Operations at Goldman Sachs or more prestigious position at less prestigious firm

Front office trumps back office every time.

I'd pick an unknown boutique IBD over any backoffice position anywhere.

I've heard that latering, although it can be be done, is very hard to do at places such as Goldman and Morgan Stanley and often is a very lengthy process with very low chances for success.

Lateral hiring is very difficult to places like MS/GS without already being a top bank. Lateral hiring from back office GS to front office GS is almost impossible.

If you want to do banking, take a banking job and get relevant experience, no matter where.

JPM s&t is great btw

Operations, support, etc is not very exciting work. It would take you prob at least 2-3 years of operational-type work just to have a chance of getting an analyst role and even then its difficult to do. You're best bet would take analyst role at a smaller bank, then go to school, and then get an associate position at big bank if thats what you desire.

JPM S&T without a doubt. Operations a somewhat of a dead end job in Finance.

Thanks for the tips. It is clear that I should aggresively pursue the Sales & Trading internship at JP Morgan rather than worrying about making a good impression for Goldman Sachs when they come to recruit for Operations at my school.

If this is for an internship, and you are a rising senior, go for JPM. If you're a rising junior and still have another summer left, doing Goldman might not be a bad idea if you want to network within the firm and make contacts for next year.

Front office over back office any day of the week

I don't understand how this is even a question. You do realize that spots on the desk are VERY hard to come by, right? Don't kid yourself in that banking is the only viable option on the street.

Take the S&T offer, work your ass off, and hope that you get invited back to the desk as a full-time hire. JPM is a derivatives powerhouse; people would kill for your chance to get into their S&T program.