Stay at Smith Barney or take no-name Wall St?
Hello all,
This is my first post on WSO so please bear with me if I sound like an idiot.
I am currently interning for a Financial Adviser at Citi Smith Barney (Spring internship). I've learned a lot there and have built a good relationship with the team. The FA also asked me to stay for the summer (Unpaid).
I also received an unpaid offer from a small brokerage firm which deals with commodities and futures trading. They have just opened a Wall Street office and are looking for interns to do cold calling. The office kind of looked shady, but my thinking is that by just being down there I might network easier with others. The person I interviewed with also told me they would train me for the Series 3 exam.
Should I stay at Smith Barney or take the no-name Wall Street internship? (Both are unpaid as mentioned)
Thanks all.
BTW This is by far the most interactive website I've found for industry information.
Thanks again.
What do you want to do in the future for full-time work?
Eventually, I'd like to end up managing people's accounts (managing equities to be exact). I feel that I'm good at it and I even have a track record to prove it. But I can't seem to find the correct branch in finance to get involved with.
BTW I am definitely not cut out to be a trader. I understand that this is a job everyone looks to get, but its just not for me.
Should I be looking at smaller investment managing firms?
...seriously.
yah, thanks for the help will...
I'd just stay at Smith Barney and try to learn as much as possible. Also, try to network with people. I used to try to network with mutual fund and fixed income salesman when they came to our office. You'd be surprised where that can lead you!
Most financial advisors have no problems with you sitting in on a meeting. In fact, my FA encouraged me to do that and take notes.
I'll say that there are hundreds and perhaps even thousands of young professionals on Wall Street that have been interning at Smith Barney, so it's certainly not all that special. However, the other opportunity you discussed seems to involve a fair amount of cold calling, and I think in that case, you're better off sticking at Smith Barney and making the most of your opportunities by sitting in on meetings, getting involved with as much financial modeling as you can, and just learning from the higher-ups.
Also, if you have a good relationship with your team at SB, you can start dropping interest this summer in different areas of the bank -- your interactions won't be all that frequent with investment research and institutional sales groups, but you will probably have the chance to speak to them every so often and at a minimum, you're in a much better position to expand your network. The other "trading" role that you speak off just sounds pretty shady and the people/culture are relatively unknown to you.
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