Should I take this summer internship opp?

Hello, I currently work in a MO group in a BB and was admitted to a top 10-ish bschool for this fall. For the past several weeks I have been aggressively reaching out to local boutique banks for an IB internship before I start school, and so far I have one very strong lead for me to start soon. My goal is to move to FO after bschool.

Specifics aren't settled yet, but in the back of my mind I have been thinking about the costs/benefits of doing an internship before bschool: If this internship is unpaid, my current salary is foregone for a couple months by leaving my current job before the analyst tenure end date (which is money that could help for school). Would it look bad to bschool recruiters that I "stepped down" from a BB to a boutique, although it is from MO to FO? On the other hand, it would be a FO boutique internship.

Any opinion is welcome, thanks in advance!

4 Comments
 
Best Response

I'm planning on doing pretty much the same thing, so your story is very interesting to me. I want to move from AM to IBD and the reasoning is to demonstrate interest + aptitude while also positioning yourself for another internship if need be. The loss of a few months worth of salary is worth it [if you can absorb the loss] considering that you will be doing the job you want......in the big picture, three months pay is a small price to pay for getting the job you want.

I'm a year away from this though, so while I'm 100% in agreement with your approach, I hope some more experience people weigh in as well to make sure that this is a good idea........

Get busy living
 

If you are already admitted to bschool im not sure I see what the marginal upside of having a summer internship would be in your Summer Associate recruiting. Do however talk to your "lead" to learn as much as possible about IB and what they look for in new hires. Also, build a story for interviews on why you want to switch (client interaction, blah blah) and demonstrate interest that way rather than on the resume.

Why not take a summer vacation instead? if you are successful in your search for an IB job you wont have another one of those for a long time...

 

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