I feel like every kinda retarded kid who wants the prestige of high finance gets a remote internship at NextGen Growth Partners in Chicago. Branching off of that, what are other common internships you guys see that too many kids have to be an experience that isn't sourcing?
| +130 | If Tik Tok is forced to sell, what banks do you think would be involved in the deal? | 59 | 1d | |
| +49 | Intern Ettiquette | 14 | 12h | |
| +47 | Ranking banks that went under | 34 | 13h | |
| +39 | Relevance of A-Levels for U.K. London recruiting | 29 | 3m | |
| +39 | Burnt Out M&A ASO | 22 | 1d | |
| +26 | What are hours like at BBs in London? | 48 | 20h | |
| +26 | 2024 new grads who didnt get return offers update | 12 | 20h | |
| +25 | NEED NY RESTAURANT RECOMMENDATIONS | 21 | 1h | |
| +23 | PSA to gymcels: focus on the summer internship | 9 | 1d | |
| +20 | IB Career Guideline | 12 | 2h |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
There are so many goofy search funds that "hire" (read: unpaid labour) anyone with a pulse. It's comical to me to see these Freshmen put "Private Equity Analyst" on their LinkedIn. You're a glorified telemarketer. Surprised more banks don't see right through this stuff already.
The search fund “private equity analyst intern” position is a rite of passage for anyone that’s gone into IB post COVID
Lmao when you see your classmate at a non-target update their linkedin to "Incoming Private Equity Summer Analyst", but when you go to the linkedin company page the description says "we are looking to acquire one high-quality business..."
It’s mainly a non-target thing. They don’t have OCR like targets so it’s something they can put on resumes to “stand out” from others. It might’ve been clever in the past, but search funds are overly saturated with these kids, that I got bored with another kid getting their “finance spark” from these search funds.
Also I blame banks for hyper accelerated recruiting - that’s the root of why so many kids are doing unpaid remote internships to get ready for recruiting second semester of sophomore year
100% agree. It really is a factor of being at a non / semi-target and having to do this because you don't get OCR from solid sophomore shops.
I didn't do it and I feel like it somewhat hindered me, but I could not justify working for free mentally.
I also agree with your point about saturation as I think getting something tangentially finance-related would help more than these "PE shops".
googled "NextGen Private Equity Summer Intern" out of interest and pretty much all top hits were Ross, NW, McCombs & Kelley students. Granted they all looked like they had nothing else going either so suppose better than nothing. What i found really sad was someone from Yale MBA too after having good FMCG background. Could have easily probably got a consumer IBD MBA internship especially as a diversity hire.
One thing to note is that NextGen is a more structured firm with a well-built ETA format, similar to Novastone or Broadtree, so they attracts more high-profile kids. The ones I’m talking about are one-man/women search funds, sub $3M acquisition that got free labor from unpaid interns going to no name colleges or liberal arts majors studying history and psychology. Given that some of these can be different in terms of exposure, the only thing they can do from these exp is to make up some BS about LBO modeling while all they did was calling up people asking to buy their companies.
Saying that because I was once a search fund intern, but fortunate to get great exp since we actually closed the acquisition. On the other hand some people I know did nothing but sourcing and that sounds boring asf
Interviewed with them a few years ago having no idea about the reputation, talked with a really nice guy who ended up ghosting and jumping ship during the COVID-onset. Looking back I'm glad it didn't pan out.
Quit being a prick, I'm sure you prolly sent a cold email out in their direction but didn't get the gig.
we found the intern
It's not that deep man. Nobody is dinging you over a subpar internship. If you can frame it as a learning experience you will be fine
not that deep and stop gatekeeping
Del -- don't want to doxx myself
I do recruiting at a BB, these internships aren't amazing but I wouldn't ding anyone for doing them. Yeah the experience isn't too relevant but props to the kids for having the foresight to get something before recruiting with it being so early. Just don't spin it too much and try to convince me you're working at a PE firm.
The only time I've dinged someone because of an internship is 2 or 3 people I've seen who put well-known, predatory MLM schemes on there as "experience"
NWM lmfao?
Nah I mean like univerally known MLMs - It Works, Beachbody, Herbalife etc.
NWM is also totally scammy but I feel for those kids desperate for a finance internship thinking it's better than nothing
Avalerian based in Miami.
From my understanding this firm hires close to a dozen interns and has them handle all administrative work, and usually one or two actually work on technical stuff. They also manipulate prospects into providing free work.
I'm at a boutique PE firm where I am only one of two interns, the other guy was returning as well. Our firm has BO folks to handle that stuff meanwhile we get real hands on with Live deals and portfolio companies.
I've never had to cold call a company, and the only calls I've experienced are when I'm writing notes for my MP during an informational calls for companies we've signed NDA's for.
(Btw, if someone could help me rephrase my last statement as an interview bullet, that would be great.)
Knew someone who interned there and their only task was crafting the cold emails lol. That said I did a search fund with a recent mba and he made a real effort to teach me and the other intern research / tech skills.
omfg thats brutal
Can confirm. They make this huge list and all you do is find company emails. They have one model which isn’t really even an LBO model and all the kids want to put on the “deal team” which isn’t even modeling. Just cringe bc everyone there calls themselves PE analysts
Yeah search fund internships seem to be pretty bad in general and they probably shouldn’t call themselves pe analysts but if the banks don’t see through it can you blame them
avoid vermilion rock advisors
Hahaha go cougars
the iu kelley special
Sounded like u mad cuz a semi-target kid who interned at nextgen got the IB offer and u didn’t.
NextGen isn’t a shitty firm compared to a small search fund. They manage a p large AUM as a fund. I mean it’s not black stone but like what do you expect freshman to do in their freshman year besides search funds and PE shops. P much no IB firm will hire a freshman.
If you try hard enough boutique IB is absolutely possible for freshman summer, I would avoid the bucket shops that are unpaid/remote, that's not to say its impossible to get a real firm. The play is to look for places that have taken sophomores before and network like mad to get into the process, then kill the interview.
If a firm is up to take sophomores, they don't plan to return them anyways, so in their perspective if a kid is equally good but happens to be a year younger, what material impact does it have for them? Some places will absolutely ding the moment they see you don't have a GPA though.
Im a freshman right now... how do freshman even have enough knowledge to get through the interview process?
Not directly related to OP but surprised everyone's shitting on search funds. My first finance internship was at one, and it was a good experience. I spent most of my time sourcing but didn't cold email / cold call and still spent a good chunk of time on more interesting stuff like an investment thesis for one company / industry write up / reading CIMs. Good experience for a fresh/soph. I don't pretend like it was a "real" PE internship, but I learned a lot anyway as someone with little exposure to finance before then
Would you mind sharing the fund's name? Im looking for one to intern at and it sounds like you found a "real" one. You can PM if you dont want it public
Ipsam vitae dolore aut qui. Doloremque facilis ipsa aut. Rem quaerat quisquam quas. Nostrum veniam ea molestiae. Pariatur qui fugit ut ipsa velit. Perspiciatis exercitationem natus aut temporibus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Quibusdam et fugit a amet quis ab ut iure. Ducimus sunt reiciendis exercitationem et veniam officiis. Unde impedit excepturi assumenda qui et. Molestias similique temporibus delectus consequatur.