HELP! Lazard/BX/PWP IBD Internship vs Barcap IBD FULLTIME??

You have a great alternative with the boutique, but also know this - you have a secured, FT position at Barcap. The boutique offer is only an internship, which is not a guaranteed FT position. What if something happens and you fuck up over the course of the internship? What if the economy goes to shit and they can't take everyone back for FT? These are all important things to consider. IMO, I'd stick with the already excellent position you have at Barcap. Not worth it to roll the dice like that

I would take Barcap and just kick ass there.

Bird in hand

can you leverage your SA into a full-time position at the boutique? Or otherwise do it and keep the option open of staying on full-time right after your internship/be able to start in december/january? this way you would only "lose" 1 semester. I would go for the boutique, it definitely has a better reputation, plus you might actually be in a place where now where people are planning to be in 2/3 years...so again ahead of the game.

An internship in general is not worth the risk...., especially considering PWP is not outrageously better than BarCap and some could argue the other way as well

barcap- go for the full time. gotta be crazy to turn it down for a SA in this kinda job market.

bump

James Tsay. Hi

very unethical but whatever floats your boat

Why don't you just push back the FT start date so that it's after the SA end date? Thatway you can do both.

why would you end college early... to do banking? going from highest of highs to lowest of lows

That's risky, I would take the BarCap job for sure. They've done great in the US in 2010.

I can't defer my FT offer at Barcap..

Start date is very strict.

Wow tough decision...I would go with BarCap since it is a FT offer. I understand how tough it will be to turn down chances Lazard and BX though. Maybe you should ask to see what the full-time offer rate for SAs at those companies are. If it is high enough, you can decide to see if you want to take that risk.

Bird in hand > two in the bush

agree with happy on this... bird in the hand.

Also, Barcap is not some shitty little boutique shop or something... it's a legit bank with a lot of solid groups and very strong recognition throughout the world. Sure, it's not GS, MS or BX, but if you start in Barcap I think it's safe to say you can end up anywhere if you do well.

Also, unless you really just want to stay at school so that you can party/enjoy yourself for senior year (which is totally reasonable and I would not blame you for), then graduating a year early is totally sick. Starting your career one year younger is an advantage.

One thing to consider is that if you go to the boutique and get an offer, you might parlay that into a better FT gig (PE/HF) if possible. Might be something to think about if your school has buy-side recruiting

Hoooold on a second guys. I think most of you are forgetting the biggest factor in this decision. I can't believe only 1 person mentioned it (props ledger): The kid is considering giving up 1/4th of his college life to become yet another monkey, grindin away just to get through the day. Think about it...Co-eds? Or pitchbooks? Hmmm.. I think the biggest factor here is how much you enjoy school. If you're at some workaholic ivy league school and never escape the library, then maybe make the jump. If you're at an SEC school (doubtful given your offers), then stay, stay, stay. Obviously those are extremes, but you get the point.

Otherwise, everyone is right about the "bird in the hand" comments. It's not like you're taking a no-name FT offer over those boutiques. Do well at Barcap and I'd expect you to have plenty of opportunities. Hell, you could do a year at Barcap and (maybe) lateral to those places. That said, I'm assuming your resume/interviewing is pretty sick to have these offers, and an SA gig at those places will only help, so I would think you would have a great shot at FT come next year.

If it were me, it's a no-brainer: SA at one of those places, stay in school another year (or 1 semester and then a semester of travel), and figure your FT job out later (assuming your resume is as good as it seems). If this were your senior year, with the same situation, then I would take Barcap FT-not worth the risk taking an SA. Unfortunately, I have none of these luxuries...

(Disclaimer to everything above: I'm just a college kid looking for an SA gig)

College is a lot of fun, but it comes at an expense $$$$$.

P.S. Would your answers change if I disclosethat the boutique is not PWP, but one of LAZ/BX?

not really. bird in hand. barclays is a reasonably good bb. not great but not bad either. take it. plus its blackstone isn't the be all end all. just another job.

I cant imagine anyone taking an SA over a FT at a BB. And we are talking about BX M&A, not PE.

This all depends on how much value is actually added by BX/Laz over Barc and I would argue that it does not overcome the risk of not converting SA.

In the end, its your decision, and noone on a forum should make the decision for you.

thnx guys

BX conversion has historically been quite high...