Too many offers (Help)
Hi all. I am a current student intern in FP&A at a big pharma and have applied to Banking/Finance Summer Analyst roles for 2023. I need guidance choosing an offer based on the fact that I already have experience in Corp Fin and that these offers are drastically different. Here is a list of all the offers/final interviews I have.
2 X (Apple / Amazon / Microsoft) - Corporate Finance Intern
(GS / JP / MS) - Global Markets Operations Summer Analyst
2 X (Citi Bank / HSBC / RBC) - Commercial Banking Summer Analyst
(including final interviews as I am going to withdraw if I receive a better offer)
My dilemma is that while I do not thoroughly enjoy Corporate Finance, I have the opportunity to do it at a FAANG which I am skeptical whether would make the day to day anymore enjoyable. Secondly, I have yet to gain any experience in Banking which makes the latter offers much more attractive - yet within these I am unsure weather joining a BB in Operations is superior to joining a FO role like Commercial Banking at a lower tier bank.
Markets are definitely areas of Banking I am most interested in, but I believe Commercial Banking might be a more engaging career. What offers could lead to a career with the best long term comp, exit options and fulfilling work? Thanks.
Currently my opinion is:
BB ops = Commercial Banking > FAANG CF
BB in ops is certainly the worst of all the opportunites. Ops is ops, and working in ops at Goldman Sachs or even Citadel or Bridgewater is still unsexy and uninteresting work.
Commercial banking is solid and nothing wrong with it, but it is less quantitative and more relationship oriented. Modeling is somewhat straightforward, hard to say if you would like it more. Could it help you get closer to IBD, perhaps.
In terms of best offers, the corp fin offers are the clear winners. I would think that if you dont enjoy corp fin, your perspective wont change much as you will likely be doing it in a siloed capacity for one of these massive FAANGs. However, there might be more advanced forecasting and more granular analyses which could prove much more interesting / engaging.
I think there are strong cases to be made for both the corp fin roles and commercial banking opportunities, but would advise against the ops roles. If it were me, I would take Corp Fin at a FAANG. Commercial banking wont tee you up much better for IBD, and I would only take it if you think thats what you wanna do long term
Thank you for this very comprehensive
answer.
Although I need to think within my own profile - I haven't thoroughly enjoyed corp fin and I think I'd rather take the gamble on Ops than doing it for a FAANG.
I think that'd offer more of a change and build a more varied profile than doing the same thing for two different companies.
Although by taking ops - i would be trading the wow factor of being in FAANG which is something I'd find quite difficult.
I think I'll end up taking the commercial banking gig if I can.
If not, I still have graduate recruiting to go through, and to have the option of staying on my current companies FLDP or in Ops at BB is a better choice than having two FLDP's if I don't thoroughly enjoy Corp fin.
I guess this decision is largely a personal one.
Dude, what you said indicate you have no idea about how boring and dead-end operations is, especially global market operations. I’m at a buyside (prop shop) and I interact with ops teams at my job and let me give you an idea of they do:
Clean up mess that traders, strats, and devs don’t want to put their hands on. For example, data reconciliation on a software that breaks down from times to times because no devs are willing to fix legacy codes. If devs suddenly decide to upgrade legacy codes to automate data flows, then poof, your jobs are gone for good. With the recent incorporation of AWS, ops-job-killing is happening at light speed.
You will work longer hour than traders — you must arrive before traders arrive and leave after traders leave so that traders can enjoy issue-free experiences ( your role here is the trash bin for issues ). You will make one tenth of what traders make, one fifth of what strats make, and one third of what devs make. You career growth will move in the speed of a snail, and you’ll find yourself finally reach six-figure salary after doing this job for six years.
Now, I bet the corporate finance role looks better to you. Thank me later.
I would echo the above and take Corp fin, and definitely Microsoft over the others. Everyone I’ve talked to there loves the culture and flexibility, even though they note the work itself is somewhat boring
Take the corp fin role.
Good problem to have
Pick whichever pays the most
For the love of God, do not take go the ops route. I've done ops > grad school > unpaid IB internships > then made the jump to IB.. Hiring managers look at you completely differently if you are currently in ops. You carry no financial analysis, PowerPoint, research, etc. experience and frankly, IMO, you are barely one level away from being automated out of a job.
At least with the corp finance internship at a FAANG company, you will definitely be taken seriously if you do decide to go IB.
As someone who was in your shoes, please don't go this route.
What about if the corp fin internships are strictly FP&A?
I don't think you understand.. Ops gets you absolutely no where. At least with FP&A you should be able to demonstrate your knowledge of financial statements. There is literally nothing you can tie back to ops. The joke back at my old firm in the ops division, which is a BB, was that if they could train monkeys how to do these tasks we'd be jobless. It doesn't matter if you work at a BB, all ops experience looks all the same for recruiters.
Molestiae dolorem sequi non alias commodi doloremque. Est voluptas fuga autem inventore culpa voluptas temporibus. Maiores quaerat placeat debitis voluptatem et dicta. Natus enim et ullam ab et error vel. Molestias sed facilis sit laborum.
Nisi qui consectetur ut. Nulla optio eaque architecto architecto ut deleniti. Vel consectetur non sapiente vitae. Earum molestiae nulla cupiditate repellat aut quia.
Eveniet quos aliquid voluptas quod ut tempora delectus. Sint voluptatem quam delectus quae quibusdam. Molestiae nesciunt perferendis id nemo. Sint qui amet eligendi non.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...