Need help with internship offers- freshman summer at target with 4.0 gpa

Hi guys,

I’m a freshman at a target school and need help deciding which internship would be better for investment banking or if it even matters. I have two offers: one at a local student loan startup doing strategic finance work- mostly 3 statement model and cash flow modeling, along with student loan underwriting. My other offer is at a fund of funds for real estate private equity. I will he making presentations and analyzing data on excel but no dcf building. They only invest in core real estate trusts. I want to know which one would be better for investment banking.

Thanks

6 Comments
 

I would say REPE FoF would look very nice on the resume as a freshman. Obviously like you mentioned the modelling might be less intensive but ultimately that won't be the end all and be all of what any bank would value (provided that you do kill your technicals). Think it would be an easier 30 second pitch on past experience than working for a student loan start-up (but obviously if u had more time to talk about this experience im sure you could sell it just as well).

Congrats on getting an offer as a freshman! The lack of a structured recruiting process during the first 2 years in college can be a toughie but you have two pretty cool sounding options.

 

How's the club recruiting going for you. Would say more important getting into MII/GIC/MIBC/MBEF/PCT as fresh/soph. than the modelling experience you have in your internship freshman year. The PE FOF sounds good, but if you keep your GPA up you could apply to good internships like Apollo, etc. or sophomore programs in NY. Think in those frames more than what's good for IB exactly, because the difference is very small (trying to shift your perspective which will be helpful if you follow). My experience going through Ross - also, you could do none of the above and end up in an EB with a 3.5 which my friend did (I still have no clue how, might be frat connections but still LMAO).

 

Hey, yes and nope not really. It matters for the most competitive jobs slightly, because people in those clubs end up there (like PJT RSSG or EVR, or PE / HF) and it's easier to be mentored. No, you can get the jobs all the same but it's just easier / in trying to figure out what internship is better, the clubs are just as if not slightly more valuable than your freshman summer job if that makes sense. Way more value in the clubs. I was trying to make that comparison and put that into perspective for you. Either way good job so far and keep working hard, make sure to utilize the CDO peer coaches as much as possible.

 

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