Seeking advice on leveraging my VC internship for long-term career goals

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking advice on projects I should work on to better align with my long-term career aspirations.

Here's some background:

• Education: I recently graduated with a Master's in Finance from a tier-1 business school in Europe (4 months ago).

• Work authorisation: I don’t have European or American work permits.

• Past experiences:

  • Financial analyst intern at a materials manufacturer (~$100m enterprise value).

  • University leadership experience (e.g., initiatives for menstrual products, career-related research/events, built and led an organisation of 80 people).

  • Informal consulting with classmates for digitalising small businesses and helping two startups with business plans, financial models, product development, and go-to-market strategies.

• Current role: Remote investments and operations intern at a VC fund based in the UAE. It’s a small, relatively new fund (under 15 people) but one of the best, and the experience has been a net positive. I'm doing intern work maybe 55% of the time and the rest is actual analyst work like investments memos and joining demo days to speak to startups. Also, I’ve gained exposure to principals and partners when it comes to deals and also give projects that I was curious about. For example I told my manager I want to learn more about how they'll fundraise and he gave me the chance to work on investor mapping and CRM for fundraising.

• Career aspirations:

  • Transition to restructuring & turnaround (more focus on the latter) roles/IB/PE (e.g., EY/Deloitte in my home country) and eventually start my own fund.

    • Im speaking to someone in EY and plan to start doing networking. 

  • Start my own company in fintech or another fast-growing field in my country.

    • Thinking through this a few times a day.

Recently, in a 1-1 with my manager, I was told:

1. They’re happy with my work—no major negative feedback.

2. They’re not hiring soon, but might consider hiring (probably in Q4 2025) after fundraising for a new fund.

3. My manager is ok with keeping the internship going for some time (obviously, I want a full-time asap).

4. He’s open to helping me with exposure to new areas or finding a full-time role through his network.

My question to you: given my aspirations, what areas of the VC fund I’m interning at should I explore further to maximise exposure and gain relevant experience? What specific tasks or projects should I ask to be involved in?

Thanks!