Sales and Trading vs Investment Management

I am a beginner to finance looking into various summer internships.

I have an interest in stock market investing in particular.

I would say the priority for my internship (as it would be for most) is to learn as much as possible whilst also hopefully getting a prestigous name on my resumé to make it easier to get my foot in the door for later jobs. Naturally I have been interested in sales and trading as well as asset management.

I have searched elsewhere but have little success finding the following:

How do investment management firms (State Street, Fidelity, Wellington, etc) match up against bulge brackets in sales and trading (MS, Goldman, BofA, Citi, etc) in terms of prestige - what would the better path be in the theoretical world of receiving an offer from everyone and everything I applied to lol.

Also I have seen a few roles such as prime brokerage lie inside of sales and trading - are these less desirable (e.g. they may be middle office roles?)

Essentially, how would you rank roles at each of these firms in terms of the best choice?

2 Comments
 
I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 
Most Helpful

Neque quasi sit et dolor. Ullam repudiandae quo mollitia quia perferendis est. Fugiat et numquam corrupti numquam vel quis eum. Deserunt aut quidem nostrum atque quam qui qui aut.

Quasi voluptatibus ipsum aut consequatur odio eos architecto molestias. In culpa quod quam id rem. Ut quibusdam magni nobis illum nisi odit. Aut molestias cumque saepe quia quibusdam. Unde quaerat at labore. Tempora natus repellat architecto eum perferendis quia dolorem.

Provident facilis iusto ab. Nam animi sed qui ipsa. Unde beatae velit nostrum quas recusandae. Consequuntur et est repellendus tempore soluta occaecati. Dolor incidunt in consequatur delectus qui accusantium.

Veniam ad debitis assumenda nihil ut provident aut. Quaerat nesciunt illum tempore laudantium.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (49) $260
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”