Sophomore internship: PWM vs. boutique vs. Top defense company

Hi all,

I am currently a sophomore planning on breaking into IB and wanted to see what you guys think on some sophomore year internships and how they would look for junior year recruiting (even though recruiting starts before I even do this internship). Let me give some context. Sophomore at a non-target with a 3.7 studying finance. Two internships at a Big4 in high school and one at an alternative investments/advisory startup freshman year. Interested in IB Industrials (Aerospace/Defense).

Four choices/options

  1. PWM at ML  - 

Pros: sort of a big name, a family friend is an SVP and will basically put me under his wing, let me structure part of the internship to what I want to do. Paid. Logistically easy since live relatively close by

Cons: heard it is more of a sales job, high turnover, fewer exit opps

  1. Boutique IB/PE shop 

Pros: Directly related to career, easy to understand/talk about on resume, small IB firm ---> big IB firm

Cons: a lot of the time you're not actually doing anything, most of them are not paid, no one has ever heard of these 10 person firms, might not live close to the firms + unpaid

3. Finance intern at top defense company (LMT, NOC, LHX)

Pros: Since I want to go into A&D can make sense, more structure than the other two, will likely have me in DC (great for network), paid

Cons: feel like it might restrict me to only A&D, might be harder to explain, Accounting ---> startup ---> A&D ---> IB

Please let me know what you guys think. Also, please point out if I am misinformed or wrong about something. 

Thanks in advance. 

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