Confusing Resume Post-MBA

So in the current state of the US economy I am looking to really bulster myself to be in a good position to land a job post-grad. I am currently an MBA student at an EU school (Not LBS,INSEAD), but an American citizen. I am finding it difficult to go much further than the first couple rounds of interviews because hiring keeps freezing and I'm left looking for alternatives, so I figured I would work to get myself more prepared.

Well, last week I was laid off due to big 'Rona from my REPE firm that I've been at for a year. This complicates things for my job perspectives as almost all firms are looking for at least two years of experience in RE to be considered. On top of that I was at an associate level at this firm. Previous to my MBA I was a sr. analyst in corporate strategy with an F500 bank for two years. Just recently I was offered an IB summer associate position at the biggest bank in my EU country, and it got my thinking if this would be at all beneficial or add anything to my resume. I would be fine with going back to corporate strategy, but it is difficult with an EU MBA. I would really like PE in an either corporate or RE form, but with only one year of REPE and only a summer associate in IB, on top of an EU MBA, it's a long shot.

I've been networking as much as I can, and don't want to convolute my resume from my goals. I have reached out to all my RE contacts, but no one is hiring in my city for this summer. If I were to take this IB role, would it look bad in the eyes of a recruiter?

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I'm a bit confused even before you talk about taking the IB job. Where/are you doing a full time MBA while also working full time at a PE firm? And why would it be hard to go back to corporate strategy with an EU MBA?

I'd surprised that firms would have a hard cutoff at 2 years of RE. Maybe if you were a new grad who worked in RE for a year, but, as you say, you were an associate at a REPE for a year, so were already an experienced hire.

And finally, if the choice is between unemployed or IB (which seems the case at this stage), definitely take IB. You can worry about how to spin your CV experience later (impact of corona should be enough to justify that, but you can also add things like "wanted a more structured deal experience" etc).

 

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