Please help :) question about what to choose for summer

Hi people :)
it's my first time on the WSO site. Nice to meet you all. I'm quite uncertain about what I should do for my freshman year summer. WSO seems to be a wonderful place to get some good advice, so thanks in advance!

So far I have three options
1. a summer job of teaching English: nothing special about it. the pay is not bad though.
2. an internship in a large insurance company:
good news: I won't be selling insurance/cold-calling
bad news: I also won't intern in the "most valuable" departments such as actuarial/market research either.
question: what will I do exactly? good question. I'm also not sure about that yet. I'm sorry I can't provide more accurate information for you to make a better judgement... I'll only know better next week :(
3. going back to school, i.e. summer classes.

I know none of them is related to IB at all and the choice probably won't make a difference in the end. but still, I'm just wondering, knowing that I want to go into IB (or possibly consulting/actuarial/PE>... I'm still exploring different fields in finance) in the future, what would you recommend?

Also becoz I can't provide more information about the insurance internship, I'll ask my question directly. I hear that insurance industry is kind of frowned upon in the finance world. So if I do an internship in an insurance company, which department should I aim at, that will teach me (relatively) solid knowledge and boost my resume best (relatively)? i.e. the internship experience is not getting looked down upon but instead being valued by recruiters in IB and other abovementioned industries.

Thanks!

7 Comments
 

Just the fact that you have anything at all after your freshman year is impressive, many people don't. Personally I would take the insurance internship because while it is obviously far from investment banking in prestige, it is a finance internship nonetheless and gives you a foundation to build off of. Also you say it is a large insurance company--brand recognition is always nice to see on a resume. If you think you want to do IB down the road or anything in finance, it would be most advantageous to you to get this finance internship on your resume. Best of luck and welcome to WSO.

 

Thanks for helping. I'm just a little worried about what I can learn from the internship, as I happen to read quite a few negative comments about insurance internship... But you have a point. Thanks again!

 

The freshman or sophomore internship is more about showing you can work in the office setting, get along with co-workers, work ethics, and a general interest in finance. It's not about learning any specific skill. Junior internship, on the other hand, is an extended on-the-job interview.

 

Thanks! :) Sorry just one more question. If I go with taking summer classes, which means I'll miss the internship, am I missing out much? I was inclined to summer classes a few days ago...

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