The standard and alternate journeys to the buyside
– AMObserver, UPDATED March 31, 2025.
Long gone are the days of The Graduate, when a 21-year old recent college graduate, living at home and drifting through life on an inflatable pool chaise, could avoid making career decisions in college and still expect to land a great job.
For undergraduates eyeing an investment career at a buyside firm (private equity and debt firms, hedge funds), academic performance is essential, and a two-year stint in investment banking (the sellside) is by far the most likely first step right after college. But if you haven’t completed at least two very relevant internships while in college—one during or in the summer after your sophomore year and another during the critical summer after your junior year—you’ll likely miss the boat on investment banking and subsequent buyside opportunities.
And barring a great personal connection in finance or identity traits that appeal to investment firms, there are few shortcuts or work-arounds left on the modern buyside career path. The old “Gentleman’s C”—the aspirational grade needed to land a top job without seeming like an overly focused academic grind—was reset to a B+ until about a decade ago. It has since settled on the “Gentleperson’s A-” as an absolute minimum for those first four or five college semesters before landing pivotal internships.
Aiming for a post-college investment career requires a well-planned roadmap that begins early—often right after high school graduation. On this count, U.S. universities are increasingly resembling their European counterparts, where students typically know their intended career path and focus of study before stepping on campus. Additionally, U.S. colleges are seeing a well-documented shift toward pre-professional majors over liberal arts degrees, with humanities programs declining by over 30% in the past decade.
AMObserver data shows that a greater number of college students pursuing business and economics majors are seeking finance-related internships year-round, starting in their first year of college, instead of relying solely on the single-season summer internship model, as they build their experience and credentials. This more evenly blended classroom-to-professional work balance, embedded in the curricula and graduation requirements of a relatively small but growing number of cooperative education (“co-op”) universities, is catching on among students throughout the country eager to create a competitive edge as they pursue their post-college buyside goals.
Below are key steps and timelines for students focused on the most direct buyside path.
1st Year College Students: Grasping the Two-Year Finish Line
As a first-year student, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with recruiting events aimed at sophomores and juniors. Many firms begin their outreach early, even to first-year students, through employer information sessions, coffee chats, and “Insight Days”—events designed to introduce students to firms and help them start building relationships.
It’s also important to recognize that the typical four-year college timeline is double the time it takes to secure (or forgo) a seat at a buyside firm.
Top academic performance and securing valuable internships during the first two years of college are the key ingredients for landing at a top-tier buyside firm two years after graduation.
Interviews for the most well-known investment banking or investment management rising senior internships can start as early as the spring semester of sophomore year—almost 1.5 years before that internship begins. Most other interviewing processes will be in their final stretch in the summer after sophomore year or early that fall—exactly two years from the start of your life as a college student.
Without the critical summer internship after junior year, the path to the buyside can easily stall since most full-time post-college investment banking analyst positions are reserved for return offerees from summer internships. Almost all subsequent first year private equity and credit associate roles are filled by those who’ve successfully completed a two-year investment banking analyst program.
By the second semester of one’s first year in college, students in business programs will already be positioning themselves for internships during their sophomore and junior years.
Students targeting the buyside typically major in finance or economics, often with a math or computer science minor. While a perfect GPA isn’t necessary, you’ll need to maintain at least that “Gentleperson’s A-” to remain competitive for these opportunities.
The first year of college is the last time you won’t be expected to have a business-related internship. Securing an internship at a bulge-bracket investment bank or major asset manager in the summer before sophomore year is primarily based on exceptional personal connections, as many large firms don’t offer formal internship programs for first years or sophomores. However, opportunities at boutique firms—especially in regional markets—are more accessible.
Students should start to explore internships year-round—fall, winter, spring, and summer—along with early insight programs at large and small firms. Several banks and investment firms also offer internships for students deemed to increase these firms’ diversity.
While summer internships remain the most important bridge to the most sought-after full-time jobs, internships in all four seasons have grown in both popularity and significance. These year-round internship opportunities offer valuable experience and help students compete for those top summer positions after their junior year.
Those who landed finance internships in the summer after their freshman year recommend persistence, cold calling, and focusing on smaller, regional boutique firms. It’s also strongly advised that applicants review their online footprint mindful that employers will monitor social media as part of their vetting process.
Bigger picture, one’s first year in college is also an important time to implement what will be a key life lesson: Peer learning and lateral networking—especially with classmates further along in their college journey or already in their full-time careers—can offer insights and opportunities just as valuable as those from professors or career services teams.
This is especially true at schools with strong undergraduate business classes or programs, where fellow classmates have already led their high school investment clubs, managed real or mock investment portfolios, or participated in high school stock and economics competitions such as The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition and The Federal Reserve System’s High School Fed Challenge.
Some may also have attended high schools with robust pre-professional programs, designed in collaboration with industry experts, to provide their students with hands-on experience and insight into their future fields.
Finally, one should not rely solely on one’s own college for this outreach. High school alma maters and affinity-based networks can be just as meaningful.
Sophomore Year: The Internships
As students return to campus for their sophomore year, it’s crucial to begin applying for both sophomore and junior summer internships. This is when many middle-market, independent boutique, and bulge-bracket investment banking firms make their summer analyst offers.
By sophomore year, some large private equity firms start targeting students at select schools, advising them to “contact us once you receive your investment banking internship offer.” However, these firms typically won’t hire sophomores until they have completed their two-year investment banking analyst programs. Some private equity firms onboard a smaller cohort of analysts for jobs starting directly after college; almost all such hires will have completed a summer investment banking internship.
A sophomore summer investment banking or asset management internship provides relevant experience, showcases one’s ability and grit to secure competitive positions, and builds a network of industry contacts. Relevant internships—no matter the season—strengthen resumes and demonstrate early and proactive interest in the field.
Buyside professionals who recently secured private equity associate roles after two years as investment banking analysts acknowledge that landing a top-tier investment banking or buyside internship between sophomore and junior year is tough, especially without major connections. While large firms may offer positions for sophomores, not having a sophomore-year investment banking internship isn’t a dealbreaker. What’s most important is securing a finance-related internship that positions you well for future interviews.
Meanwhile, Excel—still the lingua franca of the finance world—is essential, along with learning relevant computer programming languages, especially those used to organize large data sets.
For interview preparation, online resources and the collective experience of qualified peers, alumni, and career services personnel, are essential. These same resources can help ensure that you present your extracurricular and internship experiences effectively to potential employers, while adhering to resume best practices for tone, content, format, grammar, and punctuation.
Originally published November 18 , 2024.
READ PART 1: How College Sophomores Land Lucrative Back-to-Back Finance Jobs upon Graduation (Article 1 of 3)
READ PART 3: Junior and Senior Year Alternate Paths to the Investment Buyside
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