College junior with HF internship - Need advice regarding further prospects.

Hi All,

I have been reading WSO forums for a while and they seem to be extremely helpful. Would love your insights.

Context: Junior at a top university near San Francisco. GPA ~ 3.5ish. Major: Economics, Statistics and have a lot of programming experience. Prior Exp: Software Engineering, Product Management and Startups.

Situation: I had a change of heart last year where I got fed up with he silicon valley tech culture. I wanted to go out and learn about finance (preferably related to tech) so I sought after TECH IB at major firms. Interviewed at few but couldn't secure any final rounds. (Was also slightly under prepared coming into the process very late). From here, I tried for VC and PE. I secured a few interviews here and there but didn't result in much. I went next for the some harder jobs that required a bit more of the quant side so HF. I landed a HF job at a small $2B AUM hedge fund who ideally never hires interns. However, because all the trading (algorithmic) is done by quants and mainly the partners, I was given a Business Development role in their NY office. I will be working directly with a senior associate (10yr exp) and an MD (28 yr exp), on the client capital raising side of the business. I realize its a wonderful opportunity because I can learn a lot about the fund, trading strategies and because they are ready to take me to all the client meetings, lunch, dinner etc.

Q: However, because I'm not sure I want to be on this track, I want to also use my time in NY networking with other firms and getting to know more about finance. Ideally, with my background and interests, I would kill to end up at top VC firm but I open to PE, IB (I do realize how hard these are). How should I look at this opportunity, make the most out of it while also networking effectively in NY? Any other advice from you papa monkeys?

Thanks!