F500 paid accounting internship vs IB boutique unpaid

All,

I am a junior at a non-target. I spent the summer interning in accounting at a F500 and will continue to do so throughout the fall. I have been offered a fall internship with a local boutique investment bank. However my internship with the F500 is paid and much more "laid back". I only work ~16 hours/week and get paid good for an intern. The investment banking internship is unpaid and will take up 20-30 hours/week of my time. Is the experience this boutique will provide worth the extra time and money? To be totally honest, I would rather stay with my current internship, but I am worried that it won't be enough to land ib interviews.

Any advice is much appreciated.

5 Comments
 

All sound like a load of pond scum. Do the IB ones though but only if the work is legit and substantial enough for you to speak about intelligently during an interview. If you are doing sourcing or other useless tasks for the vast majority of your time, don't bother.

 

Take the IB. Then hustle and do the crappy work well so that the bankers let you help out on deals. Al;so ask if you can sit in on calls and take notes. You will learn 10x more during a call with a CEO/CFO then you will reading about stuff online.

Thats what I did. Did deal sourcing and PPT formatting for an entire week before I was able to work on some pitches and deals.

On the otherhand, if you want to go consulting stick with the F500 firm and try to get an internship at MBB, Oliver Wyman or LEK.

 

Alarmed that you mentioned how laid back it is as a good thing...if you cruise through easy internships and then somehow magically get into IB without any IB internships you will go from 16 hours a week laid back to full throttle through the windshield and you'll crack. 20-30 is a smooth preview although it may be hard to stay motivated when you're not getting paid.

 

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