What you need to do now to land a 2027 internship

Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 4:00 PM PDT. Hosted by Fiona Taft.

Fiona Taft, CEO of QuantMinds, walked through what quant firms look for in summer 2027 internship candidates and how to prepare a resume, cover letter and…

What this session covered

Fiona Taft, CEO of QuantMinds, walked through what quant firms look for in summer 2027 internship candidates and how to prepare a resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile. The session also covered networking tactics, technical and behavioral interview preparation, and a short-term action plan for the current recruiting season.

Key takeaways

Fiona said recruiting for summer 2027 internships started as early as May, June and July, and that if you haven't started applying you're behind, though new internships are still coming out every day.
She said quant firms look for both technical skills, such as Python, C++, SQL, derivatives, option pricing and risk management, and soft skills, such as curiosity, independent thinking, clear communication and a collaborative but competitive mindset.
On a resume, she recommended putting your academic background at the top, listing your GPA if it is over 3.5, including your expected graduation date, writing result-focused bullet points, and adding a dedicated skills section under education. She said a cover letter should address three things, why the firm, why the role, and why you are the best candidate.
When networking, she said to always send a message with a connection request, aim for 10 deep relationships rather than 100 superficial connections, and not ask for a referral in your first message.
For technical prep, she said to practice daily and recommended LeetCode, HackerRank and the Green Book. As an example of quick mental math, she said one of Optiver's assessments is 80 quick math questions in 8 minutes, where passing is 50 correct answers but what they want to see is 70 out of the 80 or more.
She said to put a project on your resume only once you have worked on it for at least a couple of weeks, because recruiters will ask you about anything listed there. If you're not at a target school, she said it's your projects, past experiences, research projects, relevant skills and technical skills that get you noticed.
She said to be really careful about applying to 100 roles in a week and suggested targeting anywhere from 10 to 20 applications when you're first starting out. In her view, using bots to apply is a bad idea because you need to tailor your resume to the exact role. She also said many firms will reject you if you apply for QR, QT and QD, because they'll be confused about what you're concentrated on.

Questions covered

Answers are edited for clarity.

What is a mistake that hurts strong candidates?

I think it's not having your application materials ready, and not having your resume optimized so recruiters can easily see your skills and move you through the first, second and third rounds. Not updating your LinkedIn is also a huge mistake people make, whether that's missing a background image, a good headshot, or any of the other sections I talked about.

Do I need to have a project on my resume if I have no internships yet?

Yes. If you have no professional experience, doing a research project with a professor or a research group at your university is really important; a lot of universities have undergraduate research programs you can apply to and join in the fall. You can also do your own project. Research and project experience is important, especially if you're going into quant research.