MBA Internships

The Darden Career Development Center provides a variety of career resources to help you in your search for a summer internship. The curriculum is also structured to allow you to take electives related to your summer internship in the final term of the First Year.

Internships are a critical part of the Darden experience because they help you:

  • gain experience in the job function and/or industry you plan to pursue after graduation
  • apply new knowledge and approaches learned during the First Year
  • further develop skills that will help you in your full-time job search

If you are a career switcher, a summer internship is an important opportunity to try out and gain experience in a new job function and/or industry.

Every year, over 95% of Darden students do a summer internship. A large number of these students come back to Darden in the fall with full-time job offers.

Internship Companies & Opportunities

The top 10 hiring companies at Darden for summer interns over the past three years were:

  • Bain & Company
  • Bank of America
  • Booz & Co.
  • Danaher Corporation
  • Deloitte
  • IBM Global Business Services
  • JP Morgan
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • McKinsey & Co.
  • Microsoft Corp.  

Darden students have a wide range of interests and career aspirations. Below is a sampling of other opportunities that our students have pursued for summer internships:

  • Marketing campaign for the America Council on Renewable Energy
  • Micro-finance in Bali, Indonesia 
  • Financial analysis in Beijing
  • Co-founded a production company
  • Internship with Florida Panthers
  • Education Pioneer Fellow 

Alternatives to the Traditional Summer Internship

  • Darden Business Incubator (DBI): The DBI provides a community of student and faculty support, as well as $13,000 in funding for a select group of students to start business ventures during the summer.
  • Batten Venture Internship Program: This program provides Darden students the opportunity to pursue summer internships with venture capital firms or start-ups around the country. To promote and support student involvement with these firms, the Batten Endowment provides a matching stipend to supplement a student’s summer salary.
  • Darden Nonprofit Internship Fund (DNIF): Students interested in doing an internship for a nonprofit organization can apply for a stipend through the DNIF to help defray summer living expenses.  

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