Early IB Offer with exploding deadline - months before normal recruiting
As many of you know, the timeline for junior year internship recruiting has been pushed up a ridiculous amount. I'm currently a sophomore at a target business school and I just got an offer to IB at a MM global firm summer 2019. A lot of my friends already have their offers (one of my buddies who just got Guggenheim IB today doesn't even have a sophomore summer internship lined up yet). The crazy thing to me is that they put a 2-week deadline on responding or its pulled. My plan for recruiting was AM at a BB and Corp Fin at Google (I did a consulting project with them and am guaranteed a first round). I want to recruit for those still, but their timelines don't start until the fall. I feel like accepting this offer now wouldn't let me look into any other opportunities. That being said, to be done with the dreaded junior year recruiting period 14 months before the internship even starts would be great. Would appreciate some advice as I am a 20-year-old with no real idea of what I'm doing in life (like most people my age).
This is getting ridiculous... I'll try to give you some relevant thoughts/advice in the morning
I would accept the offer and keep recruiting but only reneg if you get a significantly better offer or have a change of heart later in the year...
If firms are going to force your hand for the summer AFTER Junior year before you've finished sophomore year, then I think it's best to protect yourself and take the offer.
In the meantime I'd continue to do research and talk with people working in AM and Google Corp Fin to try and get a sense of what you would enjoy most and what you think would set you up best for a long career (IB, AM or CF at Tech).
Best of luck, Patrick
I'd second everything Patrick said. If these firms want to be ridiculous and recruit that far in advance, you gotta protect yourself. You don't owe loyalty to any of these firms.