Waddle Street
Overview
Find your fit
Guides
Guides
104
guides
When it opens
18
When do investment banking summer analyst applications open?
Investment banking summer analyst applications for the junior summer open in the winter of sophomore year, roughly December through March, 15 to 18 months before the internship starts.
The sophomore investment banking recruiting timeline
If you want an investment banking internship the summer after junior year, the work happens as a sophomore.
When do sales and trading summer analyst applications open?
Sales and trading summer analyst applications for the junior summer mostly open from late summer through fall, roughly August to November, later than investment banking at many banks.
When do private equity internships open for undergrads?
Private equity summer programs for undergraduates mostly open in the fall and winter, roughly September through January, for the following summer.
When do hedge fund internships open for undergrads?
Hedge fund summer internships for undergraduates mostly open from late summer through fall, roughly August to November, for the following summer.
When do quant trading internships open?
Quant trading and research internships open early, mostly August through October, for the following summer, and many fill by December.
When do consulting internships open for undergrads?
Management consulting internships for the junior summer open in the summer and early fall before junior year, roughly June through September, and most firms set one or two fixed deadlines instead of reviewing on a rolling basis.
When do equity research internships open?
Equity research summer analyst roles for the junior summer mostly open from September through January, after investment banking has filled most of its seats.
When do asset management internships open for undergrads?
Asset management summer internships for undergraduates open mostly from August through November at the large managers, for the following summer.
When do private credit internships open for undergrads?
Private credit internships for undergraduates open mostly from September through January, for the following summer, and most sit at the large alternative asset managers rather than at standalone credit funds.
When do corporate development internships open?
Corporate development internships for undergraduates are rare and mostly open in the fall, inside finance rotational, strategy, or M&A programs at large technology, healthcare, and industrial companies.
How Waddle Street verifies a program is open, and what statuses mean
Waddle Street marks a program Open only when we see the live posting on the firm's own careers site, and we show when we last checked.
When do bulge bracket banks open summer analyst applications?
The bulge brackets open their junior summer analyst applications in the winter of sophomore year, inside the December to March investment banking window, and they tend to open within a few weeks of one another.
When do elite boutique banks open summer analyst applications?
Elite boutiques open their junior summer analyst programs in the winter of sophomore year, inside the same December to March window as the bulge brackets and often near the front of it.
Middle market banks: recruiting timeline and how it differs
Middle market banks open their junior summer programs over a wider spread than the bulge brackets: some post inside the December to March window of sophomore year, and others recruit later into the spring or the junior fall.
When do megafund private equity firms recruit undergrads?
The megafund private equity firms that hire undergraduates do it through structured summer analyst programs that open in the fall and winter, inside the September to January private equity window, with very few seats.
When do top quant and trading firms open internships?
The top quant trading and research firms open next summer's internships in late summer and early fall, inside the August to October quant window, and post trader, researcher, and developer roles separately.
When do McKinsey, BCG, and Bain open undergrad internships?
McKinsey, BCG, and Bain open their undergraduate summer internships in the summer and early fall before junior year, inside the June to September consulting window, and they usually work to fixed deadlines rather than reviewing on a rolling basis.
What each path is
27
Investment banking vs consulting: which should you pick?
Investment banking is finance work on deals: models, valuation, and pitch materials for companies buying, selling, or raising money.
Investment banking vs sales and trading: which fits you?
Investment banking advises companies on deals and raising money, with models and pitch books on a deal's timeline.
Private equity vs hedge funds: which should you aim for?
Private equity buys whole companies, improves them, and sells them years later, so the work is deals, models, and diligence.
How to get a venture capital internship as an undergrad
Venture capital internships for undergraduates have no single season: they come up year round, mostly by referral, and few funds post a formal program.
Equity research vs asset management: which fits you?
Equity research covers one sector, builds models on public companies, and publishes a view that investors read.
Quant trading vs quant research: which should you apply for?
A quant trader makes real-time decisions about prices and risk, using models; a quant researcher builds and tests those models, mostly away from the live market.
Corporate development vs investment banking for undergrads
Investment banking advises many companies on deals; corporate development runs deals for one company from the inside.
Private credit vs private equity: what is the difference?
Private equity buys companies and earns its return from growth and a sale, while private credit lends to companies and earns its return from interest and getting its principal back.
Bulge bracket vs elite boutique vs middle market banks
Bulge brackets are the giant full-service banks that lend, trade, and advise; elite boutiques are advisory-only firms that work on large deals with small teams; middle market banks advise on smaller deals, often by sector.
What does an investment banking analyst do all day?
