3 Internship offers in the buyside. Which one is the best?
Hello WSOers,
I am a final year MSc student from a target school in Europe considering to delay graduation / to study a second master. I just finished a 9 month internship in an important financial institution (not M&A related). After applying to the buyside, I have 3 offcycle internship offers. Just doing a sanity check here.
Sorted by offer date:
OFFER 1: Private Equity Fund (1 $bn AUM) specializing in growth, turnaround and buy-outs in mature financial institutions in emerging markets. Pros - 1) Interesting proposition, as I would be physically based in a PortCo- in an quite interesting region of the world- during the second half of the internship. 2) Strong investment pipeline due to a recent IPO. 3) I am fully proficient in the language in which they operate. 4) Best paying internship.
Cons - 1) Probability of staying as an analyst is negligible (mentioned by an interviewer).
OFFER 2: Private Equity Fund (0.6 $bn AUM) specializing in growth capital to European SMEs. Pros - 1) People are great. 2) The Fund is "backed" by a bigger middle-market investment bank with relatively strong presence in Europe. 3) Currently, they have a couple of live deals.
Cons - 1) Probability of staying as an analyst is very low (my own assessment). 2) I am not proficient in the languages in which they operate.
OFFER 3: Global Asset Manager (think of Schroders/Invesco/Henderson, 100-200 $bn AUM) known for its- public- Equity investments. Pros - 1) Probability of entering into the Graduate Programme is very high. (mentioned by an interviewer). 2) Sincerely, one of my favourite firms since I became interested in the industry (networked hard to get in). 3) Very good reputation worldwide.
Cons - 1) Interns do boring stuff with respect to the other two offers. 2) It is a part-time internship (which is OK as I am a student in the city where they are headquartered). 3) Pay is ridiculously low due to the part-time arrangement.
Which one would you choose?
What are your long term goals?
Good question.
In the long run I would like to work for a big hedge fund. And I am aware that IBD experience is invaluable... and that PE internships are well seen by IBD people... despite the AM internship being more in line with HF at first glance. I suppose it is a difficult dilemma.
A lot of the PE skills you're going to use (i.e. valuation analysis) are going to translate to whatever you want to do within equities. I'd go with with the PE. If you're willing to keep your career goals more open, then I think this choice is more clear, and given that you didn't get an IBD offer and are now off the track you might have envisioned, it might be worthwhile to start doing this. Also, I don't think anyone really sees AM very positively straight out of college, including hedges.
Thanks Sandhurst, those are pretty solid points. I think we have a similar way of thinking (eventually I went for OFFER 1).
bump
nobody?
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