Want a taste of life as a CEO? Spend a summer working side by side with a searcher CEO in one of our operating companies.
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From our experience, match matters. Leaders on our team will work to find the company experience that will best help you experience and test what matters in making your decision to search.
Our CEOs are excited to provide 1:1 coaching over the summer - and become long-term mentors. Our Summer Intern Retreat and webinars provide helpful tools and tactics on how to succeed as both a searcher and operator.
This is the largest internship program in the search world. Connect with leaders in ETA across campuses, other CEOs, and members of the Pacific Lake community - they'll be valuable resources as you prepare to launch your search.
December 2024 - Review the opportunities
December 2024 - Complete the survey
January 2025 - We'll be in touch
Internships are meant to provide MBA students the opportunity to learn about the small business leadership career path. While primarily intended for those students contemplating raising a search fund following graduation, the experience can also be helpful for those considering Pacific Lake’s Executive Leadership Program or those who may search following their two-year payback period to an employer that sponsored their MBA.
Yes. While precise compensation terms are decided by each CEO, we have recommended that companies standardize intern salaries around the mean MBA intern salaries as published by HBS and Stanford GSB. Some businesses may also choose to take advantage of summer matching funds for entrepreneurial experiences offered by your school as a portion of your compensation. When this is the case, you will help the company apply for those funds directly.
You will first interview with a member of the Pacific Lake team to understand what's most important to you. We will work to make a 1:1 match between you and a CEO that will maximize your ability to get your most important questions answered about the search fund path. In some situations, candidates may meet with several CEOs to find the perfect match. Our goal is to tailor the experience as well as possible to your objectives and questions.
We recommend students think about what hypotheses they are most eager to test for the summer as they plan their preferences. For example, one might come from a non-operating background and be excited to work with a CEO who came from a similar pre-MBA experience so you can understand what their learning curve looked like. Another may have a hypothesis that they want to run a business in a particular industry, so testing that might be their top priority. Others may have family restrictions that make it harder to move for a 10-week period, or they may care most about getting exposure to a certain function that’s new to them (e.g., sales). Letting us know what you are thinking about your priority set will help us craft the best summer opportunity for you.