An investment banking analyst spends the day building and checking models, making pitch book and deal pages, and turning comments from the associate and VP.
Investment banking groups explained: coverage vs product
A bank is split two ways: coverage groups own the client relationships in one industry (healthcare, tech, industrials), and product groups own one kind of transaction (M&A, equity, debt, leveraged finance, restructuring).
Restructuring investment banking: what it is and who does it
Restructuring bankers advise a company, or the lenders owed money by it, when the company cannot pay its debt as planned.
Leveraged finance explained for undergrads
Leveraged finance is the group that arranges loans and high-yield bonds for companies rated below investment grade, very often to fund a private equity buyout.
ECM vs DCM: capital markets groups explained
Equity capital markets (ECM) helps companies raise money by selling stock, through IPOs, follow-on offerings, and convertibles.
M&A vs industry coverage: which group to pick as a summer analyst
Pick M&A if you want the most transaction execution and the clearest preparation for private equity recruiting; pick an industry coverage group if you care about one sector and want to see every kind of deal a client does.
Sales and trading desks explained: rates, credit, equities, FX
A sales and trading floor is split into desks by what they trade: rates (government bonds, swaps), credit (corporate bonds, loans), equities (stocks, options), FX (currencies), and commodities (energy, metals, agriculture).
Sales vs trading vs structuring: which seat fits you?
On a trading floor, sales owns the client relationship, trading owns the price and the risk, and structuring designs custom products between the two.
What does a hedge fund analyst do all day?
A hedge fund analyst finds and defends investment ideas for a portfolio manager: reading the news, updating models, talking to companies and industry experts, and pitching positions with a view on size and risk.
Long/short funds vs multi-manager platforms, explained
A long/short fund is usually one investment team under one chief investor, holding a concentrated book of longs and shorts for months or years.
What does an equity research analyst do all day?
A sell side equity research analyst covers a set of public companies in one sector, keeps a model on each, and publishes notes with a rating and a price target that institutional investors read.
Buy side vs sell side, explained for undergrads
The sell side is the banks: investment banking, sales and trading, and equity research, which sell advice, execution, and research to clients.
How to choose which finance path to recruit for
Choose by the work you want to do every day, then check the calendar: deals and models point to banking, private equity, or corp dev; markets and fast judgment point to trading or hedge funds; math and code point to quant; structured business problems point to consulting.
What does a private credit analyst do? A worked example
A private credit analyst underwrites loans that a fund makes directly to companies, most of them owned by private equity sponsors, then watches those loans until they are repaid.
What does a VC associate do, and what undergrad VC roles exist?
A venture capital associate spends most of the week finding and screening startups: meeting founders, researching markets, writing investment memos, and helping the companies the fund already backs.
What does a corporate development analyst do?
A corporate development analyst works inside a company, not a bank, and helps it buy, invest in, and sell businesses.
What do quant traders and quant researchers do all day?
A quant trader spends market hours running and adjusting live strategies, then the hours around them reviewing trades and improving the model.
Asset management analyst programs explained
Asset management analyst programs hire students into a firm's investment teams, usually as research associates or rotational analysts in equities, fixed income, or multi-asset, plus separate programs for risk, client, and operations roles.
Networking
7
How to write a cold email to an investment banker
A cold email to a banker is short and predictable: a warm opener, who you are in one line, why you are writing to this person, one line of background, the times you are free as a list, a note that you are flexible, thanks, and a signature.
How to find alumni at a bank on LinkedIn and your alumni directory
Open your school's LinkedIn page, click Alumni, and filter by the bank under where they work; then cross-check the same bank in your school's own alumni directory, which often has emails.
How many coffee chats do you need before applying to IB?
Aim for two real conversations at each bank you care most about, held before that bank opens, plus at least one at every other bank you apply to.
What to ask in a coffee chat with an investment banker
Ask about the person's own path, how their group actually works, what separated the summer analysts who got return offers, and who else you should talk to.
The thank-you email after a networking call, with examples
Send a thank-you within a few hours of the call, the same day at the latest.
What to do when no banker replies to your outreach
Follow up once, two weeks after the first note, by replying in the same thread with fresh availability.
How to network into investment banking from a non-target school
From a non-target school, networking is not extra credit: it is how your resume gets read at all.
Interviews
24
Investment banking interview questions sophomores should know
Sophomore investment banking interviews ask four kinds of questions: behaviorals (walk me through your resume, why banking, why this bank), accounting (how the three statements link), valuation (how a DCF works, enterprise versus equity value), and basic deal questions.
