How to leverage a BB PWM internship into an boutique IB internship

I am a non diversity and just finished my freshman year at a target and currently interning in a top BB PWM role (GS/MS). I tried finding a boutique IB role for this summer instead of PWM but legit no bank wanted to take on a non diversity freshman as a summer analyst

Anyhow, this BB PWM still looks pretty good on a resume, but I was wondering what my next steps should be. I eventually want to recruit for a BB/EB IB role and was thinking of networking my way into a fall internship while taking classes (my college is located in a major US financial hub, so plenty of boutiques to contact). Do boutiques usually take academic year/off cycle sophomores? Or would I have better luck getting a HF/PE internship during my soph year and interning in IB next summer?

Also, speaking of next summer, I was googling and wso searching around and it looks like most BB soph analyst programs are strictly diversity. So, I was wondering if some intense networking can get me IB summer analyst roles in second tier banks like Socgen, BNP, or HSBC, or are those all diversity as well? Thanks.

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  1. Super easy to find local boutique banks. Those banks do not give a fuck whether you are diversity or not dude. Vast majority of the kids are non-diversity cuz the diversity kids are doing their diversity summer training programs freshmen summer and their BB sophomore programs. So it is completely on you that you could not land one for the summer with your experience. At my school, decent number of kids got small boutiques and LMM PE for their freshmen summer.
  1. I dont think its worth doing an internship at those type of banks sophomore year. Go do something fun or intern at local boutiques. Standard nowadays for non-diversity is 2-3 internships under your belt with at least one of them being IB. Try to secure a fall IB internship and you should be set for recruiting. You do realize that those banks you mentioned all finished their recruiting for the summer right? Sophomore programs recruit from the same pool for junior summer analysts so idk how you plan on landing it.

BBPWM > Regional Boutique IB > Fun sophomore internship in whatever industry is what I recommend. Take this summer to just study for techs and refine behavioral. I would honestly argue if you shoot out emails right now there are some regional banks that will be willing to take you for unpaid internships.

 

Thanks so much. I was under the impression that any IB was better than even the best BB PWM. Guess that's wrong.

Also, I was trying to look for small boutiques but with some deal flow as well (50-100 employees range), and many of them outright said they did not want freshman. Am I looking in the wrong places? Should I be looking at even smaller boutiques (10-30 employees range) then?

Also, banks like Socgen haven't even opened app yet. They opened their apps in early August last year. HSBC apps close on Sept 30. I was planning on submitting my app through online portals and networking to get some resume pushers internally. 

 

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