Is a Regional Boutique IB internship worth it pre MSF?
I recently was admitted into a top MSF program (MIT/Vandy/UT Austin), and accepted my offer- I currently go to a private non-target, and have one F500 FP&A internship.
I've been networking hard to land a middle market IB Summer Analyst position, but recently expanded my search to include regional boutiques, just so I have some directly relevant experience under my belt.
It is a small firm with no formal recruiting process, only around a 5 person head count.
I just interviewed with a director and he liked me so he said they will proceed with onboarding. There have been kids who've interned there from semi-targets (UC Berkeley, NYU Stern), and have gone on to middle market and even a couple to bulge, but a few of them also went in a different path to FP&A.
I will verify again, but it seems I will have at least some hands on DCF/modeling work, putting together slide decks, redlining documents, among some miscellaneous tasks.
Strategically my goal is to leverage ANY IB experience to get to a bigger bank for a Summer Analyst spot or once I am at my MSF to assist me during recruiting season. I've also heard from alumni in the MSF that they think boutique IB work is better than PE analyst work in terms of being able to leverage it during recruiting season at the MSF.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Hey currently in an MSF program and thought I would share my experience. Had two relevant internships coming into MSF: 1.) a regional boutique IB SA stint and 2.) an M&A internship where our clients were PE firms, family offices, and FoF. I accepted an SA role for an MM bank and all throughout my process people were far more interested in hearing about my boutique experience than they were about my more recent M&A experience. Despite doing more for the M&A internship, and despite having far more responsibility at the M&A internship (I was very literally doing the work of a FT analyst because of staffing constraints), they would ask me detailed questions about my time with the boutique.
In all honesty, I truly believe having that on my resume got me interviews and is what got me the MM internship. So, with that in mind, if I were you, I would 10000% take it. Being able to show that you can break in in some capacity and do the work will be far more respected in your recruiting efforts than for any other role.
Best of luck!
Thank you- to be honest, regional boutiques were out of my scope before, but I realize now that any experience will be valuable to lever into getting a better role in the future. Thank you and congrats to your success in the MSF and career.
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