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Internship to FT

mscquant

Joined
2/11/13
Messages
21
Points
11
I've been doing an internship as a quant developer(nonpaid) in a small shop in manhattan for 3 months now. While my boss knows that I'll be finishing school in less than a month, I haven't heard anything about any future decisions. What can I do to have them make a FT offer?

I'm an international, so I'm not too familiar with how I should deal with such situations...

positive signal: my boss keeps telling me there's a lot to do in line for me. He says I need to speed up, so we can get more done in shorter period of time. BUT believe me, I'm working 10+ hrs a day, and I'm the ONLY person working on the project(s) that are assigned to me. I'm on my 5th project in just 3 months.

(maybe) negative signal: One of the other interns quit for another job last week. He talked to a couple of guys here at the firm, and it's probably because these guys didn't offer him anything viable, or not offer anything at all.

I've applied to maybe 200 positions (not exaggerating at all), gotten interviews for maybe 5 of them (some of those big names got me really excited), but didn't get any offers in any of them.

WHAT SHOULD I DO with graduation approaching... any suggestions/advice?

thanks!
 
I have only worked in Mexico, so I don't know how things work in the US. Still, what I would do is to aproach them directly and tell them that you are very happy working there and that you are interested in a full time position.
 
Start looking elsewhere. One of the few things that gets the wheels of employment going in the financial industry is having a competing offer. Or threat of one.

Let them indirectly know that you started looking elsewhere for work (i.e. ask them for recommendations - tell them that you like working there but need to figure out what you're doing after graduation)
 
Lyosha said:
Start looking elsewhere. One of the few things that gets the wheels of employment going in the financial industry is having a competing offer. Or threat of one.

Let them indirectly know that you started looking elsewhere for work (i.e. ask them for recommendations - tell them that you like working there but need to figure out what you're doing after graduation)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input.

But if the other intern left after talking to these guys, then I'm guessing they weren't too entertained about having interns here? Unpaid interns are easily replaceable especially in current job market. I'm not sure if competing offers will mean anything to them. What's your thought?
 
If they're not going to make you an offer they're not going to make you an offer. If they are, they are.

It seems like you've already painted yourself as competent and a good investment. If they're willing to commit, they will. If they're not willing to commit, don't wait, find someone else while you still have time.
 
Lyosha said:
If they're not going to make you an offer they're not going to make you an offer. If they are, they are.

It seems like you've already painted yourself as competent and a good investment. If they're willing to commit, they will. If they're not willing to commit, don't wait, find someone else while you still have time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement and the advice!
 
Yeah, Lyosha is right. Unfortunately many small firms are wrongly abusing/taking advantage of the influx of desperate internship seekers and just "hiring" workers for free. I have seen this more than once. Often if you see other interns leave its a pretty strong signal that they don't have the headcount and are just abusing you. You can try but from the sounds of it they are not looking for anyone, just abusing the intern system.
 
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