Advice Needed for Incoming Summer Analyst (London)

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and thought it is time I get opinions from people outside my inner circle of family and friends.

I'm an Economics student at a top university in London and will be interning in IBD at HSBC this summer (2017). Although I had initially planned to be at a bulge bracket, things didn't turn out that way.

As a student who has always been interested in breaking into P/E, what should I do from here? Shall I do the summer internship, convert it to a full-time grad offer and then meander my way through to a P/E shop later? Do I stand a good chance if I go down this route considering it is HSBC? Or shall I take a year out and do an off-cycle internship at a BB, risk not converting and try to break into a P/E down the line from a better bank?

Any advice is appreciated. Although it may be too early to think about all this, I would still like to know your thoughts.

Thanks.

3 Comments
 
Best Response

Given the current hiring climate I would 100% focus on getting the offer this summer, which is not going to be easy. Do not go into the internship thinking that you would have preferred being in a BB, it is a poor mentality in my opinion - you will find people just as clever as in BBs in HSBC.

Once you get your return offer, then you will see. In that case, you could apply to BBs and EBs and try to leverage your return offer, but even if it does not work out don't think "BB or bust". Some people from HSBC do go to private equity (check linkedIn)

 

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I'll keep it in mind moving forward.

Also, I've been aligned to the corporates pool and from some recent networking with people at HSBC, it looks like I'll be sitting with the TMT team potentially. Not confirmed though.

 

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