Failure

What happens after college if you fail to land an internship at an investment bank, hedge fund, PE, etc? Obviously, internships are very scarce and the majority of the people don't get an internship so do they just go after an MBA or something?

7 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Whatever you do don’t go get an MBA with no work experience. It’s such a bad decision. You doing have any work experience so aren’t competitive for any T15/M7 schools. Even if you get in a T25 program your peers will soak up all of the good finance and consulting internships at the associate level which you won’t be qualified for and you’ll be overqualified for analyst summer internships. Plus BB/MM/EB banks would probably ding you for trying to apply for a summer analyst position as an MBA and question why you couldn’t get a FT role out of undergrad. Go apply for full time corporate finance, M&A Transaction advisory, consulting, etc... don’t start an MBA until you at least have 3 years of full time work experience at the minimum. Even then I’d suggest waiting until 5-7 years and then hopping into a better role as a senior associate/jr.VP

 

Temporibus fuga qui quidem dicta velit qui assumenda. Ea libero rerum consequatur quia aut amet cupiditate molestiae. Eius sapiente aspernatur aliquam incidunt. At voluptatum soluta et nihil perferendis.

Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • AQR Capital Management 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.0%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 99.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 98.0%
  • Blackstone Group 97.0%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.0%
  • Two Sigma Investments 94.9%

Professional Growth Opportunities

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 98.0%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.1%
  • Citadel Investment Group 96.1%
  • Magnetar Capital 95.1%

Total Avg Compensation

October 2026 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (27) $464
  • Director/MD (12) $355
  • NA (9) $320
  • Engineer/Quant (83) $287
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (26) $284
  • Manager (4) $282
  • 2nd Year Associate (32) $253
  • 1st Year Associate (76) $193
  • Analysts (235) $177
  • Intern/Summer Associate (29) $145
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (276) $95
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”