Undergraduate Junior: Should I Take This Corp Dev Internship?

Hi all,

I have an offer for a corporate development analyst internship for next summer. I don't know whether to accept it or not.

About my background: I am from a non-target/semi-target school concentrating in Finance and Marketing. My only work experience prior to last summer was at two startups-- I found the first position by networking with the startup's CEO on LinkedIn and ended up doing some very solid pricing strategy and market entry strategy work during my sophomore Fall semester. I then interned for a local startup in my city doing sales development for them. For my sophomore summer internship, I sent applications far and wide since I didn't know what I was interested in. Some of my peers were talking about investment banking, which sounded interesting but daunting, and some others were talking about consulting-- which also sounded interesting. I just knew I wanted to help a company grow and inorganic growth in particular seemed fascinating to me. As it happened, I found and applied for a Corporate Development summer analyst position at a Fortune 50 healthcare company and spent my summer at the firm aiding in pitch book assembly, conducting market research/analysis and even getting some financial modeling experience in.

Unfortunately, the company I was at did not do return offers or hire for full time-- they tended to really lateral from investment banking or consulting. There was my plan-- to get a banking or a consulting job (I had equal interests in both), work for a while, and then get a corporate development/strategy role. I started networking and recruiting for banking. As I started applying for Summer 2020 internships, I found a corporate development internship at a technology subsidiary of a large privately-held company and applied to it. After doing more research on the internship, I realized that interns tended to get converted to full-time hires as the subsidiary grows fast. I got through two rounds of interviews-- one behavioral, one much more technical.

Fast forward to this week: I interviewed at Raymond James, SunTrust, Deutsche Bank's Jacksonville office (for IB), and FT Partners. I think SunTrust for IB at my school comes out next week. On Monday, I got an e-mail inviting me to a Super Day on Wednesday in their Chicago office (two case-type interviews, two behavioral). I flew out, did the Super Day, and got the offer today. I have no other offers and I have a week to accept.

On the one hand, this is a corp dev internship that potentially results in a full-time offer after graduation. It aligns with my interests, the office is great, the people are great. On the other hand, the subsidiary by itself is not well known-- although the company that it is part of is one of the largest companies in the world. I am worried about future career progression; do you guys think that I should stick with the offer or that I should keep recruiting? My best case scenario is getting a MM IB internship or a consulting internship, and my less ideal scenario is having a better "name" on the resume but a position that I don't find as interesting.

Thoughts? I would appreciate any advice on this issue.

1 Comments
 

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