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Till date, I have done only one internship in a local law firm that was research-based purely. Currently, i'm doing an internship at a tier 3-tier 4 law firm which involves a bit of corporate law research and litigation research.
I have still not gotten a proper corporate law internship let alone have relevant work experience in M&A teams.
How should i plan the next 2 years of my life? How should i go about it? After graduation, i want to work in a tier 1/tier 2 law firm in their M&A/PE teams; if not then at least in a boutique M&A or even PE/VC firm like Rajaram.
What should i do? The future ahead looks bleak. How can i change it in order to pursue my dreams?
Will law firms hire me in their M&A/PE teams even if i have 0 to say 1 internship in an M&A firm by the 5th year?
I can't settle for law firms with 30-40k salary because i am not from a well off family and i have to support my family.
You will face lot of rejections. Many won't reply. But that shouldn't stop you from trying.
Meanwhile, read, write and repeat.
There's still time. You will be fine.
Some scattered thoughts - Getting into law firms is just about being at the right place at the right time. So, focus on working with 2 teams parallelly, and making friends with Senior Associates from both the teams.
This is a people profession, law firms folks would want to work with you when: (i) you are hard working; and (ii) are fun to work with (don't appear grumpy, laugh off any jokes or comments). People from NLUs come across as arrogant sometimes, I think you have an advantage there if you stay humble.
Don't doubt yourself. No one in any law firm is brilliant, it's just about opportunities. You will learn all the law on the job, if you are willing to work hard. Having said that, try to read up online to have a basic sense of SPAs/ SSAs. No one expects you to know much, especially when you come from a non-target school. The expectations are low, which means the pay-off could be huge if you play your cards well.
Another tip, keep reading up on INC42 and Yourstory for funding alerts for PE/VC transactions. If you are so interested, spend 100 rupees and download the company documents of the company receiving the funds from the MCA website and look for Form MGT-14s, they in most cases have the terms of funding available. Also if an updated AoA has been uploaded by the Company after the investment round, chances are that it may have terms and conditions of the new SHA. Acquaint yourself very well with the MCA website, the types of forms and other corporate filings, will give you a very strong edge over others.
I know this seems very idealistic, but if you really do want to make it without contacts, you will have to work hard, there can't be any shortcuts to stuff like publications and grades without prior contacts.