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.
Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum
| +394 | Female bankers doing brand deals on TikTok (@emlywang) | 119 | 2h |
| +136 | UBS rolling out Enhanced Clean Desk Policy, bans deal toys | 16 | 1d |
| +76 | Starting FT in a city 3 hours away, dad has progressing Parkinson's. Looking for advice. | 6 | 1d |
| +67 | JULY 2026 CHICAGO BANK RANKINGS | 26 | 10h |
| +64 | Restructuring is paradise (a completely unbiased account) | 6 | 2d |
| +35 | Handling frustration | 5 | 2d |
| +35 | Not Treated Well by Other Interns | 20 | 15m |
| +29 | Taking days off as an intern | 13 | 27m |
| +28 | Thoughts on Intrepid - Houlihan Merger | 10 | 1d |
| +27 | Best books to read as a student/intern | 12 | 3d |
Career Resources
Boutiques are by far your best option. You could also look at business brokers, valuation shops, and transaction advisory firms. F500 corp dev or PE would also be good options, but given that those positions require IB experience, I doubt you will find many internship opportunities for undergrads at such firms.
what about commercial banking/credit at a BB?
^ also curious. How transferable are the credit analysis skills to IB, and how feasible is it to internally switch to IB after 2 years? What about if 2 years --> MBA --> IB associate?
What banks/positions are still actively hiring
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
Bump
?
Bump
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.
bump
Which of the following internship is best for IB if I can't get an IB internship? (Originally Posted: 03/09/2017)
Hey everyone.
I've tried googling this question and I'm not getting an answer I can really take in. I live in North Carolina and I know Charlotte is a good place to go, but I'm relatively new to all this so I feel that if I google a quetsion, I'm going to take a wrong answer so I'd like to hear from you all.
Of the following internships, which are best for IB if I can't get an IB internship?
Credit Risk Commercial Banking corporate finance
Thanks.
@Opalais15", you should have searched on WSO. This has been answered many times, but what I would suggest you do is to start reaching out to boutiques. Charlotte has plenty, Atlanta has even more. I typed up a list of investment banks in Charlotte in the thread below a while back:
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ib-presence-in-charlotte
Other Banking Division Internships for IB recruiting (Originally Posted: 06/06/2016)
Rising freshman at target school. Looking towards next summer and possible internship opps. What should I be aiming for to bolster a resume for junior summer IB internships? Obviously there aren't any BB IBD internships (aside from the MS diversity one which I plan to apply for) for freshman, but it seems there are possibly opportunities in private banking and PWM, for example. What are the best finance sectors to try and land an internship with for freshman summer? If there aren't any without having a family member there, should one just try and network to land something unpaid at a boutique no-name MM IB to try and get some hands on experience (however minimal it might be)? Just looking for advice. Thank you
Bump
The ones that come to mind are PE, HF, VC, boutique banks, corporate and commercial banking. Smaller shops tend to be less bureaucratic and more open to the idea of having an unpaid summer analyst. Even a no name boutique can be very helpful as it demonstrates a level of interest and should familiarize you at least in broad strokes.
Thank you
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.
Thank you so much. That definitely clarifies it for me.
If you can't get a boutique bank, PWM at any of the BB's is fine and a pretty common path. Business development at start-ups is also pretty popular since there's a ton of those positions, somewhat relevant, and (in my opinion) is interesting to hear about in interviews.
Quas cum nulla tenetur ut error. Voluptates atque saepe enim. Dolores autem est recusandae quas.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Quae id ut ducimus blanditiis aspernatur pariatur. Reprehenderit et quia deleniti numquam sunt omnis quia. Ut incidunt est est aut ea eius fuga. Omnis ut quia dolores deserunt. Labore similique rerum voluptas autem. Iure tenetur optio et labore eius commodi.
Porro repellat perferendis consequatur assumenda quae odio fugit. Ex sit consectetur et voluptas ut. Ut asperiores atque est sit.