Thought Experiment
A friend (a legitimate friend haha, not a "friend") is making a career switch from middle office to his/her goal of investment banking and beyond. He/she is contemplating either 1) interning for 6 months and then going to a M.S. program at Columbia/Vanderbilt/MIT to recruit full time or 2) take an immediate start as a corporate development M&A analyst at a Fortune 500-1000 financial services holding company with the goal of transitioning into IB and beyond a few years down the road.
Are there any thoughts either way as to which he/she should pick?
I'd personally gravitate towards the latter. Assuming it's an acquisitive team where they'll get good experience, it can be spun to get into a FIG coverage team or M&A more broadly. If they aren't getting traction at that point, they can always switch jobs or go down the well-trodden MBA path.
Pulling on the (non-MBA) masters cord can be tricky. They would still need to find a good internship and actually get into the program, and then navigate an already hyper competitive full-time recruiting process (assuming it's a 1 year masters so no summer internship time). In that scenario, I'd rather position myself for a good MBA program
Would it change your opinion if the internship was with a health/tech IB and acceptance was already given to all three? Would you feel confident going into fall recruiting with 6 months of experience and one of those names on your resume?
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