Should I take this fall internship opportunity?

Rising senior at a non-target who recently completed an IB internship at an EB. Currently in the process of applying for a fall internship at a large European SWF which will give me exposure to growth equity and VC investments in tech (and possibly other sectors) in America. This past summer, I didn't get any live deal experience, and considering on-cycle will start next summer before hitting the desk for FT, would it be wise to take this opportunity?

Putting aside the question of wanting to take a more chill senior year, I am worried about having not much to talk about during the interview because of my lack of deal experience but also any investing related experience. The fact that I won't have anything related to live deals or investments to intelligibly talk about during my on-cycle interviews is worrying and my rationale for taking this internship would be that it would stand out as a unique opportunity and be a talking point during the interviews, I can sort of brush off my lack of deal experience with my investment related (and potential live investment processes) experiences gained during the fall internship. Seems like a really interesting opportunity, but just want to get your guys' thoughts on its potential helpfulness during on-cycle interviews.

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No interns really work on live deals - this forum is ridiculous about making people think that is the norm. Or if people do get staffed on a live project, they are essentially just taking notes on the calls and updating text comments, they're not out there owning the model enough to talk about it in recruiting. They definitely don't expect you to have deal experience as a fresh college graduate lol.

That said this internship sounds interesting / useful if you're up for it. That said I would expect a similar non-live-deal experience, so if you already have 2+ internships I don't think you absolutely need it. You are fine to chill if you want to enjoy your last year of college.

The key to oncycle is much more being prepped and knowing what you want (X strategy is interesting to me for Y reason) rather than having prior "live deal" experience which is never likely in a short internship.

 

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