Graduate early and accept small boutique Offer?
Recently landed a summer analyst role for this upcoming summer at a really small (about a dozen in the front office) buy-side focused boutique, and I was wondering people's thoughts on accepting a FT offer early. I like the firm, the culture, and the deals are legitimately cool af (space stuff, classified defense work, private lending, specialized restructuring, very little traditional sell-side M&A), but I'm not sure where it could lead me career-wise.
For context, I'd traditionally be in the 2028 recruiting cycle, but I'm in a 3+1 program at my school where I will earn a bachelor's in three years and stay on for the master's. This is technically a sophomore summer internship, but I'm a junior credit-wise.
My line of thought is that I could accept this internship for SA 2026, graduate early, and just come on full-time while everyone else in my class is out doing internships and going to school. I'd be getting paid instead of paying for an extra year of school (street base, bonus is probably shit, but the hours wouldn't be total hell). I could also probably lateral to banks I'd have no shot at now with a year of experience under my belt, but this is also my concern. Would taking a really small, mostly unknown boutique offer mean my only exits are IBD elsewhere or MM PE (If that)? I'd like to be in a trading or lending role in the future, so those exits would be stepping stones.
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