Career Advice - Dilemma
For context: I am a junior studying finance in SoCal non target
I did one of those sophomore summer internships with an MM bank in NY (Oppenheimer, Truist, Cowen)
I got a return offer to be a 2025 summer analyst in the NY office. I liked the people I met and the culture seemed fine. The sophomore internship taught me a lot about the sell side's different products and services (M&A, DCM, ECM, ER, Fixed Income, etc)
I have been interning at a no-name hedge fund (<100m AUM, 2 analysts 1 PM, operating since 2018) and I have learned a ton. I have been reading a ton of sell-side research across different industries from different banks (BB and MM) and I love it. I know that I ultimately want to end up in a hedge fund seat. The PM gave me an unpaid internship and then started paying me 5 months into the unpaid internship (I impressed him aka I am a finance hardo who knows modeling and has won a handful of stock pitch competitions). A month later after he started paying me he gave me a raise. We then went on a side quest and raised a series A round for a company. The PM gave me equity in the said company (small but very generous given that I am a college student). They haven't explicitly told me but I know that they want to bring me on full time.
My dilemma is:
I know that I will make more and have the sell side experience if I stick with IB at a LMM but my long-term goal is to be a hedge fund analyst. I wanted to pay my dues in IB and then transition to a hedge fund seat. I doubt that I will make more than 100k in my first year out if I stick with the HF I am interning at given that AUM is small and the fees we charge are small. I will be learning a lot and I am 99% sure that the PM/ Founder will continue to be generous with me as the firm grows the AUM. This HF is in SoCal and I would stick close to family instead of moving to NYC full time assuming that I convert to full time after my internship.
Any advice? What would you do in my situation?
I am happy to clarify wherever I can.
Thank you in advance.
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