Hi WSO. I need advice regarding two internship offers I have. I'm not sure which one to take.
Option A: Summer Analyst at LMM PE Fund This is a lower middle market PE fund, and has about 200m AUM. They said I would spend very close to all of my time doing contact generation, contact database management, etc. They also said they simply did not have the time to walk me through how to do anything else, but that if I was lucky there may be a very small amount of other work they could give me in a sink or swim fashion.
Option B: Internship at a Search Fund This would also involve mostly contact generation but there will probably be more opportunity for analytical work as well. There are weekly meetings where the searcher walks the team of interns through various exercises that may include topics such as building models and conducting due diligence. I've also been told the searcher just signed a Letter of Intent which would lead me to believe there will be more opportunity for actual analytical work.
Option C: Do Both. Option A is available on a part time basis, Option B may also be available on a part time basis. Alternatively, I could do option A for the first half of summer and option B for the second half. I'm not sure if two short internships would look better/worse than one longer internship.
Having work experience at an actual PE firm would look better than working at a search fund, however the responsibilities at the PE firm may not be as beneficial as the responsibilities at the search fund. Which do you believe is more important, working at an actual PE firm, or the opportunity to possibly learn more at a Search Fund?
Update 5/3/17: For anyone who finds this topic and is in a similar boat. I talked to some alumni from my university who are fairly high up in the PE world and they highly recommended taking the internship at the actual PE fund. They said despite having less responsibilities, the exposure I would get to how an actual PE fund operates would be highly beneficial and attractive on a resume.
Update 11/12/17: I figured I'd update this in case anyone else was in a similar boat. I ended up accepting the PE internship and it went way better than initially accepted. I was able to take on considerably more responsibility than I think even they had initially planned on. The internship was originally unpaid, however at the conclusion of the position I was given a "bonus" check. They also made a full-time return offer for when I graduate which I happily accepted.
Do both if they are only P/T basis.
Dig around in the models and cims at the first one and practice during downtime.
Second Semester Senior Internship Options: Search Fund or Niche PE Shop? (Originally Posted: 11/21/2017)
Currently a senior at a non-target who was lucky enough to land a junior year summer internship and full time offer from a MM IB. Couldn't have done it without the help from the WSO guides and the entire WSO community. Basically, I'm headed into my last semester of college and I'm looking to take advantage of my extra time since my required courses are winding down. I've been looking at two different internship options for the Spring semester. I've already received an offer for the first opportunity, and I'm likely to receive an offer for the second opportunity based on my experience in the larger industry the PE firm focuses on.
The first internship is a Search fund analyst position. Looks like I'll have a lot of responsibility, but basically I'll be trying to find a small-mid size regional company for a PE backed Search Fund to buy. The target company can be in any industry just has to fit the investment criteria.
The second opportunity is with a PE firm that focuses on a very niche sector within a wide industry (I worked in the wider industry group, but not in the specific niche sector). The fund is a subsidiary of a much larger, well-known PE firm in the industry. The sub PE firm traditionally makes up to $30 million dollar invests of growth equity into firms in this niche sector.
Appreciate the help, happy to try to provide more details if either option is too vague.
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