Switching FT Location After Internship

One of our summer analysts did this last year and was able to transfer to the location he wanted for FT. I think the first thing you should prioritize is being an excellent intern and making sure you build a strong relationship with your team. Since the office in your preferred location probably won't be familiar with you and how you work, someone from your team might have to vouch for you, and no one is really going to want to do that favor for just an average or below average intern. It'll also increase the likelihood that your current team is supportive of the move / not think that you used them to get to your ideal location. The new location is also taking on the risk (albeit less risk than a lateral hire) of giving an offer to someone that they haven't worked with and could potentially not be a good fit with their particular team, so the better your establish yourself as a strong performer, the easier it'll be for you to transfer.

But at the end of the day I think it will depend on the capacity of the office and if they have room for you. Our intern was lucky and his preferred location had open FT positions so he was able to work it out with that team. But this is also just my experience at an EB, where our class sizes are much smaller and we're probably more connected as a broader firm across the different locations, so transferring offices was not as big of a deal. This may be different from you at a BB, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. This is just a guess, but it could be either your location for FT or nothing, and in that case I would recommend looking at lateraling to a different bank in your preferred location as well. Good luck!