MM IB in T4 City vs Large FoF for sophomore summer internship
I fortunately just recieved two offers for my sophomore summer. One is a MM IB internship (think RJ, HW, BMO) in a T4 City (think Saint Petersburg, Nashville, Cleveland) and the other is with a large fund of funds with $70b+ in AUM located in a major financial hub. I'm not sure which strategy I would be working in (lbut ikely co-investments).
My goal is to recruit for investment banking SA 2024 positions. I'm wondering which option would better position me to do so, as one is of course investemnt banking but albeit from a signicantly less prestigious city. I have no personal ties to this T4 city.
I don't think this is close. All of those banks are great for sophomore summer. You would be well set up to succeed irrespective of the city.
If you want IB, having an incoming soph SA at an IB (particularly at a nationally recognized firm like these listed) puts you way ahead of most of the pack, including those with indirectly relevant experiences (like FoF).
I'd go with the investment bank and not think twice about it. My logic is as follows:
1. You will learn about an industry you currently plan on entering FT upon graduation. What better way to get immediate exposure? Many people hate IBD (not saying this is you by any means). Better to find out if you hate it now that spend another year recruiting for something. You will never know if you truly want to spend years of your life doing something until you try it out, and you are fortunate enough to already have an internship lined up in that field.
2. What you are learning during your soph year internship will help you develop the mindset and the skillset of a stronger IBD intern during your junior year. Whether you want to come back to the MM bank or re-recruit for a top BB / EB, you will come across as a stronger, more polished, more credible intern. This will allow you take on more advanced work during your junior year internship. More importantly, you will have so many more reps by the time you hit the desk FT that youll be thinking more like a Y2 Analyst before your collegues. Youll have a deeper understanding of the process, the deliverables, how to be proactive, how to turn comments and or create buyers lists faster, to name a few benefits.
3. You may potentially get an internship return offer, which will make next summer's interview process far less stressful.
4. Funds of funds are niche and weird. Have a few friends that worked at them but they certainly are desirable, and you will spend more time analyzing other PE fund's strategies and acquisition opportunities. This experience would better prepare you for a buy side role as opposed to the IBD internship.
I gained an INSANE amount of knowledge from my first few IBD internships, and each one built on the next. Highly recommend choosing IBD unless there is another factor not mentioned in the OP.
100% take the MM IB internship. FoF doesn't teach you anywhere near the hard skills you need if you want to do IB or PE in the long run (although for some people that's a great exit w/ much better lifestyle, but even then would recommend IB first before FoF).
Experience is everything when breaking into banking. I lateraled into IB from a valuation firm (very common way to break-in given the complimentary skillset) and the single biggest reason I was always passed over for other candidates is that I didn't have any direct IB experience compared to the other people interviewing. If your end goal is to be in IB then go for the IB internship, it will set you up well to recruit and the city is fairly irrelevant.
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