Undergrad here, may have an opportunity to pursue MM PE Junior Summer (2nd tier city) and FT. Wondering if I should push for it or keep recruiting IB. I’m considering a lot of things and want to see if I’m missing any factors. Long term goal was MM PE anyway, but I know IB is a good experience to have.
| +440 | Female bankers doing brand deals on TikTok | 116 | 15h |
| +143 | UBS rolling out Enhanced Clean Desk Policy, bans deal toys | 16 | 4d |
| +105 | Starting FT in a city 3 hours away, dad has progressing Parkinson's. Looking for advice. | 8 | 1d |
| +73 | JULY 2026 CHICAGO BANK RANKINGS | 29 | 13h |
| +67 | Restructuring is paradise (a completely unbiased account) | 6 | 4d |
| +37 | Not Treated Well by Other Interns | 20 | 2d |
| +36 | Handling frustration | 5 | 4d |
| +34 | Taking days off as an intern | 17 | 15h |
| +28 | Thoughts on Intrepid - Houlihan Merger | 10 | 3d |
| +27 | IB TikTok Influencers (wehave2wizards) | 9 | 3d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
If your goal is MM PE, starting in MM PE is obviously the best place to be. If you didn't know where you wanted to end up, or were interested in MF/UMM PE then IB might be the better option, but there's no reason not to go straight to MMPE if that is where you know you want to be.
Yep, that’s what I’m thinking. Just worried I might be closing some doors too early (but I could pivot with an MBA). Was never super interested in the MF route, just personally find somewhere in the MM (LMM, MM, UMM) the most interesting. I do find IB somewhat interesting but know the work I would be doing at the junior level probably wouldn’t be that exciting, however does keep a lot of options open. Also not sure how recruiting will continue to play out over the next few month
One downside is that it becomes much harder to move around once you're in MM PE. I know an MBA student going into AM who did MM PE out of top target undergrad. They candidly said they regretted their decision and wished they did IB because when they lost interest in PE they were unable to recruit for any other industries without that banking foundation. Outside of the MM space most other employers probably won't know the name of the firm you work at so pigeonholing is a very real possibility.
Interesting, so banking experience is significantly more valuable to employers than MM PE experience?
Don’t have much experience here but generally I believe this to be true, unfortunately. I guess it comes down to what you want to do vs what would look good for the future. I certainly agree with the above that starting in MM PE will make it very difficult to move out.
The way she put it is that she was simply less marketable. It was a high quality firm and the work itself was likely more productive than IB, but employers didn't know what to compare her against unlike say JPM IB which is a known quality.
Was in the same boat earlier, MM PE in 2nd tier city vs IB in NYC. Ended up choosing IB, but unlike you I wasn't sure I wanted MM PE in the long run and wanted the optionality of IB.
Factors I considered were platform (generalist IB internship vs MM buyout PE), location, compensation, culture, exit ops from IB shop vs PE shop. Hope this kind of helps
Placeat impedit impedit aut quo quia. Eveniet iste consequatur odit nostrum omnis dolores aut commodi. Iusto corrupti quo et sunt. Saepe laudantium et quis et. Eligendi omnis quis id exercitationem iure laboriosam sed.
Itaque autem non perferendis et soluta. Et officiis quos nam perferendis dolorem architecto.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...