The First Offer Playbook
How to Land Your First Internship Before Junior Year
A 20-page guide to landing your first internship before junior year: the resume rubric, the target list, the AI outreach system, cold email templates, the call, the referral close, behavioral stories, technicals by track, and an 8-week calendar to 500 emails.
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What's inside
- 01
How recruiting actually works
The 5 things that matter, ranked, and the market students starting recruiting can actually win.
- 02
The recruiting calendar by track and by quarter
What to do in each quarter from freshman fall to junior year, across Finance and Accounting, plus Marketing and Tech.
- 03
The top-tier resume
The rubric, line-by-line bullet rewrites, and a before-and-after example.
- 04
Building a target list of 50 with contacts
A/B/C tiers, where to find the right people, and what counts as a contact.
- 05
The AI outreach system
Personalization prompts, sequencing, the follow-up cadence, and the guardrails.
- 06
Cold email that gets answered
The Two C's, subject lines, and 5 templates.
- 07
The call
The full framework, a question bank, and the thank-you.
- 08
Turning calls into referrals
The close, staying warm, and the tracker.
- 09
Behavioral stories
The 25 self-questions, the story template, and mapping 8 stories to 10 questions.
- 10
"Why this industry, why this firm"
The 3 buckets and the worksheet.
- 11
Technicals by track
Study order and question lists for Finance and Accounting, plus Marketing and Tech.
- 12
Interviews and superdays
The flow, recovering from a blank, and questions to ask.
- 13
Externships and early experience
What counts, how to get it, and how to put it on a resume.
- 14
Your 8-week execution calendar
The weekly numbers, from zero to 500 emails.
- 15
Your 6-month game plan
A template for the months after the 8 weeks.
- 16
What to do next
Where the program fits.