Okay Sophomore Resume Builder for BB?

I'm a sophomore student at a top university with great gpa and a very impressive resume but no corporate finance experience. I'm not a minority, so I couldn't apply to BB internships, which seemed to be nearly exclusively for juniors. I want to enter ibanking after graduation and to land a good bulge bracket internship next summer.

There seem to be hardly any opportunities for sophomores in the industry. I was accepted as an intern at a small investment bank (unknown compared to JPM, UBS, etc). Is working there in investment banking a good resume builder for bulge brackets next year?

I can hardly seem to find a single ibank that will even let sophomores apply but I think that getting corporate finance experience will strengthen my chances for next year (they should be strong already, but even better imo if I had experience in a corporate environment).

I am also considering working at a small proprietary trading firm. The trader is absolutely superb, but he does not want to be famous so you can hardly google his name (aside from a couple articles about how he is a hidden genius). Would that be a lot better? Are both fine?

Thx.

12 Comments
 

I don't know how banks perceive a "lower" internship - if they look down upon I think that's stupid. Experience is better than nothing, especially as a sophomore when it's hard to get in anywhere big.

 

It depends on what you really want to do. Both are decent sophomore internships.If you really want to be banker than the IBD job will help you land BB IBD as a junior. If you want to get into trading, you should take the trading internship. Even if this guy is "unknown", people in the industry might know him and that could really help you on any s&t interviews.

Banks look down upon lower internships when they are looking at FT recruiting. If you have an IBD internship as a sophomore. That is a huge plus. That with a great GPA and solid networking will land you any banking interview you want.

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

Considering you are interested in IB as both a SA and then FT post undergrad, you should definitely take the IB internship with the small shop. While it's not a BB shop, having any solid and actual IB experience as a soph is definitely impressive and will absolutely enhance your resume come next year SA recruiting. Coming from a top school with a strong GPA, you are already in good shape. Having some concrete IB experience ahead of SA recruiting can only help you. Unless you are interested in prop trading or S&T post U Grad, go with the IB internship.

 

If you want IBD, take the boutique. It doesn't matter how small their deals are, you're going to pick up the fundamentals. That will put you on another level fot SA recruiting, especially if you get some modeling and/or deal experience.

 

If you want banking, the trading internship is probably worse than nothing because when people screen to pick interview candidates they will assume that you are more interested in s&t.

 
CashCowIf you want banking, the trading internship is probably worse than nothing because when people screen to pick interview candidates they will assume that you are more interested in s&t.

Gonna have to disagree with this. No way that having a trading internship is worse than nothing, esp. since anyone can claim that their internship showed them that "trading wasn't for them."

 
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