Summer is here, and for a select cohort of college students, that means swapping lecture halls for trading floors and seminar rooms for Wall Street office suites. In the next few weeks, thousands would begin internships at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and other major financial institutions. What awaits them could define their careers.
However, getting there has become harder than getting into the top universities where many of them study. Goldman Sachs begins its process more than a year out, interviewing candidates as early as the end of their sophomore year. The bank’s intern class last year saw more than 315,000 applications for 2,700 spots — an acceptance rate of 0.9 percent. JPMorgan revealed at its investor day last year that it had received 493,000 applications for about 4,000 positions.
Mary Erdoes, head of JPMorgan’s asset and wealth management division, called the volume “mind-blowing,” adding that it left the firm “ripe with the ability to pick talent” from an enormous pool. Both banks now have acceptance rates lower than Harvard University’s 3.6 percent.
The competition for places has intensified dramatically. A decade ago, Goldman’s acceptance rate was about 5 percent, with roughly one-sixth the number of applicants it receives today. One reason applications have surged is the growth of technology platforms that make it easier for students to discover and apply for opportunities. UK-based Trackr, which follows 1,500 programs, shows its users submitted an average of 66 applications each this year, up from 54 last year, leading to 4.73 interviews per candidate and 0.88 offers — equivalent to one offer for every 75 applications. Success clusters at the top: 10 percent of the candidates claim 44 percent of all offers.
Despite increased scrutiny around working hours, many interns still put in long days and nights. As one former summer analyst put it: “People complain about working hours in banks, but for me they were not a problem. Yes, there were a few 3am finishes and some 4am spikes, but I enjoy intensity.”
It is not all about endurance, though. Blackstone Inc president Jon Gray advised interns at their welcome presentation last year that success comes to those who “work hard or care more,” adding that “treating people nicely can be a bit of a secret weapon.”
The prize makes it all worthwhile. As well as the pay (interns take home the equivalent of up to US$125,000 in annual salary), the internship pipeline now fills the majority of full-time entry-level positions at major banks, which explicitly design their recruiting around these 10-week programs. Surviving the summer does not guarantee success — the overall intern offer rate across industries stood at 62 percent in 2023 and last year, its lowest in more than five years, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers — but compared with other channels, it is the best way to secure a full-time position.
Blackstone is a good example. The private equity firm had 169 open analyst positions in 2023 and although it received 62,000 applications, the majority were filled via internships.
“Getting an entry-level job at Blackstone is 12 times harder than getting into Harvard,” Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman said. “I doubt I would be able to be hired today. Not sure that’s a great thing.”
Fortunately for him, the pipeline produces results: Gray, his number two, started as an analyst in 1992. At Goldman Sachs, Dan Dees, cohead of Banking and Markets, joined fresh from university the same summer. The analyst program remains a proven pathway to the top.
This explains why firms persist with massive internship programs even as artificial intelligence (AI) automates many tasks traditionally performed by junior staff. Excel modeling, pitch book formatting and data analysis, which once consumed analyst hours, are increasingly handled by algorithms. Banks no longer need armies of interns to power through spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides.
Yet the programs are not just about immediate productivity; they are about identifying and developing future leaders. Today’s summer analysts might spend less time on mechanical tasks, but they are still learning to think like bankers, manage client relationships and navigate high-pressure environments under deadline pressure. These skills — reading clients, structuring deals, managing teams — remain irreplaceable. The internship is evolving from a training ground in technical skills to an extended audition for leadership potential. That makes it more valuable than ever.
Marc Rubinstein is a former hedge fund manager. He is author of the weekly finance newsletter Net Interest. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
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