Walk me through the three financial statements
The income statement shows revenue down to net income over a period, the balance sheet shows assets, liabilities, and equity at a point in time, and the cash flow statement turns net income into the change in cash.
Walk me through a DCF: the interview answer, worked
A DCF values a company as the present value of its future cash flows.
How an LBO works: the interview answer and a paper LBO
In a leveraged buyout, a private equity firm buys a company using mostly debt and a smaller slice of its own equity, uses the company's cash flow to pay the debt down over a hold of three to seven years, then sells.
Accretion and dilution in a merger, with a worked example
A deal is accretive if the buyer's earnings per share go up after the deal and dilutive if they go down.
How to answer "why investment banking" in an interview
A strong answer to why investment banking ties a real moment that got you interested to what the job actually is, then shows how you tested the interest and why it fits where you want to go.
How to answer "why this bank" without generic praise
Give two or three reasons that would not be true of the bank's closest competitor: where the bank sits in the market and why that fits you, something specific you learned from people there, and a deal or group you followed.
HireVue for finance internships: how it works, how to prep
A HireVue is a one way video interview: a question appears on screen, you get a short timer to think, then you record your answer to the camera with no one on the other end.
What happens at an investment banking superday?
A superday is the final round of banking recruiting: several interviews back to back on one day, usually thirty minutes each, with bankers from analyst up to managing director.
What a first round interview looks like in banking
A first round banking interview is usually a thirty minute phone or video call with one or two bankers, often an analyst or associate.
Market questions in S&T interviews, and how to stay current
Sales and trading interviews test whether you follow markets every day: what moved this morning, roughly where the S&P 500, the 10 year yield, oil, and the dollar sit, and what happens to each if inflation or jobs data surprises.
Mental math and brainteasers for trading interviews
Trading interviews test whether you can do arithmetic, probability, and expected value quickly and calmly in your head, then explain your reasoning.
How to pitch a stock in an interview, with a template
A good interview stock pitch fits in two minutes: the recommendation and price target first, then two or three thesis points, why the market has it wrong, the valuation behind your target, the catalyst that will prove you right, and the risks with the point where you would sell.
The paper LBO in PE interviews, worked step by step
A paper LBO is a simplified buyout you solve with pen and paper in about ten to fifteen minutes: set the purchase price and debt, project a few years of free cash flow, use it to pay down debt, then compute exit equity, MOIC, and IRR.
How to learn financial modeling as an undergrad: a 6-week plan
Teach yourself modeling in six weeks at about five hours a week: accounting first, then a three statement model built by hand from one real company's filings, then a DCF, then a simple LBO and merger math.
The best books and resources for investment banking recruiting
Start free: read the Mergers & Inquisitions articles on banking to learn how recruiting and the job work, then work through the Breaking Into Wall Street 400-question guide for technicals.
How to follow markets for finance interviews: a 20-minute routine
Spend 20 minutes a day on a fixed routine: check the same handful of numbers (stocks, Treasury yields, the dollar, oil, volatility), read the two or three stories that moved them, and write one sentence on why.
How to answer "tell me about yourself" in a finance interview
Tell me about yourself is a 60 to 90 second story that ends at the job you are interviewing for: where you come from, the two or three choices that pulled you toward finance, what you did to test the interest, and why you are in this room now.
The 15 most common behavioral questions in banking interviews
Banking behaviorals come from a short list: teamwork, leadership, failure, conflict, pressure, mistakes, strengths and weaknesses, and a few on judgment.
How to answer "walk me through a deal you have followed"
Pick one announced M&A deal you understand well and walk it in six beats: who bought whom, the price and what multiple it implies, how it was paid for, the strategic logic, what could go wrong, and your own view.
Questions to ask at the end of a finance interview
Ask one or two questions you cannot answer from the firm's website, aimed at the person in front of you: their own work, how the analyst role really runs in their group, or something they said earlier in the interview.
What to do when you don't know the answer to a technical question
Do not bluff.
The thank-you email after a finance interview, with examples
Send a short thank-you email within 24 hours, ideally the same evening, to each interviewer whose email you have, and to the recruiter who arranged the interview.
Consulting case interviews for finance students, worked example
A consulting case interview gives you a business problem and watches how you solve it out loud: clarify, lay out a structure, work the numbers, and finish with a recommendation.
Resume
6
The one-page investment banking resume: format and order
An investment banking resume is one page, one font, 10 to 12 point, with education first, then work experience, then leadership and activities, then a short skills and interests block.
How to write resume bullets with numbers: before and after
A good finance resume bullet follows one pattern: a strong verb, the specific thing you built or did, a number that sizes it, and what it was used for.
