Will an accounting internship hurt my chances of Investment Banking?
I am a sophomore at Michigan State University majoring in accounting. I took the advice of some people on internet boards like this one and chose that as my major because MSU is not seen as a good school.
I'm absolutely certain that a few of the Big 4 accounting companies will offer me a sophomore year internship. Should I be worried that this internship will ruin my chances of working in IB because it's not related?
Should I change my major to finance? I'm worried about how I would be able to transition into IB. Please offer any advice possible, I'm wondering about the pros and cons of sticking to accounting or risking trying for IB from MSU.
Why not do both accounting and finance?
Yeah... you could always do both.
And MSU's still a good school... coming from a Wolverine
shhhhhhhhh
thanks for the encouragement, I'm going to ask around about doing both majors. What advice would you give about taking the internship? is it a wasted summer in the eyes of IB firms?
any internship from the Big 4 is better than no internship at all. IMHO, the Big 4 name carries some weight that will benefit you even if you don't do banking....Unless it's with KPMG, then I would reconsider haha...j/k...but seriously
If your interest is Finance, there are a few opportunities to leverage the Big4 to go down that path, but you have to demonstrate along the way that you're good enough to demand those options for yourself, otherwise you'll just get staffed wherever they need a warm body.
It would help if you double majored in Accounting and Finance, and you definitely want to avoid the tax side of the practice. If you can get into audit at one of the B4, and you are an above average performer, you can start to express an interest in financial services clients (hedge funds, mutual funds, exchanges, etc.). You would pretty quickly want to transition to one of the financial services advisory roles (Valuation is one that's typical around here of people trying to break into IB). Transaction Advisory Services is another. Then you've either got a pretty good narrative for top tier MBA programs, after which you can exit to IB, or you can try to lateral without an MBA.
Had a friend do an internship at kpmg in audit/tax w.e it is. Hes accy as well. He jumped ship and did a boutique I banking internship in m&a last summer. Def possible. he had interviews with lazard and houlihan as well. Big 4 name carries some weight
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