Financial Services: Accelerated Internship Recruiting Timelines

Financial Services firms hire for interns extremely far (more than a year) in advance. This can create a process that can be stressful and often overwhelming for students. To navigate this unusual recruiting pattern, it’s important to be aware of tips and strategies for preparing.

~START EARLY & Stay up to date on ever changing deadlines:

Tips

  • Optimize Handshake to stay on top of things:
    • Favorite the company on Handshake, which will then notify you when the organization posts new positions.
    • When searching, consider searching both by industry and by job function for more options.
    • Set up a search alert on Handshake (by simply saving your search parameters) for finance-related internships or job postings to catch new listings from firms not on your radar.
    • Do a keyword search for the summer after next (e.g. “summer 2027”)
    • Sort results by posting date (rather than deadline)
  • Reach out to Swarthmore alumni at firms of interest to learn more about changing hiring trends. Start with Swarthmore alumni on SwatLink. Make a profile on the company’s “careers” page or “student careers” page and sign up for alerts about the type of position you’re seeking. Some firms will only post on their own website, so this is a must!
  • Follow companies of interest on your social media channel of choice. This will help you hear about recruiting news and keep up-to-date on what the firm is promoting and is a great way to prepare for informational (or regular) interviews. Plus, firms keep track of engagement in these spaces, especially on LinkedIn.
  • Review Swarthmore’s Summer Experience Dashboard to see how offer timelines within financial services have shifted in recent years.

Considerations

  • First years & sophomores should plan to explore in the fall and apply in the winter for internships in their sophomore/junior summers, approximately 18 months in advance.
  • Sophomores are frequently searching for their sophomore and junior summer internships simultaneously. Leverage our resources and support to successfully navigate this process.
  • Most offers of full-time post-graduate roles within financial services (at large bulge bracket firms) are made exclusively to rising seniors in their summer intern pool. These are called “return offers.”