How to Land a VC Internship as a College Student

Ian Bambrick
Sep 5, 2018 · 5 min read

Entering my Junior year of college, I had one primary goal that took priority ranking over all others. That goal was to land a Venture Capital Internship in NYC.

I have a feeling I am not alone and there are others out there pursuing undergraduate degrees with a strong curiosity, or maybe even passion, for the VC industry. Hopefully, walking through my experience clears up some questions and maybe even shines some insight into the process.

Before going any further you can take a glance at my background here and learn more about ff Venture Capital here!


Intro

This would be my third NYC based internship, and coming off a competitive summer banking program at a well-respected investment bank, I felt confident in my abilities to navigate and land difficult positions. I soon came to realize VC is unlike any other field, and this would be a very difficult undertaking. It would be a journey that would take months of resilience and innovation to just get a foot in the door.

Before Beginning The Search

The first thing to understand how a VC firm works. The more you understand about VC, the more you begin to see how time is a precious commodity within each firm. Day-to-day meetings are booked for weeks in advance; when partners and associates aren’t traveling or helping portfolio companies grow, they are focusing on new investments and raising capital. This means that your email asking about a summer position will likely fall into the “get to it eventually” folder because there simply isn’t enough time in the day for every email.

Now that you know this, the next logical solution is to become creative and work your way in the door another way. If you come from a family similar to mine and have three siblings and parents who are not associated with the banking or VC world in any way, you need to put the pedal to the floor and talk to everyone you can.

Compiling Resources

Creating a comprehensive list of VC’s in the area and working through in a systematic way based off of your particular area of interest is the best way to start. Below is a link to a fairly comprehensive list of VC firms in NYC and a good starting point to look into.

Besides for direct outreach, there are a few other recommended sources.

Other recommended VC job sourcing platforms:

Reaching Out

Each email should be carefully crafted and personalized. The best advice I read from Mike MacCombie at ff Venture Capital is to “be already doing what they would ask you to do”. When you send your email out saying you believe you would be great for a particular role, be sure to provide some sort of reasoning as to why.

Interviewing

So now you’re in the door. The big moment is here! It’s your time to shine and hopefully land one of the very few spots open. The best advice here is be prepared. It took a lot of hard work to get to this point, don’t waste the opportunity. Below are some tips for being prepared for a VC interview.

Post Interview

Walking out of the interview, you should feel confident. You should have portrayed your value add to the firm and why you should be there. Now all you can do is wait, and of course send your follow up email thanking the interviewer for taking time out of their day!

Last but Not Least

My closing piece of advice is to look not only for the people who you feel are the only ones that can help you. Remember, the partners are busy and have hardly any free time to spare. The person who got me in the door is the EA and I reached her by taking a chance with a cold message. The point being, everyone at the firm has a voice. If someone believes in you, they will help you get to where you need to be and then you need to take it from there!

If you are apart of the 1% of students, undergraduate or graduate lucky enough to land a VC internship, be sure to listen and learn everything you can. Every day is a new and exciting day in the VC world and time truly flies. Maybe I will write another post on what to expect once you’re inside, but I think it’s best to leave it a mystery, adding to the motivation to find out for yourself.

Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way, especially Mike MacCombie and the entire ff VC team.

Ian Bambrick

Written by

College Student. Entrepreneur. VC @ffvc

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