Ranking for best sophomore internships for junior year IB recruiting

What's the consensus on a "ranking" of sophomore internships when it comes to junior year IB recruiting? I know how much this forum loves ranking arbitrary stuff that has more context to it

In my opinion it's something like this

Tier 1 (Basically already broke in) - BB/EB IB, UMM/MF PE, top HF

Tier 2 (Basically already broke in, looking to upgrade for junior year) - MM IB, MM PE, top VC, MBB

Tier 3 (Great chance of breaking in) - Boutique IB, Boutique PE, lesser known VC, lesser known HF, Big 4 consulting/advisory

Tier 4 (Good chance of breaking in) - AM

Tier 5 (Good chance of breaking in) - Fortune 500 corporate roles, Big 4 audit/valuation, PWM

Tier 6 (Chance to break in) - Other audit/accounting/valuation roles

Tier 6 (Uh oh) - Small company corporate roles/other back office roles

Tier 7 (Uh oh) - Anything remotely finance related

Tier 8 (Uh oh) - Not finance related whatsoever

9 Comments
 

there is no internship that is an uh-oh besides a scam...people in charge of recruiting know fully well that the timeline is so far in advance and sophomore internships matter so little that what it says on your resume is irrelevant. 

Even at a fancy name the likelihood that a sophomore intern will be doing anything is low. Banks have no idea whether you'll be doing anything, whether you'll be good at it, or whether you got it from some connection rather than merit. 

Tons of people get stellar placement with no or meh sophomore summer internships. 

 

Second this. I also think HR just sees clubs and pre-junior internships as signs of interest, not competence. Which you can show the same by just doing finance clubs, projects, etc.
 

After recruiting this cycle I’ve realized what’s more important than anything is getting a near perfect GPA, being a friendly likeable human being, impressing interviewers with info about the industry and technicals by self-reading/studying at a level above and beyond your competition, and networking with people who can actually influence the hiring process. And ideally be from a target school, of course. Everything else is only marginally helpful relatively compared to these.

 

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