Alternatives to IB for summer after junior year

So with the recruiting season basically over and not getting past first round interviews at any banks/AM firms, I'm wondering what are other good alternatives for the summer. F500 corp dev? Boutiques? If I could get any sort of guidance on how to move forward that'd be great.

21 Comments
 

I think that for EB and BB you are late now. Most firms finished (or are close to finishing) their recruiting.

However, many other firms still actively recruit., think of smaller valuation shops, PE, corp development, Big4, etc.

I guess that you are US, in case not, keep in mind that many firms in Europe are must less structured in their recruiting process and positions for the summer are still open for quite some time. Especially in mainland Europe

 

The first shot we be at boutiques, however, the recruitment is also incredibly competitive.

Besides that I can recommend smaller valuation shops or financial advisory departments of Big4. Big4 usually have many interns for a variety of positions, from valuation teams to M&A and transaction services. Thus you should also be able to learn good skills that you can showoff in your interviews next year when applying for IB.

From personal experience, I can tell you that if you are a big lucky, such internships can turn out great. The reason is that people are often more "relaxed' than in IB and might take more time to show you stuff and you ll learn a lot. Of course keep in mind that (as always in life) you got to be a bit lucky with team, culture, MD, dealflow etc..

Another thing that you should not underestimate for small shops is the great deal flow. I completely agree that they are less prestigious and the work (often) much less deep in terms of analysis, however, as an intern you want to have a lot of deal flow and usually small shops have much higher deal flow because they just take all deals they can find. And even if deals are small, who cares if in the top left corner of your excel sheet you have $bn $m $k ?! You will definitely get more exposure in that sense and if the firm sees that you are good you will have a lot of responsibilities too.

 

Freshman summer is not super important but I would try your best to get something at a small boutique doing M&A, preferably in NYC. A lot of people who work full-time at BBs/EBs now went that route during college and you can ask them about it (this is how I ended up securing my boutique spot last summer as a sophomore).

If you can get a boutique internship freshman summer you can probably shoot for a larger MM bank sophomore year (something like BMO or RBC is within reason as I know a few from targets who worked at these places soph year, non-diversity), and then you are pretty likely to receive BB/EB interviews across the street as a junior.

 

Et autem est consequatur consequuntur consectetur ducimus sapiente. Aut voluptas consequatur dicta autem. Similique possimus ut facere atque officia officia omnis.

At blanditiis consequatur dolorum eveniet aspernatur rerum. Harum ipsam non et.

Aliquam at illo modi illum vel dolor dolore. Porro molestias assumenda quidem. Odio exercitationem est occaecati. Eum vitae aut incidunt nemo dolor. Facilis sed omnis qui nobis repellendus dolorum et eius. Voluptate ipsum repellendus voluptatem animi beatae quae. Eum adipisci sit voluptatibus et aut consectetur quisquam.

 

Voluptatem architecto est ipsum adipisci. Soluta iusto laboriosam corrupti alias eaque hic. Aut rerum omnis eos aperiam. Voluptatibus consectetur porro expedita voluptatem dolor aut eligendi. Architecto nobis voluptates vel vero accusantium quis nisi. Earum ipsam consequatur qui non sequi facere quia quasi.

Ullam praesentium dolorem repudiandae maxime voluptatibus. At quam minima qui illum. Qui in saepe necessitatibus laudantium dignissimos aliquam. Dolorem velit voluptatem quis id maiores consectetur qui. Iste accusamus blanditiis commodi nam est porro quos placeat.

Et provident dolores cum aut. Occaecati excepturi et quidem atque rerum in. Saepe ad et sint labore voluptas. Fugiat est culpa esse saepe eum facilis consequatur.

Voluptatem nam autem at quo iusto. Voluptatem repellat voluptatem culpa sed. Rerum porro aut rerum quod est eius. Esse voluptatibus tenetur enim. Tempore enim vel atque est quo dignissimos nobis.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
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

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...”