The hardest (and easiest) internships to get in investment banking

There are more things to do in investment banking than investment banking. Firms offer internships across a wide range of divisions; none are easy to get into, but some are harder to get an offer from than others.

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In a recent report from Trackr, financial services internship applicants were asked how many applications they made, and how many offers they received. The chances of any one application being successful is less than 2% in all divisions, but one...

Private banking appears to be the easiest place in banking to get an internship. Applications to internships in that division are accepted 2.6% of the time. The total number of offers received is similar to that of investment banking internships, but private bankers had to send out more applications for a similar result.

On the flip-side, asset management seems to be the hardest division to get an internship for. It has a similar number of offers on average to investment banking, but its applicants make much more offers. It's the only division with an acceptance rate of less than 1% per offer.

Unexpectedly, the division that received the largest number of applications was the middle/back office. Trackr said that this was due to applicants applying to multiple divisions and treating the back office as a backup option.

Difficulty in obtaining these internships will vary from bank to bank. Both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan accept less than 1% of their internship applicants. The implication, at least, is there are easier options elsewhere.

You can also try your luck at internships outside of banking, but they're not easy to obtain either. Buy-side internship applicants received one offer for every ~82 applications, while consulting interns received one offer for every ~72.

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