Should I Accept This Offer?
Hi All,
Some background on me:
- Sophomore at a non-target
- I am planning on IB after school and I'm industry/geographically agnostic.
I just received an offer at KPMG in their Embark Scholars program in NY. This is a 9 week program with rotations through M&A Advisory, Tax, Audit and BPG.
I have networked into the process and will likely get interviews at least for (all no-name) 2 IB firms, 1 REPE, 1 HF/PE firm (they invest in a variety of things).
I'm leaning towards accepting this offer. I'd love to hear thoughts from people that have gone through recruiting/are in industry. Would these thoughts change if I was able to accelerate for a no name IB firm?
Thanks!
Take it. KPMG is a good brand name, and you'll have a great answer for the "Why Banking" question — "I tried all these corporate finance areas like M&A, Tax, Audit, BPG, and I really only loved M&A because ABC etc."
That’s what I’m thinking, thanks for the input!
Definitely agree, KPMG is a great brand name to have on your resume and should set you up well for IB recruiting especially since you are only a sophomore. Just a quick note though, unlikely you will get any true IB exposure in your rotation as their IB arm (Corporate Finance) doesn't take interns.
Disagree with the answer above. With a program like that, if distributed proportionally, you will only see ~2 weeks of M&A work. Now I understand you don't have offers from the other IBs, but I would caution you to greatly consider those options. You will get more M&A experience, gain sweat equity (lot of no-names aren't paid, which is also a great story), and partners/MDs at those shops are likely friends with senior bankers at more reputable banks. Finance is a small world. Best to get in it as early as possible.
Thanks for the input, I'll keep it in mind
KPMG is a great name but my no-name boutique internships made it much easier to say why I wanted IBD.
I STRONGLY disagree with the answer to go to KPMG because recruiting starts in Feb/March for some banks, then most kick off around April-June. How can you say that you tried audit and tax but only liked M&A if your internship doesn't start for another 3 months?
You can take the gamble, but most places are moving recruiting up earlier and earlier, especially if you want to land a top EB. Evercore was done with recruiting around May.
Hell, RBC has even started accepting applications already. They always do this, but note the application deadline: https://jobs.rbc.com/ca/en/job/279216/2022-Global-Investment-Banking-Su…
That being said, bird in the hand. Try to accelerate your other interviews/extend the deadline on KPMG as far as you can. If you can truly see yourself doing audit or tax for a career then accept it, but if you only want IBD then you should try to go all-in.
I see what you're saying, I likely will be done interviewing by the time I start at KPMG or a boutique IB so not sure how much it matters. I'm not sure how much time they spend on incoming titles on resume, do you have input?
I guess the reasons I'm leaning towards are:
-Basically a guaranteed return wherever I want (M&A Advisory) as a backup plan. Not sure if this would be the case at the boutique
-I'd get to experience NY. I'm from the west coast and have never been to NY so I would have a summer before being locked in to know if I could handle it for 2 years or need to recruit FT.
Thanks for the insight! SBd
Can you expand on how someone could spin an unpaid IB internship into a good story? How to mention “sweat equity” without coming off as a hardo
Can you expand on how someone could spin an unpaid IB internship into a good story? How to mention “sweat equity” without coming off as a hardo
Bump, wondering if I should try to accelerate my IB interviews. If I do I need to be prepared to take the offers.
yes, definitely try to - having a KPMG offer will also make you look more attractive to the companies you're interviewing with
I'm in the same boat. Would reneging for bb sophomore summer be worth it?
What firm is it? What division?
I'm in the process of various firms for ib, s&t, and asset management positions. Some being ubs/db/citi/wells, and pimco/gamco. As of now, my end goal is 2022 ib so I'm just trying set myself up for that. I'm sure kpmg would be helpful, I just don't know how much better other options would be.
I would accept it. KPMG is a world class organization and will act as a proxy for you regarding opportunities. You're young. This would be a great feather in your cap and will expose you to lots of things and the corporate world.
Don't lose sight of the fact that we're in the midst of a pandemic and the intern and fulltime job market is quite strange right now. Lot of bottlenecks. Last summer KPMG greatly modified their 10 week internship but essentially gave all juniors FT offers. Who knows what next summer looks like. We may be still in a modified WFH environment with less jobs available and it would suck to turn this down to find out other things were cancelled (happened ad nauseum last yr).
Also, nothing prevents you from continuing to recruit and if you happen to land something exactly in your wheelhouse, so be it.
Appreciate the insight. It’s certainly a good problem to have, much better than scrambling for an internship
Was in a similar program with another big 4, and it led to me getting interviews. It's all about how you spin it. Just try to work at a local bank/PE fund during the school year to show your interest in finance. Brand name means more than experiences tbh
Interesting take, have heard the opposite that experience>brand
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