Should you put your GPA on a finance resume, and how?
Yes, if it is 3.5 or above: write it to two decimals on the education line, as in GPA: 3.67/4.00, and never round it up.
A sophomore finance resume with no finance experience
Most sophomores have no finance internship, and banks know it.
How resumes differ for sales and trading and quant roles
Keep the same one-page, education-first format as a banking resume, but change what you lead with.
Resume mistakes that get you cut in a 20 second screen
A screener spends seconds on your page, checking school, GPA, and whether there is any finance signal, then reads a few bullets.
Programs and pipelines
15
What are sophomore and early insight programs in finance?
Sophomore and early insight programs are short programs that banks and other firms run for first and second year students, from a day of sessions to a few weeks over the summer.
Diversity programs in finance for underclassmen
Diversity programs in finance are early programs, run by firms or by nonprofit partners, that aim to widen who gets into the industry, and many are open to freshmen and sophomores.
Rolling applications: why applying early matters in finance
A rolling application is reviewed as it arrives, and interviews and offers go out while the posting is still up, so seats fill before the stated deadline.
How summer internship return offers work in finance
A return offer is the full-time analyst offer a bank or fund makes to its summer interns, usually at or soon after the end of the junior summer.
Off-cycle internships in finance: what they are and when to do one
An off-cycle internship runs outside the summer, in the fall, winter, or spring, often for a semester while you take time off school or study part time.
Applying to investment banks from a non-target school
From a non-target school, the online application still works if it is early, clean, and backed by someone at the bank who knows your name.
Recruiting for finance as a junior who started late
If you are a junior and just starting, the large banks' junior summer classes are mostly decided, but a lot is still possible.
A freshman year plan for finance recruiting
Freshman year is for setting up, not applying: protect your GPA, join one club where you do real finance work, learn how the three statements link, and figure out which paths you might want.
Finance and investment clubs: which to join and how to get in
Join the club where members do real finance work, such as pitching stocks, running part of a portfolio, or building models, and where alumni at the firms you want still answer emails.
Exploding offers in finance recruiting: what to do
An exploding offer is an internship offer with a short deadline, often a few days and sometimes less, set so you decide before other firms finish their process.
How to decide between two finance internship offers
Pick the offer that gives you the best chance at the job you want after it, not the one with the bigger name.
What to do if you get no finance internship offer
Keep recruiting, because several finance paths recruit later than banking, and smaller firms and off-cycle roles hire after the big wave.
Reneging on a finance offer: why not, and what instead
Reneging means backing out of an offer after you have accepted it, and in finance it costs far more than the summer you trade it for.
Recruiting for London or Hong Kong finance programs from the US
You can apply to London or Hong Kong programs from a US school, but they are separate recruiting processes with their own portals, timing, and work authorization rules, so treat them as a second, smaller campaign.
From summer analyst to full-time: the timeline after
After your junior summer you hear about a return offer, decide on it by the firm's deadline, then spend senior year finishing school while the firm settles your group and sends start details.
Competitions
7
The best stock pitch competitions for undergrads
The best stock pitch competitions for undergraduates are the intercollegiate ones that take teams from any school, the ones run or judged by funds that hire students, and your own school's pitch event as practice.
Consulting case competitions for undergrads
The consulting case competitions worth your time as an undergrad are the firm-run ones open to underclassmen, such as Deloitte's national competition and Accenture's Innovation Challenge, and the invitational ones your business school sends a team to.
Trading competitions for undergrads, and what quant firms see
The trading competitions that matter most for undergrads are the firm-run ones for first and second years, such as the Citadel and Citadel Securities Trading Invitationals, the online team contests like IMC Prosperity, and the student-run intercollegiates at MIT, Berkeley, Yale, Chicago, and Rotman.
Venture capital competitions and fellowships for undergrads
For undergrads, venture capital has two kinds of entry point: competitions where you act as the investor, such as the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), and student investor programs you apply to, such as Dorm Room Fund, Contrary, and Pear Fellows.
Private equity and LBO case competitions for undergrads
Private equity case competitions for undergrads ask your team to evaluate a buyout: build a simple LBO, decide whether to invest, and defend it to judges.
How to win a finance case competition
Teams that win finance case competitions lead with one clear recommendation, back it with a model the judges can follow, and handle the Q and A better than anyone else.
Equity research challenges: how the CFA Research Challenge works
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is the main equity research competition for students: a team of three to five from one university, with a faculty advisor, researches a public company, writes a research report, and presents a buy, hold, or sell call to judges.