need help deciding on a Spring internship

so through a program at my school (target) i will be working while taking a class for which we write essays and discuss how the work experience is going. here are my three options:

  1. Merrill Lynch GPC (private wealth)
  2. JPMorgan Private Banking
  3. Belvedere Trading (boutique derivatives prop trading firm)

all of these are unpaid. Trading sounds so interesting to me, and I'll actually get to learn a lot about market making and options trading strategies. but im wondering if its a bad idea to pass up having a BB name on my resume with JPM or Merrill Lynch

any thoughts?

9 Comments
 

Just out of curiosity, what was the interview like at the boutique trading firm? I'm thinking about applying to a couple prop firms but I have no idea what to expect as far as interviews go. Thanks

 

thats what i was thinking, but is pwm REALLY that helpful for IBD? i feel like anyone can get a pwm internship, and the experience really is not that good... i feel like id enjoy the experience at Belvedere Trading a lot more, but of course i should probably do what's most practical

 
Best Response

im a sophomore. im not 100% sure if i want to do trading... i think its really interesting stuff, much more than ibanking, but i feel like if u want to get anywhere with it long term, like be a quant at a HF, you have to be some kinda math genius, which im really not

so the trading job wont be too helpful for an ibank next year, but the BB AM definitely will?

 

If you would like to learn about the markets and untimately want to go into trading take the boutique. The plus side about taking the BB unpaid is that you can get IB interviews internally for JP and ML. But since you are at a target school it shouldn't matter.

 

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