How Much Would You Pay For An Internship (Serious)?

I think given the difference in earnings in high finance and other careers and tacking on the follow premiums:

  • Prestige premium (social, emotional, professional benefits)
  • Time saved on recruiting premium (hundreds of hours worth)
  • Mental health for not going through this hellish recruitment cycle premium (invaluable)
  • Physical health for not going through this hellish recruitment cycle premium (invaluable)

I would pay the following for an internship (with no return offer guaranteed, just to have it on my resume)

  • $7.5MM USD for top HF/PE MF front office internships
  • $6MM USD for reputable Private Credit/VC front office internships 
  • $5MM USD for BB/EB IB front office internships
  • $2MM USD for MM IB front office internships
  • $1MM USD for regional boutique IB front office internships

This is a serious post, I believe the difference in lifetime earnings between having one of the above internships  and not is worth roughly the amount stated for each internship type. This is AFTER applying a discount rate roughly equivalent to the long-term average returns of an all-equities portfolio of lifetime earnings differential back to the present (age 21-22). Obviously this is assuming NYC, there will probably be a 20-30% discount for Tier 2 cities (SF, Chicago) and lower (Boston, Houston, LA) and a deeper discount for non-US locations (assuming developed like Canada/Australia/EU).

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