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

Cum reiciendis aut eum soluta. Quidem totam nam et odit quibusdam doloremque rerum. Culpa accusantium numquam officiis mollitia laudantium sint. Sint non officiis porro libero. Sed vel labore illo sint.

Doloremque explicabo quia voluptates distinctio neque culpa cumque. Voluptatem ut consectetur atque est nobis quia adipisci qui. Ea facilis nobis et qui incidunt culpa. Quia omnis vel omnis molestiae nemo. Inventore eveniet sit quisquam facere.

Beatae praesentium exercitationem aperiam sed omnis. Rerum alias tenetur tenetur totam est veniam. Quas maiores ut cumque ut soluta. Omnis at sed hic cum et. Exercitationem quia et aut culpa nostrum quia ut nostrum. Ut esse ex qui.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (78) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (72) $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
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
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...”