You probably won't get a full time job if you do an asset management internship

University students believing that a summer internship in a fund management firm could fast-track them to a full-time graduate offer may be sadly disappointed.

As we've alluded to before, Aberdeen Asset Management offers a mere 12% of its interns a full-time position, and it isn't the only firm in this sector to make life difficult for undergraduates.

The Scottish fund manager takes on 40-60 interns each year for a six-week experience from May through to September. In October, the interns undergo evaluations, and just 6-7 are offered full-time positions in January.

Aberdeen didn't respond to requests for comments in relation to its selection criteria.

In comparison to investment banks, this conversion rate appears a little miserly. JP Morgan, for instance, offers approximately 80% of its full-time positions to those students who have undertaken an internship, while around 70% of interns typically secure permanent places at Deutsche Bank.

Of course, fund managers are not such voluminous recruiters of graduates, with intakes usually in double figures rather than the hundreds hired by investment banks. Nonetheless, internships shouldn't be viewed as a fast-track to a graduate offer.

Fidelity, for instance, takes on around 9 summer interns and offers (on average) 50% of these full time positions. It intends to take on approximately 17 graduates this year.

"The number of interns we offer full-time positions to tends to fluctuate," says Richard Barry, HR manager at Baillie Gifford. "But we like to keep a proportion of graduate places available to the general market, to those students who wouldn't have considered investment management as a career until a later date."

Because of the analytical nature of the role (most graduates start life as a research analyst), asset managers have typically been more progressive when it comes to recruiting students from non-finance backgrounds.

However, while an internship won't guarantee a permanent position, it's becoming increasingly important in attaining one.

Katie Crook, HR business partner at Martin Currie, says: "We typically don't use internships as a recruitment tool, but that's not to say we won't in the future. However, evidence of an interest in investment management is increasingly necessary, and an internship is the best way of demonstrating this."