If you want to know how to get an investment banking internship, it’s simple: Start very, very early and have a great “Plan B” if something goes wrong.
The IB internship recruiting timeline is now so insane that even mainstream news sources like the Wall Street Journal are writing about it (“The Race Is On to Hire Interns for 2025. Really.”).
And yes, you read the news correctly: Banks like RBC, DB, Houlihan Lokey, Rothschild, and Guggenheim opened 2025 summer internship applications in calendar year 2023.
Admittedly, not all banks did this, and many bulge bracket firms will start in the normal time frame of January – March.
In practice, this means you must be on top of IB internship recruiting from Year 1 of university if you’re in the U.S.
I’ll cover the following points in this updated article:
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship: The “Ideal” Timeline in the U.S.
By the time internship applications open in Year 2 of university – whether that’s in the middle or beginning (!) of the year – you should have the following elements in place:
- A good GPA – at least 3.5 and ideally a bit higher.
- One (1) solid finance internship and one (1) student/leadership activity or two solid finance internships.
- A decent amount of networking completed with bankers (e.g., 30 – 40 coffee chats or informational interviews).
- And ~30 hours of interview prep, which you can stretch over 2-3 months or cram into a few weeks (your story, standard behavioral questions, technical questions, etc.).
To accomplish that, I recommend the following timeline:
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship, Step 1: Your First Year in University
You don’t necessarily need to pick your major at this stage, but I would recommend finance/accounting or something that will be useful for a wide range of jobs.
Think: Engineering, math, statistics, or something with elements of all these, such as “management science” or “operations research.”
Avoid options like sociology, art history, gender studies, etc., unless you’re at one of the top ~5 universities in the country (it’s easier to get away with irrelevant majors there).
Next, front-load your schedule with easier classes in your first year, such as language classes or university-wide prerequisites.
Earn a high GPA from these easy classes and save the hard, technical ones for later years.
Join 1-2 student groups that will help you network into finance roles, such as the student investment club or the business frat. You could also consider investing or case competitions.
Most importantly, you NEED to get a finance internship in your first year or in the summer after your first year.
In the past, you could wait until Year 2 for your first internship, but this is riskier today because applications keep opening earlier and earlier.
And yes, some banks will still start later, but you want to keep your options open so you can apply to as many firms as possible.
You probably won’t be able to get a “real” IB internship, but you can find some good alternatives:
There is no set process, so you’ll have to find people on LinkedIn, send them messages or emails, and repeat until you find something.
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship, Step 2: The Summer After Your First Year
Ideally, you’ll complete your first finance internship in this period (see above).
You should also start learning the technical side (accounting, valuation, and basic M&A and LBO concepts) and begin networking with alumni.
It might even be a good idea to start networking before the end of your first year so you have more time to follow up with alumni and set up calls.
This may sound unbelievable, but with recruiting moving up and start dates becoming more random, it is better to start too early than to wait too long.
If your internship has normal hours, you could target ~10 hours per week for networking + technical prep.
A good target might be to complete 20-30 coffee chats or informational interviews by the time your second year starts.
With the technical prep, the most important point is to learn by doing.
Yes, you can read guides, take courses, and watch YouTube videos, but you should also spend a few hours building simple DCF models or 3-statement models to learn the key concepts.
You will retain far more information if you practice with companies you’re interested in than if you passively consume content.
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship, Step 3: Your Second Year in University
This is where it becomes unpredictable because it depends on when banks open their applications, which seems to change each year.
Since you can’t know that beforehand, you should continue networking with alumni and preparing for interviews as your second year begins.
Weekend trips to places like New York or London can certainly help, but you don’t necessarily “need” them if you’ve been able to speak with many alumni already.
You’ll also have to consider your internship plans for the upcoming summer (after your second year) since they will appear on your resume/CV and in interviews.
I would refer to the “pre-internship” list above and focus on the area you’re most interested in.
If you don’t already have a “brand name” on your resume, aim for an internship at a large, brand-name company; if you do have that brand name already, aim for a highly relevant internship, such as one where you work on deals and value companies.
