Secretive prop shop or more visible firm but less good?

Junior summer intern. I have opportunities to intern at:

1) An awesome prop trading shop (several hundred million in AUM) run by a savant investor. A few articles have been written in Forbes/Wired/etc about how this guy is one of the most brilliant people in finance, but his personal trading shop is, in the grand scale of things, completely unheard of and does not have a website.

Pros: Learn an incredible amount and super smart peers. Cons: Working at a firm without a website might hurt me when full time comes around.

2) A larger investment management firm (large HF fund of funds) with 50+ billion in AUM.

Pros: More name recognition. Cons: Won't learn as much.

Which do I take? Can I take opportunity #1 and then work my way into full-time recruiting through networking? Or do I need the bigger company on my resume? (My other stats are outstanding in terms of high gpa, target school, etc etc)

5 Comments
 

Well if you definitely want to be a trader I would take number one. True it may not have a website, but just work hard and network during the summer and it'll pay off. If he is quoted as one of the most brilliant people in finance, then I'm sure his shop is well known to many people which will only help. So if I were you I would personally take the first option at the prop trading shop.

 

^^^In other words, I am not sure which area I want to do in finance and I expect to be involved in multiple areas throughout my career.

 
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