PWM or Accounting internships
I am currently a 3rd year finance and accounting double major. 3.86 GPA at a non target and I have a series 65(filled out a U10, never have had it registered with a firm, expires soon but i passed the test before i had even taken a finance class so i wouldn't mind if later on I had to take it again).
I have had previous internships with a boutique brokerage firm on Wall Street (boiler room) as a sales and trading intern, Met Life Solutions Group working for a team and doing a lot of reviewing clients portfolios, reallocating, tax loss harvesting, ect. and as a Finance Intern for a recently public tech company doing a variety of accounting functions.
I am looking to get into mergers and acquisitions wether it is in IB or transaction advisory (valuation, goodwill impairment ect.) with a big 4 accounting firm. I have made connections with many PwC associates as they audited the company I worked for and I have a few friends who graduated and are now working there. I am going to graduate with 150 credits because of the double major but honestly would be more interested in the CFA than the CPA.
I currently have three offers for the spring semester. Met Life Solutions Group wants me to come back and has already extended a full time offer, I have an offer from a regional accounting firm by my school in North NJ as an audit intern, and I just received an offer from a local Morgan Stanley FA who deals with high net worth clients. The job description at Morgan Stanley is very similar to what I did at Met Life. I am not sure if working at Morgan Stanley doing PWM would really help me get to IB M and A. At this point I am considering doing the audit internship, using my connections to get a summer internship at PwC (multiple PwC employees said they would gladly give me a referral) and then work full time after graduation doing valuation for PwC. I doubt I would learn a lot more at Morgan Stanley and am not sure how much value it would add or if there would be any benefit as far as mobility to move to IB at Morgan Stanley, I'm thinking it would not help much at all.
I wouldn't mind working for a big 4 accounting firm full time and getting paid less than IB and no big bonuses but having easier hours. I wouldn't mind the hours at all I just don't think it would be realistic to land a job there given my current academic situation, connections and previous internship experience. I also have no interest in getting an MBA.
Would doing the audit internship then a big 4 summer internship be the more realistic approach. I doubt I will land a summer analyst gig even at a middle market IB given my lack of connections in that industry and non target.
I will probably hate auditing smaller companies but I can trade my own portfolio and have my finance exposure there.
I am interested in what you guys think and if my logic is correct. Just trying to be realistic.
PWM vs Accounting/Finance Internship (Originally Posted: 01/31/2013)
I have two offers: one for an accounting/finance position at Fidelity Information Services and the other with Merrill Lynch pwm. Which one should I take if I am currently a sophomore and want to get a SA position next year.
How did you get the ML PWM one?
Is Merrill paid?
ML might look better on your resume for SA internships next year; however, there are really no transferrable skills from PWM.
I have done the ML internship in 2011. I also took the Financial Advisor Position after. At your ML internship, your likely going to be stuffing envelopes, cold calling (probably not but maybe), or other sales related activities. This internship can lead to an Advisor position out of school. Pay range 50k. Not bad. But once you get into the gig, you are cold calling 8 hours a day or calling people you know to invest. Most likely cold calling. Tough but true. If you don't make 80 calls per day in the FA role, you better start job searching because you won't make it. Exit opportunities are sales gigs. Interesting fact: you won't learn anything about investing or asset management as an advisor. It's all sales. Your target customer is a person who knows zero about investing. Literally.
With the Fidelity gig it seems the exit opportunities are fund accountant or other accounting roles. I must say there are TONS of accounting roles out there and in many different areas of business so its a good way to get into the door. Good way to get into energy trading or other things. Definitely better exit opportunities in the accounting field I would say. Pressure is huge at Merrill. 90 percent don't make it. I'm about to resign tomorrow!
Sophomore Student: Accounting vs PWM Internship (Originally Posted: 05/27/2015)
Hey guys,
I currently have two offers - one in accounting and the other in PWM. I am looking for an IB/S&T offer for my junior year summer. Not sure whether IB or S&T is right for me, but I'll eventually have to pick one over the other.
Would an accounting or PWM internship better position me for an interview/internship in IB/S&T?
Thank you.
Go for the PWM internship. Accounting has remotely nothing to do with equities/fixed income.
I'm already in a school investment club that focuses on the stock market. We invest real money and I even had some of my picks invested in by the club.
Shouldn't I diversify my experiences?
Diversification in a portfolio is good, but where IB/S&T is concerned accounting doesn't add as much value as wealth management experience.
As the saying goes, don't be a jack of all trades but a master of none.
I had no problem translating a sophomore PWM internship (ML/MS/UBS) into a S&T SA position. PWM exposes you to a sales environment and a breadth of different products that you could potentially work with in S&T (equities, fixed income, structured products, funds, etc.).
internship route - accounting or pwm (Originally Posted: 02/08/2008)
Hi, I will be interning with the private wealth management division at citigroup/smith barney or merrill lynch during the school year.
