Finance or Corporate Treasury?
I have internship offers for these 2 divisions at comparable BB firms. My interest lies in treasury, this is the area I want to work in after graduation.
The finance division is rotational and has a treasury desk so I'll spend 3 of the 9 weeks there but will also have spend some time on other desks like tax.
The corp treasury one is 100% what I want to do. The trouble is this bank isn't my cup of tea (culture, environment, location, future prospects) and I most certainly won't accept a FT role with them if I'm presented with an offer.
In contrast, the bank offering the rotational programme is amazing and I would love to work there. But again I wouldn't accept a FT offer as the analyst programme is also rotational, I don't want to spend time on desks I have no interest in.
What are your thoughts? How do the 2 divisions compare, is corp treasury significantly 'better' or more 'prestigious' than finance? I ask because I wonder how difficult it would be to do this finance internship and then apply for corp treasury FT programmes after, is it an easy transition or will it be a case of trying to make a big leap?
If you're interested in corporate treasury and actually understand what you would be doing on a day to day basis (which I highly doubt), by all means, go for corporate treasury.
Neither position is even remotely prestigious. If you're worried about power or prestige, become a politician or something. Also, for what it's worth, corporate treasury is almost always within the finance division.
It's difficult to get a true grasp of a company's culture from a few interviews. You may find that you appreciate it more once you actually start working.
Thanks for the reply. I was referring to 'prestige' in relative terms, is one considered significantly better than the other or is the difference marginal? It's not that I'm seeking some kind of 'power' or anything, I'm aware they're not front office roles (not that those roles really give 'power' either) but ultimately I am trying to enhance my CV and improve my employability. I don't want to reject a position for something far worse.
I know where you're coming from, but you're going to have to give a bit more detail to get a reliable answer. Judging by people's answers here, most people seem to think that the finance division is purely controllers type roles.
The finance division often includes investor relations, m&a and strategy divisions, all of which are potentially more interesting than treasury. Goldman's finance division for example includes risk, corporate treasury and strategy.
You're right it does vary from firm to firm. In my case the corporate treasury is in the chief financial office. It has two desks (rotate between the 2 in the internship), one is funding/trading (short term money market trading etc.) and the other is liquidity strategy/governance. I think it's a good mix and I'm very interested in the governance of the capital reserves, working around the new basel 3 regulations etc.
For Goldman the corporate treasury is a full on sub-division of Finance that you stay on for the entire term so it's still quite comprehensive, where as in this case the finance division merely has a desk that looks over the treasury of that one region (not the entire group). Also the trading part is done by a front office desk at that bank. That bank's proper corporate treasury is in its headquarters (in a European city).
Finance I always think as being a 9-5 (or 8-6) type of position. Corp Treasury I know at least at GS works the interns and analysts pretty hard- not IBD type hours but 8-8 and some weekends is about right. But as was said above, neither are particularly prestigious- I would think finance would be filled with a lot of accounting majors/that type of people, and maybe a bit less in Corp Treasury but who knows.
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