Question from an anxious junior

Hi all

I'm a junior majoring in econ at a target school, and I really need some solid advice from the experienced as I have to decide very soon which summer internship to take. The 2 offers I have are from Rothschild IBD and BlackRock institutional sales - rather uncorrelated jobs I know - and I'm not entirely sure about how my choice will affect my grad job and exit option in the future.

In my own opinion, I find BR's name more legit. However, it's a sales job - meaning that I'd be on the sell side of a buy side firm. It's kinda unclear where this will lead me in terms of full time income and future exit options. As for Rothschild IBD, I think IBD is good experience (I was an summer analyst with one of the largest Asian investment bank in my sophomore year), but I'm not sure I want to stay in a boutique and if it will eliminate my option of getting into a bulge bracket when I grad.

So I guess my questions are:
1. Will the BR sales internship experience be discredited when I apply for investment banking grad job?
2. What exit option do I have if I go with BR?
3. Will Rothschild IBD job help me get into BB?
4. Is it easier to get into the real buy side by transferring internally within BR, or getting into Bulge Bracket IBD first and worry about exiting to buy side later?
5. How different will the salary be: BR sales vs Rothschild IBD?

I know I'm not really knowledgable about the industry and there's much to learn, so I do apologize if I sound confused and silly... Appreciate your time and patience, thanks!

5 Comments
 

Are you set on doing IB full time? If so, take the IB internship. The relevance of that experience vs. BR will greatly outweigh any perceived prestige difference between the potential firm names on the resume.

Think about it this way: if you are hiring an IBD analyst, do you pick the kid who had an IBD internship at Random Boutique LLC, or the kid who did PWM at Morgan Stanley? The latter hasn't really done anything to demonstrate he knows anything about IBD. It's about the role / experience more so than the name.

 

Thanks all for your advice. Can I say in general that If I was to maximize my pay and exit option in the short run (say 3 -5 years), then I should take Rothschild IBD? BR's pay is very competitive (it's in NYC), but my concern is that it's a sales job and that may be kinda like a dead end.

 
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