Northwestern Mutual

step below? you can't get much lower than smith barney. if it's a formal intership program, then it's better than what most of your peers will be doing.

however, if i were you i'd try to interview with a boutique investment bank. it would probably have to be VERY boutique because you go to a non-target and are a sophomore, but it would prepare you 10x better than brokerage work.

I highly recommend you do a little research into Northwestern Mutual before you accept any internship position with them. After speaking with some people who went through their summer program I came to realize it was nothing more than a scheme to make clients out of rich kids' parents and contacts.

They will train you for a few weeks, teaching you about their products and selling techniques. You will then be charged for paper you use, phone calls you make, business cards you hand out, etc. Hopefully you can depend on your wealthy contacts to purchase insurance plans from NM. If not, not only will you come out of the internship frustrated and with no summer earnings but you will OWE them the costs you have incurred for their "supplies" you used.

I wanted to see if what I heard was true, so I went in for an interview. The first question I received, "So, tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up? What do your parents do for a living?" I thoroughly enoyed telling the interviewer that my mom was a big time socialite and my father was a well known Ibanker with huge clients. Boy did she take interest in me after that comment.

My advice, look into their program a little deeper. I would steer you away from it, I think you can do better...

Unless it's their investment group it's probably shit is my opinion. I interned there this summer in their private equity and mezzanine group and it was a great experience. Mason Street Advisors is also owned by them. The actual insurance salesman internship though is useless.

Ditto to what has been said so far. One of my buddies did a stint there this summer and basically said they sponsored him to get some insurance licences, and was then on his own pretty much to sell insurance.

Definitely look at other firms for a summer internship.

"you can't get much lower than smith barney"

why would you say that?
i thought an internship at Smith Barney PWM, at least resume wise, is much better than interning with Northwestern Mutual?

anything's better than interning with NWM

NWM is terrible...simple as that.

A lot of these negative comments should in fact be directed at the financial services in general, not just NM. That being said, here is my take. To preface, I finished undergrad with a marketing degree, had an internship since junior year with a Fortune 500 retailer, which was the beginning of a career, but I decided I truly didn't have an interest in marketing. I had very poor performance my senior year and was left with a mediocre GPA (from a non-target) and a marketing concentration, along with the craving for finance. So to combat these detractors, with future hopes of breaking into IB, I decided to take up an advisory/fin. rep. position while undertaking an MBA. Reasoning: finance experience (with a Fortune 500 co., and Fortune Most Admired), credentials, and income.

I can only truly speak on behalf of a full time rep., as previously stated my internships were in the marketing field with other organizations. You do not pay for supplies or training or anything of that sort, at least in the first few years (again, speaking for the full time rep.). I believe the inherent problem with the internship in your position, is that you are going to be solely concentrating on insurance. You may want to look into a full time position, regardless of if your are in school or not, as you will be able to get your Series 7 (adding to credentials) and gain market experience. You must still keep in mind that you will be primarily dealing with insurance, and the majority of the investments will be annuities and mutual funds (commonplace throughout the financial services industry). You also will be utilizing your own contacts (again, pretty much standard across the financial services industry).

Basically, if you want some finance experience apart from IB, financial services is a fairly good option, although I strongly recommend you look into the full time positions as I believe you are going to want to show market experience. As for NM specifically, if you are using financial services experience to leverage the lack of IB experience (like I am), then NM could be one of if not the best, based on my industry experience. Even if you do choose the internship route, the compensation structure is very rewarding if you can invest the time.

I hope that helps.

My roommate works for NWM and was an intern in the program. The first thing he did was hit up all of our friends' parents to sell them insurance. It was pretty annoying to everyone. I interviewed for the Financial Representative Position but told the girl right off the bat that I'm interested in finance, not in selling people an expensive investment product(I didn't actually say that, but you know what I mean), if you can even call it one. She asked me all the normal questions and I asked her if she could put me in contact with their investment group (very politely). She never returned my call, whatever, I got a better job anyway.

So now my roommate does it full-time. He works hard but I honestly think hes more in for the "projected income" numbers they throw at him. I think a position with the firm and your success will show your dedication and entrepreneurship, but that's it. I don't think many of their guys understand the products they push, they just have to sell, sell, sell; if you work there thats going to be your main objective.

just my two cents