For this summer, should I stay with pwm at one of these 2 places, or should I take an accounting internship at RBZ, LLP, a public accounting firm?
So basically, it comes down to:
BIG name, private wealth management, little learning vs. SMALL name, accounting, a lot of accounting learning
I am currently a 2nd year in undergrad. Which would look better for trying to land a investment banking SA internship next year?
Thanks very much in advance.
Oh also, for the part-time internship during the school year, which would you take?
finance internship with FOX Filmed Entertainment vs. pwm at merrill lynch / smith barney
BIG name, private wealth management, little learning
and then
pwm at merrill lynch / smith barney
you can't go wrong with either... though corp fin may be slightly more preferable due to relevant work experience
PWM won't give you any experience in modeling, but you'll learn alot more about the markets than with an accounting firm. PWM is a great place to start, especially as a sophmore. The business is based on macro market moves and exposure to a wide array of financial products, so it will give you a solid background.
I worked for a BB in PWM a while back. It was an okay experience. Lightsout is right about the good market/product exposure, but its essentially a sales job. Since you want to do banking I would go with the finance internship. You will get exposure to accounting practices/cash flows of the company. This is much more relevant to what you want to do.
Accounting or PWM Internship? (Originally Posted: 10/27/2008)
Hey,
I'm a freshman at a target university in Canada and through family connections, I think it's feasible for me to get a summer position at either Deloitte and Touche accounting firm or at Cumberland Asset Management. These are my 2 secondary options in case my contacts at RBC Capital Markets do not pull through. Which one do you think is more favourable to American investment banks when reviewing a resume/relevant experience?
Thanks in advance.
I think it depends on what you're doing for each. If you're just cold-calling at PWM, that might not be the best use of your time. If you're in some sort of audit position at Deloitte, that might look a little better since you could get some experience with accounting and financial statements, which is useful in banking. (However, most of the time, Big 4 internships also don't provide the most in depth experience either.)
So basically I should really hope to get RBC? lol
I guess to be more definitive, I'd go with the Deloitte gig, and spin it so that you can tout the financial statement/accounting experience. I just wanted to set your expectations low, but it should still serve a decent purpose in terms of marketing yourself. It's not easy for a freshman to get an internship at a Big 4.
Would reiterate that last line. "It's not easy for a freshman to get an internship at a Big 4." They are bureaucratic institutions with fairly standardized recruiting policies. While a family member may be able to recommend a candidate, I somewhat doubt they would be able to place a freshman. I know friends with partners as family members and they were unable to "hook it up" as sophomores. If you swing it, then go for it, assuming it's in a revenue-generating function. You don't want to be at Deloitte fetching mugs or double-checking accountants billable hours.
Furthermore, good luck with RBC... As a freshman, it's very hard to get these positions, and you would have to excel beyond every Junior throughout the interview process.
Canada isn't as hurt as the US, so job markets are a bit better. Go with the RBC Capital Markets, they're elite when it comes to the Big 6 banks. Assuming you want to do private equity at a firm like MLC in Toronto, RBC would look better than Deloite (BTW, they have corporate advisory that you could try to get into). But if you're at a CDN Target (Ivey, Schulich, Rotman), don't limit your options just 'cause of family connections. McKinsey hires at Schulich, and Rotman (not sure why not Ivey).
*DISCLAIMER: I'm a former canadian who was accepted into all three targets, but chose to come to the US for university, so I know a bit about Bay St.
http://www.deadstock.ca/ Your closet will never be the same again.
Canada is doing better than the US, but I think the OP had RBC #1 already, and was looking at which one would be #2, Deloitte or Cumberland.
I just finished an Accounting Internship with a Healthcare company this past Summer - Accounting is really repetitive and dry. I'd personally look into PWM.
No doubt, accounting isn't sexy at all. But it's something that you'll need to use all the time in banking. Not sure how much of PWM will transfer over, but that all depends on what you'll be doing for them (try to figure that out). My PWM internship experience wasn't all that great.
Also, audit is different than accounting for a company (if that's where the internship is). It's also a summer and not a career.
PWM or Accounting internship (Originally Posted: 03/19/2014)
Hello monkeys, I am a sophomore in college right now and have an opportunity at a PWM internship or and an accounting internship (IBD didn't work out, got a lot of "you're too young" emails). I want to get an internship in IBD next summer and was wondering whether or not there's a certain prestige to people who have PWM internships over accounting. I know everyone has a PWM internship but which internship wold put me in a better position to find an IBD internship next year? Thanks guys
I would take accounting.
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I would also take the accounting (assuming the companies are comparable in terms of prestige).
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