At some point in your second year, applications will open, and the recruiting process will begin – at least if you’re at a target school.
All you can do here is pay close attention to news alerts and job postings and be ready to pounce the moment applications open.
Some people recommend resources like The Pulse, the Adventis newsletter, etc., but I can’t personally speak to how useful or accurate they are for tracking the dates.
If you do well in HireVues and investment banking interviews, you might have something lined up by the middle to end of your second year.
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship, Step 4: The Summer After Your Second Year
You complete your second finance-related internship here.
Also, not all banks finish their summer internship recruiting by this stage, so if you haven’t yet found something, you might still have a shot.
Smaller firms tend to be a bit slower, so you could find some middle-market and boutique openings, even if the bigger banks are done.
Therefore, you can keep applying and networking – but your chances decrease the longer it takes.
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship, Step 5: Your Third Year in University
Some banks will continue recruiting even into your third year, so you might still be able to interview around.
But if you do not win an internship within the first few months, chances are that you won’t be in IB at a large bank for the summer before your final year of university.
What If You Start Late or Miss Application Deadlines?
The best “Plan B” options depend on how far off you are.
If you can plausibly get finance internships in a related area, such as corporate banking or corporate finance, you could potentially aim for a full-time return offer in one of those fields, work for a year, and then go for lateral roles in IB.
Similarly, if you can win an offer at a boutique bank or another smaller firm, you could take a similar approach and work there for a year and then go for lateral roles at larger firms.
But if the best you can do is something like wealth management, it will be much harder to make this move (you want something with more financial or deal analysis).
You could also think about fields like equity research that are less structured and that might allow you to get in without a previous internship.
On the other hand, if you missed the deadlines because you were on a totally different path – such as engineering, marketing, or pre-med – you will probably need to pivot more aggressively with something like a Master’s in Finance degree.
You could also work for a few years and go the MBA route, but I do not recommend that for your immediate “Plan B” because it’s slower and more expensive.
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship at the MBA Level
At the MBA level, the timing is less frantic because banks cannot recruit until students arrive on campus.
You should still expect a quick start to recruiting and on-campus events once classes begin, but that has always been the case at this level.
We have an article on the MBA investment banking recruiting process, so please refer to that for more details.
In short, you still need to prepare for interviews and do some early networking, but the entire process is very structured at the top programs.
So, your candidacy is more about presentation, consistency, and ensuring you have a good enough background to be competitive.
How the Recruiting Timeline Differs in Other Regions
In places like London and Hong Kong, the process has moved up to earlier start dates, but it’s not quite as ridiculous as in the U.S.
So, you can afford to take your time a bit more, get internships in Year 2, and still be fine for recruiting season at large banks (applications usually open ~10-12 months before summer internships begin).
The Big 5 banks in Canada seem to be starting recruiting season earlier as well, but they’re more in-line with the start dates of the U.S. bulge brackets (well, except for RBC).
How to Get an Investment Banking Internship: What to AVOID
If you attend a good university, earn good grades, get 1-2 decent internships, and network/prepare in advance, you’ll probably be able to win an IB internship.
But you could also make plenty of mistakes that reduce your chances, so here’s what you should avoid:
First, it’s risky to transfer to a better university – even if you’re moving from an unknown state school to the Ivy League.
This strategy made sense for students at non-target schools a long time ago, but the new recruiting timeline makes it difficult to execute – as you won’t have much time to network with alumni or join student groups.
Second, do NOT take difficult classes in your first year. You cannot afford a lower GPA because banks use grades to weed out candidates.
Third, do not wait too long to start networking. If you wait until the middle of your second year, it might be too late!
Finally, do not focus on activities at the expense of internships. Yes, leadership experience is nice, and clubs can be useful for networking, but you will not make it far without internships.
Additional Reading About Internships
I’ve written a lot about IB internships over the years.
Here are the most relevant articles:
And if you have more questions, ask away.