Which Internship to Choose: US Dpt. of Treasury vs. No-Name Boutique Consulting FIrm

Hello WSO,

I am currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, and need a little bit of help deciding which summer internship to choose for this summer.

  1. Summer Business Analyst under the U.S. Department of Treasury's Chief Information Officer

  2. Summer Consultant at a no-name boutique consulting firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. This firm specializes mainly in real estate investment and foreign investor deals. Also...I live on the East Coast

My goal for next summer is to work for reasonably good consulting firm.

Most people I have been asking are telling me to work at the Dpt. of Treasury due to its name/connections. What do you guys think?

8 Comments
 

What will your responsibilities entail at the Treasury internship? How competitive is the internship program there? What have other interns from the program gone on to do (hint: LinkedIn is your friend here)?

For your sophomore summer, what's important is getting yourself teed up for a strong junior year internship. In this case, I would say that the name recognition of the Treasury Department could potentially outweigh the experience you would get at the boutique. However, for that to be the case, you'll want to make sure you can spin the experiences you'll have there to point towards your interest in consulting.

 

treasury dept. easy when reviewing resumes and you see no-name firms you assume that the person was hired by their aunt or uncle.

 

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