Hello all,
I was wondering what people's thoughts were on a mid-tier BB offer vs. a summer internship at a MF PE. I have offers at a couple firms (KKR/Bain/Carlyle/Cerberus/Oaktree/Warburg types), and wanted to know whether the early jump (I am ultimately looking to break into PE) is worth it over the training and people you meet at a BB. Additionally, the PE firms I have been talking to have been very unclear on whether FT positions are available.
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I wouldn’t go to a mid tier bb over a MF. Try and leverage for gs/ms/ebs. If you can get an offer from one of those places, take it. If not, do PE. You will get Ill-advised/mixed advice about skipping banking on this site. Interned at one of the places you mentioned and the consensus senior level advice was to not skip banking.
Depends on the PE firm and role you would have at that firm. But MF is generally a much better opportunity.
Summer analyst, Corporate PE, at WP, CG, and Cerberus.
Assuming you do indeed have offers from the above names, you are obviously a very qualified candidate and will not have issues recruiting for PE from banking. Taking the PE offer will be riskier, but also has greater upside potential. The question you should ask yourself is: how confident are you in your ability to perform during the internship? If you feel you can be a top performer, I say go for the PE offer.
PE Internship vs BB MO/BO Internship? (Originally Posted: 11/17/2015)
For a little context: I'm a sophomore at a non-target, triple majoring, with a perfect academic record. I'm hoping to break into IBD, and as of right now I'm going through my first real internship recruiting cycle.
Being my first shot at all this, I cast a pretty wide and varied net in my applications, reaching out to BBs, some boutiques, and PE firms. After speaking with some family friends in the industry and getting connected, I have summer offers from a few high profile PE firms. I figured I would do PE this summer, BB IBD next summer and hopefully swing that into a full time position (ideally). Today, I got an offer to interview with a top BB (GS/MS/JPM) but in their Finance - Controllers division. If it were a client facing role this would be an obvious choice, but I'm a little wary of getting stuck in a MO/BO role.
So my question is, for a sophomore doing their first real finance internship and hoping to get into IBD, is a big PE firm or BO/MO at GS/MS/JPM the way to go? Pros and cons of each would be appreciated as well.
So... You're a sophomore. Any high profile name as a sophomore is a plus. Would I do controllers? No way- that's definitely BO. I'd take the PE gigs- will probably be less structured= more room to learn.
Thanks for your advice! I've since received offers to interview at some top BB banks in their IBD divisions, but this is good to know that I'll have reasonable options going forward.
Double post, sorry
Unpaid PE Internship versus IBD/S&T at BB (Originally Posted: 02/16/2011)
I'm a junior non-finance major at a non-target mid-process with a few NYC BB banks for IBD and S&T offers. However, I also have the option of working a 3 month unpaid PE internship at a mid-level firm but likely it will be unpaid.
How would PE leverage out for me? Is there any chance of getting an offer out of undergrad for PE with no finance background outside of whatever I learn in the summer? Is the lack of a formal training program going to hurt me for senior recruiting?
Any advice would be awesome.
if you need to ask a bunch of college kids on the internet what to do you don't deserve either option. flip a fuckin coin, it'll give you just as good an answer.
If the information is useless, then why are you on this site?
Cognitive dissonance? Your attitude does not match your behavior.
I worked 2 summers on the buyside (currently a 1st year analyst) and learned a lot but would advise against it (unless it's a MF). I say this due to the lack of structure of a SA program, it will look good to have that on the resume but i think you will get a lot more deal exposure and experience in IB at a BB. I would shoot for BB and if that does not work out then fall back on the summer PE job... my two cents.
MM PE as an SA will not be as structured as BB IBD SA, so if you're looking to set yourself up for buy-side opps down the road, go for BB IBD, get the FT offer, and roll over in two years. Unless the PE firm randomly is one that issues a lot of FT offers from its summer class (quite atypical), you don't stand a good chance.
Agreed, maybe if it's a brand-name MM firm you could get a lot of FT interviews, but at the same time most PE firms do not hire out of undergrad w/o experience. It would be easy to leverage a FT offer, IMHO, at a BB into another BB (i.e. UBS-->GS/MS) and you have something to fall back on.
Agreed. PE tend not to recruit out of undergrad, and if they do, it's typically Wharton since it's the ultimate finance factory. If you get/take IBD at a BB, perform well enough to get the FT offer, you have the choice of staying with the bank or playing the field during FT recruiting.
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