Why you should do a BB Ops internship as a sophomore
Since everyone here has wanted IBD since coming out of the womb I thought I'd give some advice on how you young guys can position yourself to be a lock for junior year recruiting. Most BBs have soph programs in IBD but they pretty much only go to the ivy kids so a hard-working non-target has little shot if I'm being completely honest. This is not the end of the world since ops is a much more clear path for a sophomore.
- Network with ops employees. You'd be amazed how many people don't in BO.
- Be polite. NEVER EVER say that you want IBD to the ops people that you network with. More than likely you will spend your junior IB sa at a different bank so just keep hush about it.
- Overwork the competition in preparation. I highly doubt people who I interview practiced for over 100 hours.
- Do a good job and utilize resources. Many firms will have internal databases that have all employees names so you can email them or whatever. Very helpful if your group has a bloomberg terminal.
- Have fun and build rapport with the team. You still want to get a return offer since it may come up later.
Why BB ops is going to stand out?
You have the brand name and access to network. You will also be more respected since the people in IBD will know you did a decent amount of work over the 8-10 weeks.
In my early days, I did my BO internships at UBS and Citi - it was a complete waste of time. Doing BO internships just make you look really bad during the FO interviews. Questions always came up (during the FO interviews): "So you were not qualified to get an interview for FO roles?" - "I don't understand how you are spinning off your BO internships as relevant experience for FO positions".
So please do not preach the wrong information on an online forum where majority of the audience is clueless college students. If you really want to prepare for FO interviews assuming you don't have any FO internships even at small firms, take your time to 1) do self study, 2) make a case study, 3) build a financial model, or 4) or do some sort of indirect FO roles (i.e. Business Development, Corporate Strategy even at a startup).