Freshman, stuck between two internships...
I'm a freshman at a target, not very spectacular gpa (3.2-ish, though I expect it to go up).
I go to school in a pretty hot area for IB activity, tho I'm going to be home this summer--where I live is pretty IB-dry.
My goal is to land an IB internship after junior year, and land an IB full-time after school.
My internship search has been pretty dismal, but I've basically found two opportunities (unpaid, of course). Both are unrelated to IB.
One is a boutique consulting firm. They do niche advisory for pharmaceutical companies (where I live is very pharma-hot). I'd basically be doing research work for consultants, as well as coming up with some sort of web marketing strategy for the firm (I currently intern at a social media gaming company, the COO was interested in that).
The other is a startup, financial services firm that essentially does prepaid "pay-as-you-go" debit cards that are basically like low-cost checking services for generally lower-class workers. They're growing pretty fast for a small, no-name firm, and are looking to be acquired in a year or so. Here I'd be working right under the VP of Finance, doing mostly dirty reconciliation work but theres the occaisional strategic planning, revenue forecasting stuff that I will get a chance to help with.
So, the consulting one is a little bit more formal, but the financial services one seems to be a bit more related to finance (duh), although it seems I'd be doing more grunt work there--whereas the consulting one, I may just end up doing thin-air marketing stuff...
I like both equally. Theyre both not ideal, but I've pretty much cold-called the city (trust me!) Which will help me more?
Try to find out more how much you might be able to get involved with the financial aspects at the startup. I think that if you were able to dabble a bit in the accounting/finance aspects, you could present that very well on a resume as solid relevant experience for IB internships. Having good accounting and corporate finance experience would be pretty useful. I think if you do consulting, you'll get grilled harder on "so I see you did consulting, why IB instead of consulting?" whereas if you do finance from the start you can more easily argue "I've always had a passion for finance, since freshman year I've been involved in finance etc etc."
With the second are you working for Rev Run Russell Simmons?
I think Rev Run lives in Saddle River, NJ which seems to conflict with this young man's assertion that he doesn't live in an IBD-heavy area.
I personally think you should go for the finance start-up. Seems like something you could talk about and hold an interviewer's interest.
See the second sentence of my signature.
I apparently need to add something similar on mine
If they're both unpaid, then see if you can do both - i.e. split your Summer across the two.
I think it depends on the potential roles he can get at the finance one. Conceivably, if he has the whole summer to "prove himself" and get more financially related responsibilities, I might actually still stick to only the one internship.There may be upper bounds to the opportunities at the consulting firm, where the roles may be more rigid.
BOTH
FARTMAN
What Clarkey said ^^^
UPDATE:
The boutique pharmaceutical consulting firm had a few case studies published on their website. After reading a few, I realized they do a good amount of valuation work and modeling to help clients assess potential product launches.
I called the COO of the consulting firm today just to check back (I told him I needed a few weeks to decide, which he was cool with) and tried to get an idea of whether I could help out on that--he seemed pretty open to that, considering I have basic Excel+DCF experience as a portfolio manager on my school's investment group.
So now with this in mind, I will be able to get some modeling and further financial analytical experience from the consulting firm. Which should I take, in light of this? Which will help me reach my goal of an IB internship by junior-senior summer MORE?
FYI: Just to refresh y'alls memory, my other choice is this:
"a startup, financial services firm that essentially does prepaid "pay-as-you-go" debit cards that are basically like low-cost checking services for generally lower-class workers. They're growing pretty fast for a small, no-name firm, and are looking to be acquired in a year or so. Here I'd be working right under the VP of Finance, doing mostly dirty reconciliation work but theres the occaisional strategic planning, revenue forecasting stuff that I will get a chance to help with."
if you can do valuation/modeling then definitely go for the boutique consulting. gd luck
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