Boutique IB or Large Bank S&T?

I'm currently a sophomore at a target school seeking internships for summer 2016. I'm very interested in banking, and was able to land an offer from a boutique energy banking firm in Houston called KLR group. With the help of contacts, I was also able to land an offer from a large tier 2 European bank (think SocGen, BNP, Credit Agricole) for a global markets summer analyst position.

   Considering that I'm definitely more interested in banking, should I go with KLR or should I go with the large bank because its a bigger name even if its for a <span class='keyword_link'><a href="/resources/careers/jobs/sales-and-trading">sales and trading</a></span> <span class='keyword_link'><a href="/internship-survival-guide-overview">summer internship</a></span>? Does anyone have any info on KLR group's dealflow or reputation? From what I've heard, they are a growing boutique with a lot of smart people working there but I wanted to confirm this. Of course, I'm continuing to search for internships (mainly banking) but besides boutiques, most banks aren't interested in taking sophomores.
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Best Response

Conventional wisdom on this site is going to tell you to go with the corporate finance role every time. Don't listen to that. The jobs are similar enough that you should go with the role that will help further your personal growth and make you as interesting a candidate as possible.

From the looks of it, these guys are doing zero M&A, purely capital raisings. OIl & gas is a cool space to be in right now, but no one is raising capital through the traditional channels. Also, no one in M&A really cares to hear about capital raise deal experience (trust me). It's still interesting, but it's not automatically the right choice because it's banking and you want to do banking next year.

It's not like the S&T role is any more relevant, I just feel it has high value in its own way. I have to imagine you'd work with a highly intelligent, diverse team at the T2 bank - not saying this wouldn't be the case at the boutique. Don't underestimate what this can do for you in interviews.

Regardless, you're going to get very interesting experience, but not M&A-relevant experience in either role. It entirely depends on what you want to do though. If you find anything like energy, restructuring, distressed debt, etc. could be interesting long-term, go KLR. If you aren't sure, probably best to go with the brand name.

 

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