Navigating U.S. Internships as an International Student
Episode 23 | July 21, 2025
For international students aspiring to careers in finance, the internship journey often comes with additional challenges. Questions about sponsorship, timelines, and regional opportunities weigh heavily on students navigating the U.S. recruiting landscape.
In this episode of Adventis’s The Coffee Chat podcast, Ben sat down with Prim, a Columbia University student from Bangkok, Thailand, who is pursuing a career in finance. Together, they explored the hurdles and opportunities that international students face when breaking into the industry.
Setting the Stage: Prim’s Journey
Prim grew up in Bangkok and later attended boarding school in Connecticut before enrolling at Columbia’s engineering school in New York City. Driven by an interest in both technical skills and business, she chose the university’s financial engineering program, a pathway that combines quantitative rigor with real-world applications in finance.
“I knew New York City was the city where I wanted to live,” Prim shared. “The food scene, the museums, the energy—it’s just a nice balance of work and life.”
Her goal is clear: to pursue a career in finance while remaining in New York City. But like many international students, she faces the complexities of visa requirements and sponsorship.
Focus on What You Can Control
Ben emphasized a key mindset for international students: focus energy on what’s within your control.
“You can’t control the lottery system or immigration policies,” he said. “But you can control your networking, your technical preparation, and how well you reflect and prioritize your process.”
He cautioned against letting setbacks reduce motivation. “The danger is that disappointment about things you can’t control leads you to put in less effort where you actually could succeed. That’s a vicious cycle you need to avoid.”
Building a Networking Strategy
For Prim, the big question was how to approach networking across multiple regions—New York, Bangkok, and Singapore—without becoming overwhelmed.
Ben recommended structuring outreach into categories:
New York bulge-bracket and elite independent banks
New York boutique firms
Regional banks in Bangkok
Regional banks in Singapore
He advised starting with five conversations in each category, asking specific questions about recruiting timelines, sponsorship practices, and firm culture. From there, students can narrow their focus and double down on promising opportunities.
“Think of networking like being a detective,” Ben explained. “You’re following leads. Use conversations to uncover hooks—unique details about an industry or firm—and then build natural follow-ups that expand your network.”
Leveraging Early Opportunities
Prim already secured a freshman-year banking internship, a significant accomplishment. Ben urged her to prioritize excelling in that role.
“The best interview prep is crushing the internship you already have,” he noted. “Every day you’ll be learning the language of finance, building technical skills, and expanding your network.”
Prim also completed Adventis’s Financial Modeling Certification® (FMC®) Program, achieving Level II before even finishing her freshman year. This foundation, Ben pointed out, allows her to focus less on memorizing keystrokes and more on mastering the concepts that drive real-world finance.
Balancing Passion and Opportunity
A recurring theme in their conversation was how to balance personal interests with practical opportunities.
“At the end of the day, you have to go where the opportunity is,” Ben said. “You may discover you don’t love every aspect of the role, but that experience is how you learn. The key is getting multiple offers and then choosing the best one.”
Encouragement for International Students
While the sponsorship process is undeniably complex, Ben stressed that success is possible. “It has been done many, many times. Plenty of students, sometimes with fewer resources than you, have secured offers. With hard work, it’s absolutely in the cards.”
Prim left the conversation with a clearer path forward: focus on excelling this summer, expand her networking intentionally, and approach each step as part of a long-term marathon.
