Paid year-round tax internship or unpaid summer private equity internship to get into investment banking?

Basically title. I can either choose a paid 1-year tax internship or an unpaid summer analyst position at a small private equity firm. I'm not worried about the money but will an unpaid pe analyst position look good for IB or should it be paid? Does it make a difference? I'm a rising sophomore at a non-target in case that matters.

I also have the option of doing the PE internship this summer and then do the tax internship in the Fall and Spring semesters, but it's not guaranteed. I'm leaning towards PE because tax has literally nothing to do with IB meanwhile I'll be doing deal sourcing, financial modeling (lbo, dcf, comps), and other more related work if I do the pe internship. I'm just concerned the pe internship will be looked down on because it's unpaid while the tax internship is paid.

Any advice would be appreciated.

5 Comments
 

I'm not worried about getting paid or not, I'm just worried about getting into IB. Plus, this year at my school Citi came and did on-campus recruiting literally before spring finals week, so it's not like I'm gonna be able to get another summer internship in before the applications for summer analyst are out next year.

 

Do the PE internship this summer and do the tax internship off-cycle. It's standard practice to not mention whether an opportunity is unpaid or not. Most boutique/search funds are unpaid and nobody mentions that when they post "Private Equity Analyst" on their LinkedIn.

Tax internships aren't necessary for the summer. Accounting firms have winter internships for tax, so I would say that they would take you Fall & Spring.

 

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