I Need Advice Which Internship To Choose
Hope everyone is doing well.
I’m an undergraduate finance student in my 2nd year. I have no relevant internships to this date as i worked in a generic sales job part time while studying because the pay was great.
I want to work in Investment Banking/PE area. Now i have two offers for my first internship: 1. Big4 Audit 2. Real Estate Private Equity at a 3bn fund
I really need advice what to choose here. Audit would be a great start and foundation and as i was browsing IB vacancies, i noticed it is often required or helpful to have as work experience.
REPE would be like a jump start for PE but i’m scared of it being to specific regarding RE so that i’m unflexibel after my first Internship, if that makes sense. And i’m not sure if this would count as relevant work experience on my CV for M&A or restructuring for example. Would it count?
I definitely feel like Audit is somehow below my abilities because i could easily solve the PE Excel Modeling Test even though i know i have no work experience. I hope that doesn’t sound too much like hubris, but i think some of you may relate.
Any advice or thoughts are much appreciated and don’t fear to be harsh on me. Thank you!
Definitely the REPE job. No hate on people in audit, but it's generally looked down upon in IB circles whereas PE (whether REPE or any kind of PE) comes across as much more prestigious. Unfair for people in audit, but it is what it is. Not sure what IB jobs you were looking at which had an Audit requirement, but you'll rarely find anybody in IB from Audit unless they're post-MBA associates.
More importantly, skills you develop in PE will be much more valuable in IB (i.e. industry analyses, basic financial modeling, understanding how deal processes work). Also I highly doubt a sophomore year internship will pigeonhole you - most IB SAs do some random shit their sophomore summer anyways - the best you can really hope for is a small PE fund, which you managed to accomplish!
Real Estate PE >>>>>>>>>>>>> Big 4 Audit
You can pretty much do anything for your internship as long as you network with the right people or show passion for the right areas. Real estate PE will make you a much more impressive and unique candidate. You're a student right now, which means you have all the flexibility in the world.
For example: One of my buddies did a random operations-related role in his sophomore summer and now has an offer for industrials at a BB
Not to mention that the technical skills you'd build from REPE would be far more relevant than audit.
If you went Big 4 audit, everyone will be trying to leave to a REPE gig like you had. Take the real estate internship!
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