GS Internal Audit vs. BarCap Tech vs. JPM Tech
Hi guys,
I'm a junior from a non-target trying to make it into IBD or S&T. My offers for this summer are all BO. Just wondering which of these choices would be my best bet if my goal for the summer is to network into FO. They are:
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Goldman Sachs (Jersey City) -- Internal Audit -- Capital Markets Group (coverage on S&T & IBD).
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Barclays Capital (NYC) -- Technology SA -- waiting for placements, but hopefully Cross Stream Exotics Pricing Dev (VBA price modeling on the trading floor) or Securitized Products Group Analytics.
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JPM (NYC) -- Technology SA -- no assignment yet.
My thoughts:
GS is in Jersey City, therefore I will have essentially no exposure to the FO, making it difficult to network (and I doubt there are any alumni from my school who are FO at GS). However, Goldman has the brand name and the program seems a lot more structured than BarCap or JPM. At BarCap, hopefully I'll be on the trading floor and working directly with the traders, so it'd be a lot easier to network etc. I also know there's at least least one grad from my school who's in IBD at BarCap. Not really considering JPM as I have a feeling I'll be placed into infrastructure.
Your thoughts? I'd appreciate additional insight on any of these programs (there's not much on the web)
have you considered doing an IBD internship at a small boutique instead? most of them are pretty unstructured so many might not be done with recruiting yet
Barcap sounds best to me, but you should talk to IP. He works in quant analytics there.
Seconding this.
GS Internal Audit = No exposure to traders besides formulating test plans and pissing people off with your endless internal audit tests = NO BarCap = Working directly with traders on price modelling on the floor plus the alumni connect = YES JPM = No assignment as yet? Forget about it. They'll prolly place you in the shittiest group
Thanks for the responses. I'm leanings towards BarCap as well.
IP = IlliniProgrammer?
Update:
I ended up falling for the brand name trap and taking GS, however luck was in my favor and it turned out to be the right choice. I was very wrong in my initial assessment of the IA Summer Analyst program.
Every SA is placed on a team. For those who don't know the GS culture, everything is teamwork, so audits are assigned and completed on a per-team basis, not per-person. Over the course of the 10-weeks, the SA is assigned to work towards 2-3 audits as well as a group-intern project that will be presented at the end of the internship to the entire division.
There is a consistent and significant amount of contact with those business areas that a SA covers in their 2-3 audits. GS employees get free ferry rides via ID from 9 to 4:30 -- total travel time between buildings can be under 10 minutes if timed correctly. I was at 200 West (NY HQ) at least 3 times a week for some reason or the other.
Another plus is that IA usually deals with management. For example, I was covering a couple desks so I frequently visited the trading floor for meetings. I was not expecting to be exposed to the front office at alone, let alone senior traders. And these meetings were consistent enough to start building a network there.
Finally, about mobility in IA. The turnover in IA is very high. Most people come in to get a feel for the businesses and then choose one to specialize in and eventually move to. Hardly anyone is a career auditor (minus senior management, whom mostly come from the Big Four).
And, surprisingly, many people move out from IA to the front office. A search in LinkedIn will bring up people who went on to IBD, GSIP, trading, GIR, Strats (Quants), GSIP (Merchant Banking). This is because, again, auditors can build a network with the FO according to the businesses they are covering, especially if the audit is required to be performed yearly because of best practices or regulations. So the key is to get into a group covering the businesses. Not, for example, a technology auditor or SOX auditor.
So in conclusion, if you get a FO position at any BB or Boutique then take that for sure. But, if you have nothing else and have to choose between BO roles, I'd say IA is in the top 3 areas you could choose that give the best chance of moving out to the front.. The other two are Legal (specifically the two-year analyst programs) and Controllers
Banana for coming back and providing this board with knowledge (the occacional diamond in the mound of shit that is WSO)
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