Internship Program

Stone Pier Capital’s Internship Program

Stone Pier Capital believes that internships are key to launching the careers of young professionals.  Initial internships with substantive exposure and training in a student’s chosen field are especially difficult to obtain, and the principals of Stone Pier believe they have a responsibility to provide opportunities to deserving students for internships where the primary beneficiary is the intern.

  • The internship program is designed to provide practical training, exposure and experience equivalent or superior to the best “business clinic” courses in graduate business schools, but uniquely focused on Merger & Acquisition skills rather than entrepreneurship or small business growth.
  • Interns work under the close supervision of Stone Pier principals, without displacing any regular employees.
  • Since Stone Pier principals take valuable time to provide input and training to interns, Stone Pier expects each intern to take his or her responsibilities, assignments and time deadlines very seriously, as they would need to do in their permanent positions.
  • With the permission of our clients, interns are periodically invited to attend substantive business meetings in order to obtain valuable observer experience.
  • Due to the assignments and the client exposure involved in the internship, interns are required to execute an Intern Non-Disclosure Agreement similar to what they would sign in a full-time position.
  • After internship completion, Stone Pier principals take considerable time to provide successful interns with appropriate references, contacts, suggestions and guidance to intern alumni as they proceed in their careers.
  • No intern is entitled to a position at Stone Pier following an internship.

Stone Pier’s internship program draws both undergraduate and graduate students from a wide variety of schools, including Pennsylvania schools such as Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and Villanova University. In addition, interns have joined Stone Pier and its principals’ prior organizations from a variety of schools across the country and overseas, ranging from Duke University and Middlebury College in the US, to the London School of Economics and Lomonosov Moscow State University overseas.

Stone Pier and its principals pride themselves on being able to engage a most diverse student composition.  Besides coming from all over the US, internship programs at Stone Pier and those run by its principals at  prior firms have included natives of a variety of countries, such as Azerbaijan, People’s Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan), India, Kazakhstan, Japan, Poland, Russian Federation, Serbia, Syria, and the Ukraine.

Interns are accepted for summer, fall and spring time periods, and may be part-time during the school year or full-time or part-time during summers. Internships are unpaid, except for those interns receiving intern scholarships and fellowships, ranging from the Tafel Scholar Program at the University of Pittsburgh to the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program of the US Department of State.

Stone Pier has very high expectations for its interns as they enter the program and subsequently in their careers.  Nearly all interns have had an undergraduate grade point average over 3.8, and an exceptional background of early achievement. While financial skills are important, writing and analysis skills are paramount.

Stone Pier’s principals have worked closely with over 50 interns over the past dozen years, and have acted as references for nearly all of them as they advance their careers. Most keep in close contact with us and, if they leave Pittsburgh, visit with us when they return to the area.  Often with our assistance, these interns have gone on to outstanding further steps, including study at Oxford University, nationally known fellowships such as the Coro Fellow program, and internships and permanent positions at Wall Street institutions such as Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bear Stearns, Cowen, Brown Brothers Harriman, Jefferies, Greenhill, Oppenheimer and UBS.

These interns have also accepted private equity positions at a variety of prestigious firms, including the Carlyle Group, Madison Dearborn, Court Square Partners and Thoma Bravo.  Some interns have gone on to hedge funds, such as SAC Capital.  Other interns have remained in the Pittsburgh area, working for major banks such as PNC, BNY Mellon and Wells Fargo.  In addition to careers at financial institutions, intern alumni have achieved positions at philanthropic organizations such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and major healthcare systems such as UPMC. Interns with accounting interests have gone onto Big 4 accounting firms as well as highly respected regional accounting firms.  As of 2013,  former interns are enrolled in graduate business programs at a variety of schools, including Harvard Business School, the Wharton School at Penn, the Tepper School at Carnegie Mellon and the Sloan School at MIT.