AM Internship vs IB Internship

I work for a large AM firm. At our shop there are two ways to get a job: Prove yourself as an intern, or show up with years of experience and usable skills easily transferable to the new role.

Your choice which route you want to take.

Align your experience with the role you want to get after graduation. It's not clear to me what "end up in AM" means. Doing trade reconciliation at AM is not that interesting to me.

Depends on what you do at the AM firm. If you are doing portfolio analytics at AM versus a traditional SA role at IB, take IB. If you get to research stocks at AM as an intern and that's what you want to do in the long run, definitely take AM.

I think the goal of ending up in AM is too broad without knowing what you specifically mean.

For example, if you want to work at a less concentrated shop that's more about asset allocation (think Vanguard, State Street DFA) then it's better to get the asset management exposure right away.

But if you want to work in a fundamental role at a hedge fund or other concentrated place, IB is generally a better background for developing those skills.

In general I don't feel AM is a good label for career discussions, I'm kind of surprised it ever became a term people use. Means too many different things