To what extent can early internships pigeonhole future work opps?

Student at target school (UVA/UMICH/Stern). I was just wondering how early professional experiences can adversely affect future opportunities for SA recruiting? For IB SA for example, can only or mostly buy-side internships hurt you in terms of recruiting, considering that the internships are not IB focused or not very transactional. Also, how would small hedge fund internships hurt in terms of recruiting for both IB and PE SAs? More specifically, if the work you are doing at the fund is basically equity research, which may or may not be preferable for IB and PE work. I'm in one of the top clubs in my school, and I see that the older students, and other students from other schools, mostly have multiple small firm buy-side internships rather than IB internships, but still recruit for IB. Also in regards to the small hedge fund question, I have something coming up where it is essentially equity research work, in that I would basically be just researching equities that the manager gives me, using fundamentals and primary research, with some modeling here and there, although I do want to recruit for IB in the future. Sorry if what I was asking was all over the place lmfao, just want to plan properly.

TL;DR: Is there an adverse extent to which buy-side internships at PE firms can hurt for IB SA recruiting, or an extent to which equity research esque work at small hedge funds can hurt for IB or PE SA recruiting, considering that the work is not transactional in nature?

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

6 Comments
 

No, this is still relevant and helpful work, the more you have to talk about the better. Even in smaller IB internships you're not really working on live deals, lots of ad-hoc market research stuff.

I would just be prepared for the "why IB over PE" question but that's not hard to answer. People know that PE internships can be easier to come by early on.

 

Don’t know what the fuck the guy above me is talking about, but the quick answer is it doesn’t matter. It is not the expectation for IB SAs that you have to have previous sell-side experience, especially when firms recruit a year and a half in advance. There are vastly more opportunities for students to gain internship experience in first and second year on the buyside, because there are so many search funds and LMM PE firms. Having transaction experience of any kind is a big plus, you don’t need to have advisory/banking experience to be a serious candidate for banking.

 

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