Which offer to take? @ 2 small IB Boutique internships - Undergrad student
Hello everyone,
I am a Junior at a target university looking to intern at a boutique IB at NYC this fall, before I start recruiting for summer.
After coldcalling and networking I landed this two offers
1) M&A Boutique "A" only works small publishing/information(some tech) businesses. "A" has only one partner/CEO doing everything and another one chipping in from abroad. That is the whole company. There is no modeling being done, the CEO basically makes the evaluation based on multiples of earning and his experience (admittedly he knows a lot about the publishing industry). I would be following the CEO to meetings and seeing a deal from start to finish and helping with pitch book and other documents. I would also be doing plenty of secretarial and irrelevant work. Deals are usually under $20m. It is paid. Around 12 hours per week
2) M&A Boutique "B" is small but bigger than "A". It, has two offices in NY(around 4-5 employees) and DC (1 employee), it works on all industries, but tends to work with PE firms that do the acquisitions. The sweet spot of its deals would be $20m-60m$ but has done larger deals including a record $350m ( as I was told). However, I was straightforwardly told that I would be doing only "research work" as in data input and secretarial work. It might evolve to emailing/calling clients if I do well and am comfortable with it. It is unpaid but there might be a bonus at the end (might means no at my vocabulary but a previous intern told me he got a decent bonus at the end). Around 10h per week and there is another intern splitting the work.
Now as I see it, there is a lot of secretarial work on both jobs. At "A", I will have more exposure to clients and the deals (but very small deals). At "B" I probably wont, but I will be associated with deals that are more interesting (larger) than "A's" deals and in a firm that is closer to a IB boutique than a mom and pop shop. Previous intern of A told me he found the experience not that bad or that good, but at least he can phrase it in a complimenting manner on the resume. A previous intern of "B" told me he enjoyed it because there was a MD that taught him a lot, but he is not there anymore so there's the risk I will not have the same experience.
What's your opinion guys? I'm leaning towards "B" because it is bigger and therefore sounds more legitimate.
Ok, without reading a single description. Take the one with the better brand name. If similar, take the one in the better location. If the same location, take the one with better recent deal flow/type (probably listed on their websites). If similar, take the one that does more stuff in industries of interest.
The point I'm making is, unless you fall in love with the culture, this should be a stepping stone to get good ft recruiting opportunities
From what you described, B.
You would get trained & on actual deals that people at your next position would be able to hear about/know of. Boutique A sounds like you might learn some good stuff but after you learn that stuff, I think you will have a tough time using that experience to find a new job.
@"jbone24" good point. While "B's" deals are not that big to be widely known across the field, some of the PEs participating are known around.
@hardlyworking They are similar except "B" has better deal flow. So you're saying "B" despite "A" having slightly better responsibilities. And yeah it's all about those on campus ft recruiting opportunities!
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