Should I FT Recruit + Some Questions

Background: I'm currently interning at an MM bank in their top advisory group. I have some other finance experience, and come from a semi-(upper?)-target (Vanderbilt/Duke/Northwestern). COVID recruitment was hard so I took the first IB summer internship offer I got as to not gamble it away. 

Here is what I am debating with the current role-- 

Pros:

  • TON of deal flow - I was staffed on 3-4 live deals as an intern and am getting to sit in on client meetings and learning so much
  • Great culture - not a huge emphasis on face-time, very reasonable deadlines, not expected to stay in past midnight more than once or twice a month. As long as you get a work done, nobody really cares
  • Nice team - VPs and Associates are super nice, understanding, and actually want to help you learn, which seems to be a rare commodity from reading things on this forum lol

Cons:

  • Smaller deal sizes (no more than $100-300million-ish)
  • Very specific kind of group: the modeling and skills don't seem to be too transferable, and exit opps seem very limited. Limited exposure outside of your group.
  • High turn-over of analysts: I think this could be because comp is slightly below street with smaller bonuses despite the amount of deals. I see analysts using it as a stepping stone onto the next thing, not really staying long term

Not sure if this is a con, but most of the people on my team seem to come from a variety of backgrounds - they've spent some time in middle and back office roles at a big 4, and then come over as a first year analyst with 5-6 years of prior finance experience. They're very sharp and know their shit, but it just raises an eyebrow since it's not very traditional.

I feel like I have a bit of a stronger background than a lot of my co-interns, and while I still learn a lot from them and enjoy working with them, I would hate to feel like I could've done better, and pigeon-holed myself too early by accepting the first thing I got. So my questions:

1. Do you think it is worth full-time recruiting, despite how 'cushy' and nice this job seems?

2. What should I make of the background the recruits are coming from? Is it me being hypercritical?

3. If I do full-time recruit (as it is about to start), is there any way word would get back to my current bank, and then I get no full-time offers?

Any advice in general is appreciated, too! Thanks:)

2 Comments
 

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