Securities at GS or Operations at Barcap

Hello, all.
Thank you for showing interest in my forum.

I am a third year college student who has been offered an internship position at the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs and at the Operations Divisions at Barclays Capital, respectively. I have hard time making decision on which offer to accept.
Here are some of my thoughts/information regarding each position, so please let me know your opinion as to which position I should accept:

Operations at Barcap (Tokyo Office)
1. daily work schedule is ideal; a day starts at 8:45 and ends at 6PM
2. Pay is great and probably slightly better than the internship position at GS
3. I think I am better suited to middle office than I am to front
4. Some of my future colleagues and boss whom I have already met are really nice
5. Most interns receive full-time offer at the end of internship period unless they completely mess up

Securities at Goldman (Tokyo Office)
1. A normal day starts at 6-7:00 and ends at 7PM
2. I am not confident of my physical and mental strength to survive at Goldman Sachs, especially if they offered me a full-time position after the completion of internship.
3. Nothing would look better on my resume than Internship experience at GS
4. The possibility to receive a full-time offer upon the completion of internship is significantly smaller than Barcap
5. GS did not offer an internship position at Operations when I applied

I would also like to know whether internship at the Securities of GS will, whether negatively or positively, affect my possibility of getting a full-time job at Operations Division of any investment bank .
In the end, as partly mentioned before, I am hoping to work for Operations Division whichever bank I may choose

Your opinions do matter and will be greatly appreciated!!!

 

IMO It would be fairly easy to go from GS Securities to an Ops position in any bank.
YOu likely wont get another chance like this, so why not just try out the Securities position for a summer? If you like it, you can stick with it at GS, or use it as leverage at another bank. If you still feel like Ops, I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to return to Ops. Or any other division for that matter.

If you pick Barcap Ops now, it's an uphill battle if you change your mind and decide to switch divisions.

 
yhp2009:
IMO It would be fairly easy to go from GS Securities to an Ops position in any bank.
YOu likely wont get another chance like this, so why not just try out the Securities position for a summer? If you like it, you can stick with it at GS, or use it as leverage at another bank. If you still feel like Ops, I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to return to Ops. Or any other division for that matter.

If you pick Barcap Ops now, it's an uphill battle if you change your mind and decide to switch divisions.

Thanks for your thought-out answer. I am relieved to hear that I will still have plenty of chances to return to Ops when I apply to full-time positions.

 

As far as I know, I was led to believe Ops was BO not MO. Nevertheless, it sounds like you should go with BarCap based on your future desires.

I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
 
Best Response

I'll comment, on the off chance this post is serious, before the sarcastic comments derail the start of your career. The reason people are saying their "minds are blown" is because this particular forum has a strong bias towards overvaluing marginal prestige. In this case I would focus on the function, not the firms, because they're very different. Operations as it's presented is a back office role, trade processing and the like, whereas Securities is front office dealing with clients and more market facing. A job in securities is generally more competitive and sought after, and as such will give you more breadth in terms of future opportunity and learning. GS or Barcap is irrelevant and a toss up. I'd say go Securities.

 
GutShot:
I'll comment, on the off chance this post is serious, before the sarcastic comments derail the start of your career. The reason people are saying their "minds are blown" is because this particular forum has a strong bias towards overvaluing marginal prestige. In this case I would focus on the function, not the firms, because they're very different. Operations as it's presented is a back office role, trade processing and the like, whereas Securities is front office dealing with clients and more market facing. A job in securities is generally more competitive and sought after, and as such will give you more breadth in terms of future opportunity and learning. GS or Barcap is irrelevant and a toss up. I'd say go Securities.
I sincerely appreciate your serious answer. You are absolutely right that I will be able to expand my career prospect by choosing Securities this time. I'll definitely take your opinion into account when I make the final decision.
 

Realize one thing about GS: they start everyone off at street rates, but if you stick around and don't suck, they literally start throwing money at you. You're going to work for it though, most of the people I've met in GS BO/MO feel like slaves. You don't need to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but honestly, there's a lot of FO groups in other banks that work less hours.

Get busy living
 

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