Sophomore Summer: Which PE Internship to take?
Hi WSO,
I'm currently finishing up my sophomore year, and luckily I have options this summer with two small private equity shops, and I was looking for advice on which one to take.
One of these internships would be easier to commute to, but it's unpaid. However, the owner of the company is a really nice guy and says I could come into the office two days a week if I wanted. I would mainly be doing market research, and some modeling if they start to close on a deal. The owner also said he would be happy to provide me with any recommendations going into the future should I choose to work with him.
The other internship is harder to commute to, but it may be a paid position. The MD basically told me that I would get paid if they close a deal this summer, which he expects will happen in July, so there is a good chance I will be compensated. I would be doing market research as well and working on my own "project", so it seems like I would get the slightly better experience here.
Given these options, which do you recommend I take? Thanks in advance.
This is a good problem to have. Firstly, congrats on scoring relevant experience this early in school. You'll be well-positioned for interviews in your junior year.
I would pick the first opportunity (close to home, unpaid, 2 days min). The only reason I say this is because it seems like you'll have more access to the senior management (i.e. owner), and be able to generally have more chances to sit down and talk or work together. You can learn modeling and analysis on your own (lots of great programs for that), but being able to understand why and how investments are done is the value of these internships. Certainly, all investments are done to make money, but being able to ask questions like why focus on Opportunity A vs. Opportunity B will be valuable for this summer.
When you interview for internships in your junior year, most organizations will be focused on your GPA, being able to answer a few basic finance principles (i.e. how do you value a company), and if they don't mind working with you. Being able to show you understand a bit about investment theses will be icing on the cake.
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