they're interested in a specific employer, the larger ones tend to have early years sections on their recruitment Web pages which provide information about internships

sossageStu · 09/02/2025 18:43

@11plusNewbie my son did a penultimate year summer internship, and they offered him a graduate job on the back of it, so it was definitely worth doing.
There are hundreds of opportunities, but they start to be advertised in September and peak around Christmas, so if your DC is only starting to look now they're quite late to the party. They are very competitive, so it's best to apply for as many as possible. My son applied for about 12 before he got an offer, but he knows others who applied for 50+.

Set up an alert on Indeed for the phrase "Summer Intern" because most of them are advertised there.

Watch out for scammers posting dodgy copies of real jobs - I encouraged my son to always go to the company website rather than clicking links on job boards. Sometimes roles listed on third-party sites didn't actually exist or had expired.

Chasingsquirrels · 09/02/2025 18:47

Ds did one.
Initially applied for Investment Banking, got one interview but no offers. He did about 20 applications.
Also applied for some consulting and ended up with an 8 week internship with a boutique arm of one of the big 4.
Subsequently offered a graduate job.

They need to be applying in the Sep term of the 2nd year.

cyclingmum67 · 09/02/2025 19:48

Still plenty of firms who only released their summer internships in the last couple weeks - including KPMG, PWC and EY, so still plenty of opportunities

sossageStu · 09/02/2025 22:50

cyclingmum67 · 09/02/2025 19:48

Still plenty of firms who only released their summer internships in the last couple weeks - including KPMG, PWC and EY, so still plenty of opportunities

It depends on the department. They don't release all their internships at the same time.

cyclingmum67 · 09/02/2025 22:56

@sossageStu yes, having had a DC gone through the process this year, I'm fully aware of that.

However, the point still stands - if the OP's child wants to start looking, there are still relatively fresh opportunities out there. Obviously, not as many as if they'd started looking in September, but the door isn't shut yet

Original poster
11plusNewbie · 09/02/2025 23:02

thank you all ! yes he has left it a bit late it seems, but we are encouraging him to give his best now. thank you very much for the websites, very helpful

OP posts:
Ceramiq · 10/02/2025 08:42

11plusNewbie · 05/02/2025 23:13

Just wondered how common it is for an Economics student to do an internship in between 2nd and 3rd year ?
Do employers look at university grades at all ? or do they look more at things like work experience, previous internships if any
thank you

The most competitive internships for the summer between 2nd and 3rd year are IB internships.These are offered on the back of a Spring Week internship in 1st year which is applied for in the first term of 1st year. The summer internship is basically a prolonged interview where the student intern rotates between several departments and gets an offer for a graduate job from one of them, if all goes well.

What does your son want to do?

TizerorFizz · 10/02/2025 08:51

@11plusNewbie I assume he’s not at a university with frenzied other students applying for these!

However, internships is definitely the way to go if you can get one. However tell him to get a job if the internship doesn’t come his way. It’s important to do work and get it on the cv. Most employers will care about grade of degree. They might screen out university attended but the cream still rises!

ofteninaspin · 10/02/2025 12:29

DS did a summer (eight weeks) banking internship in between second and third years. Started applying in the September before start of second year and stopped making any further applications as soon as he secured the one he wanted which was around this time of year. His internship resulted in a grad job offer.

DS did a much less competitive internship after his first year. He was late applying (he frankly had no idea how to go about it in his first year) but managed to get HSBC and PwC. These were rolling applications, less intensive and with fewer rounds.

Original poster
11plusNewbie · 12/02/2025 22:56

ofteninaspin · 10/02/2025 12:29

DS did a summer (eight weeks) banking internship in between second and third years. Started applying in the September before start of second year and stopped making any further applications as soon as he secured the one he wanted which was around this time of year. His internship resulted in a grad job offer.

DS did a much less competitive internship after his first year. He was late applying (he frankly had no idea how to go about it in his first year) but managed to get HSBC and PwC. These were rolling applications, less intensive and with fewer rounds.

I am sorry but what do you mean by rolling application please ? thank you for posting

OP posts:
Original poster
11plusNewbie · 12/02/2025 22:58

TizerorFizz · 10/02/2025 08:51

@11plusNewbie I assume he’s not at a university with frenzied other students applying for these!

However, internships is definitely the way to go if you can get one. However tell him to get a job if the internship doesn’t come his way. It’s important to do work and get it on the cv. Most employers will care about grade of degree. They might screen out university attended but the cream still rises!

thank you. in Manchester ...Do you mean getting a student P/T job if he can't get an internship ?
we are thinking of starting CFA
what do you think ?

OP posts:
Original poster
11plusNewbie · 12/02/2025 22:59

Ceramiq · 10/02/2025 08:42

The most competitive internships for the summer between 2nd and 3rd year are IB internships.These are offered on the back of a Spring Week internship in 1st year which is applied for in the first term of 1st year. The summer internship is basically a prolonged interview where the student intern rotates between several departments and gets an offer for a graduate job from one of them, if all goes well.

What does your son want to do?

Show quote history

he is not entirely sure, which does not help but I feel it's one more reason to try and get any experience he can to shadow/observe/cut his teeth/meet people etc
he has left it seriously late :(

OP posts:
TizerorFizz · 12/02/2025 23:32

@11plusNewbie What I meant was don’t sit back and do nothing in the summer vacation if he doesn’t land an internship. Try and get a summer job. I’m assuming CFA is financial analyst? He needs to weigh up study vs actual work. Or even volunteering. Facing customers and getting into work is useful.

ofteninaspin · 13/02/2025 17:07

@11plusNewbie by rolling I mean you can apply at any time until vacancies are filled as opposed to there being a published deadline for applications.

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