Origination Internship · Summer & semester cohorts
Direct origination training. Then a live mandate.
Interns train on our calling system, then spend four weeks speaking directly with business owners on a sell-side campaign. Top performers move onto a buy-side mandate for a search fund, sponsor, or private equity firm. Not every intern gets there.
Program at a glanceCurrent cohort
- Acceptance rate
- Sub-1%
- Roughly 2,500 applications last cycle.
- Program length
- 9 weeks
- A nine week minimum. Longer if you are promoted onto a mandate.
- Active interns
- 25+
- On live campaigns and buy-side mandates today.
- First live call
- Week 2
- Week one is training and role play. No live numbers.
Where our interns go to school
02The role
Four weeks on the phone before anything else.
After training, every intern starts on a sell-side campaign, not on a buy-side mandate. You are given a list of companies, and your job is to reach the owner, have a real conversation about whether they would consider selling, and schedule the interested ones with a rep for further qualification.
Those four weeks are live work, not simulation, and they build a production record: calls, connects, and appointments booked, all tracked per caller.
You will hear no most of the day. That is the job, and learning to keep a clean tone through it is most of what separates the callers who move onto a buy-side mandate from the ones who do not.
What you leave with
Your own numbers
Calls, connects, and appointments booked, in writing. Concrete production figures you can put on a résumé and defend in an interview.
What you can earn
A buy-side mandate
Top performers apply in week five and are placed on live buy-side mandates, working directly with the fund staffing them.
Resources
Recruiting prep library
Through partnerships with recruiting prep providers, interns get technical and interview prep material at no cost. The organizations we work with are listed in the Talent Partners section below.
Access
Direct line to leadership
Weekly calls with Mike and Ava. Feedback comes from the people who built the process, not a program coordinator.
03What we look for
Four things, and none of them are your GPA.
No résumé screen by school and no networking requirement. Application, interview, offer, and in the interview we are listening for these.
01
High agency
You do things without being told to. If you have never heard the term, read this.
02
Communication
Can you hold a real conversation with us? That is the entire test, and it is the entire job.
03
Hard things
Cold calling is not easy. It helps to have done something else difficult that you can fall back on.
04
A real why
Why this, what are you trying to get to, and how does this get you there. Vague answers are the most common reason we pass.
04Nine weeks · then selection
What each week looks like.
Everyone starts on a sell-side campaign, calling owners about representation rather than on behalf of a buyer. Eight weeks there produce a real production record, and week nine is where that record decides who moves onto a buy-side client mandate.
Training
Curriculum, scripting, objection handling, and role play on our own software. No live calls this week.
Live calling begins
Onto live numbers on a sell-side campaign, at full call volume. Not a buy-side mandate.
Live calling
Same campaign, same volume. Call reviews and coaching run weekly, and calls, connects, and appointments booked are tracked per caller.
Buy-side applications
Callers who want to move onto a buy-side client mandate apply. Top performers are placed on the mandates we are staffing that cycle.
05Talent partners
Powered by the best.
These organizations partner with Axia to help us source top talent and give our interns access to recruiting guides, technical prep, and career resources.
Applications are open for the next cohort.
Short form, no cover letter. If it looks like a fit, we will get you on a call.
Apply for the program