Internship decision: Boutique or BB Middle office for a Sophomore Summer

So ... this is a tough one. Guys, feel free to disagree with me, but I'd still go for the 10-man shop. This comes down to a question of skill versus prestige. When the M&A bankers at my bank are picking candidates to interview, they don't even interview the middle office guys (even next to a BB) because what will you be putting underneath that name / position on your resume? Probably nothing that has to do with M&A. The other advantage I think you have is that you're a sophomore. You can always spin it later as -- "wanted a strong technical skillset and the small boutique environment is a good place for mentorship / lean deal team, etc." (something along those lines). That means for a junior internship, you can go back to a top BB / elite boutique and pitch yourself that way. This would be a different question for full-time, where a middle market position at a BB would give you an advantage for biz school apps.

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re: reformed thanks for catching the typo - it's been a long night Let me clarify - when I mentioned our recruiting process, I mean for full-time. But I believe that a soph internship in M&A practically lines you up for a junior yr internship - which you definitely need for full-time. and from what I hear, even as junior yr internships become ultra-competitive, more students are having finance internships in soph yr, so m&a skill would give someone an edge. and lastly, I believe you'll find many people who would disagree with you about soph internship learning experiences, esp at the BBs that have a soph program (GS and CS come to mind)

Take the BB, leverage it into a BB/MM IBD offer next summer

Without more info on the MO office role choose Boutique.

Again the same concept applies, what is your role and what is your job. Do we have to teach you how to make a PIB/Spread a comp or update tombstones if you've done it before? No... So your resume moves up in our eyes. Nowadays direct plug and play is increasing in importance.

People like to get into big fights over BB names on their resumes but to be serious... it doesnt matter if its not related. We constantly throw away resumes with "Goldman Wealth Management" on them in favor of small boutique investment banking history. At least we know you did a similar job.

Basically with the boutique your future would look something like this. Small shop --> intern mid to big size shop --> full time offer bulge

This is less risky, a middle market firm would be surprised to see even boutique experience and then its real easy to move from say a Piper internship to a DB/Citi etc.

To drive the point home what is the major difference in MM and BB internships? Seriously not much you just have more companies you're dealing with that say "$ in MMs" versus "$ in B's".

Make your resume scream as much as possible the following mantra "I get the basics so you can get more money/value out of me because you can hand me more easy work that you don't want to do!" People think they will just be handed models etc on day one... Not the case we build you up, so the stronger your foundation the more valuable you become as a working asset.

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@wallstreetplayboys,

One thing that people too often fail to consider is that people change their mind quite a bit between sophomore year and graduation. Pretend for a second OP decides by the time they reach junior year that IB isn't for them. If you're going for anything but IB, the MO internship most likely will take you much further.