Best Response

I'm assuming you mean no hedge funds or private equity funds, since they don't traditionally recruit out of college.

In that case, GS is probably the best place to start in almost any area. Of course, there are some exceptions:

If you are interested in banking or pe, you might want to check out Qatalyst, Allen & Co, Centerview, Greenhill, Evercore, Lazard, etc. These are some of the elite boutiques (note Qatalyst is tech heavy and Centerview is big in CPG advisory). If you have an interest in covering a specific industry, or working more on advisory, you might take an offer at one of these shops over GS.

For trading, once again, you might want to check out a smaller player, especially one with a specialization. Thus, you might choose to work at Trafigura or Glencore over GS (for commodities), or one of the quant shops out in Chicago (like jane street or someone).

In research or IM, if your end goal is the buy side, some larger mutual or insurance funds will recruit research analysts or (junior) portfolio managers right out of undergrad. Choosing one of these over GS right from the get go might make more sense since they are strong in investment management and you will get buy-side exposure right away.

You might, if you have the opportunity, choose a position at The Fed, IMF, UN, World Bank, White House, Congress or some other government organization. There are also F500 positions, elite consulting (MBB or specialized like Monitor), start-ups, and tech giants like FB, Google, etc. Again, choosing one of these depends on your career goals and whether or not you got an offer.

As you can see, the only places you would choose are sell-side shops which are smaller or more specialized, or buy-side shops of comparable size. Good luck getting an offer at GS and one of these, you are probably going to need it.

looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
 

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