What to do for 6 months? (Offer holder)

Incoming FT at a top BB in NY. As I'm graduating (early) in December this year, I have ~6 months to chill before next summer and was thinking about what I can do in my free time. $$$ is not an issue, but international traveling seems difficult given COVID. Got several options I can do:

1) Do nothing

2) Take additional classes in fields I'm interested in

3) MM PE internship

4) CorpDev internship at a unicorn startup

Cannot start my FT gig early due to bank policy. Goal after banking is Buyout PE or Growth Equity.

Would appreciate any opinion - thanks!

6 Comments
 

Travel. if you don’t want to go abroad then travel the US. What you learn in more classes/an internship realistically won’t give you any discernible leg up, it won’t grab anybody’s attention. But, being able to intelligently speak about various cultures/geographies grabs people’s attention which at the end of the day is more important than how well you know the capm or excel.

Even it is just the US, geography is an integral piece of any and all business. If you’re working on a deal where a company has offices in x, y and z cities and you’ve been to all of them and know some fun facts about all of them and the unique cultures of each that is always beneficial.

 

Travel. if you don’t want to go abroad then travel the US. What you learn in more classes/an internship realistically won’t give you any discernible leg up, it won’t grab anybody’s attention. But, being able to intelligently speak about various cultures/geographies grabs people’s attention which at the end of the day is more important than how well you know the capm or excel.

Even it is just the US, geography is an integral piece of any and all business. If you’re working on a deal where a company has offices in x, y and z cities and you’ve been to all of them and know some fun facts about all of them and the unique cultures of each that is always beneficial.

 
Most Helpful

In the same situation. Appreciate first commenters suggesting of traveling the US, but would it really be worth it when things are constantly closing or opening up depending on the city? I feel like the only sure way to travel would be via national parks and camping, but even then some of the parks were shuttered for months. 

Also to OP, I would suggest keeping an eye on international travel to see when things open. If you're willing to travel for a long time, there are ways to get around it. For instance, right now it's possible (so long as you get a negative covid test) to travel to Croatia for 2 weeks, then once 2 weeks are over move into Italy. Travel barriers are starting to drop slightly for Americans, but it's only really feasible for those willing to jump through a few hoops and/or spend 2 weeks in quarantine. 

I'm banking on Asia opening up select travel routes for Americans willing to spend two weeks in quarantine by the spring. Already Hong Kong - Singapore is being reopened as a travel bubble soon, so fingers crossed they let us in lol 

 

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