I have two offers for an internship opportunity and I am having a little trouble deciding which route to pursue.
I have an offer from a highly acquisitive media company in NYC where I would be working as a corporate development role. I would be working with an MBA intern to source potential target companies, perform due diligence, and modeling work.
The other offer is from a small, boutique AM firm in Greenwich. I would be doing equity research. It seems very laid back, non-structured, and autonomous work. I am free to pursue industries where I have interest and they are willing to teach me if that is something I desire.
I am fairly confident that I want to pursue a career in AM. With that said, I am only 21 years old and my interests might change in a few years. Therefore, I want to learn transferrable skills.
To help provide more insight, AM offer is less pay, NYC>Greenwich and the AM firm guaranteed I could not be hired on full-time unless something changes with current full-time employees because they are at capacity.
What would you suggest if you were in my shoes?
If you’re pretty confident you want AM, I’d take the AM. The reason being, breaking into asset management is pretty tough, probably harder than getting into corp dev. While AM doesn’t really give you a ton of transferable skills, in my mind, it seems easier to move from AM to something else than vice versa (just because no AM firm will trust you if you aren’t already in such a role). I could be wrong, but that’s what i’ve determined.
AM. We're a quarter trillion dollar firm and probably offer less than 10 internships in investing each summer. (if you want to work in IT, it's pretty easy to get an internship here though)
Based on lurking around WSO, I'd like to think I know how difficult it is to break into the industry. Therefore, shouldn't I be concerned with landing a FT AM role since this internship pretty much guarantees no FT employment option with the company?
Meanwhile at the CD role, there is a chance for FT employment in a role with transferrable skills. Would it be a possibility to switch over from CD to AM down the road?
I am just playing devil's advocate because I am curious about your thoughts on the flip-side.
You should be trying to land a FT AM role - but, i'm assuming from this, you haven't been able to do that so far, right? I don't mean that to be an ass - I just want to make sure I understand the situation.
If you don't need the FT job, and have some flexibility, I'd take the ER position. It will give you relevant experience, project work, some industry knowledge (hopefully once you find something you like - or learn from someone there), basic ER skills and, most importantly, a small network alongside professional references to help you in a full time search.
Best case - you make such a good impression, they help you find an FT job if they don't have one or will at least let you learn enough to secure one.
Worst case - you still have experience, some references and at least some skills to put on a resume.
You can, theoretically, transition from corporate to ER - by way of example, you could kill it for a few years in your role and then try and flip that experience into covering TMT or something - that's probably most realistic as you'd have industry knowledge to couple with financial knowledge. There's upside to this route as well, in fact i find this more interesting than Equity Research (that's just me) and more broadly applicable as you can take that stuff all over the place.
I took a similar route for AM - I graduated, ended up with something that was temporary and ended up making it permanent (albeit in a different role than where i started). I can't say i'd recommend it unless you have some risk tolerance. Granted - i was a bit different, i had no idea what i was going to do - but that's an entirely different issue i'll spare you from.
Yes, I hope to land a FT AM role. These opportunities are for my junior year summer internship. Therefore, I will leverage these experiences in hopes of landing a FT role during the next recruiting cycle.
During the final round interview, I asked about an opportunity for FT employment after the internship. The interviewer was upfront and said that their team is the biggest that it has ever been and doesn't plan on anymore FT hires unless something within their team changes.
Normally, this would deter me from selecting that internship role. However, I know it is difficult to break into the industry and having direct experience, even just for a summer, can go a long way.
Ah! Okay, gotcha.
You should still take the AM role and not look back. Even if you hate equity research, you still have that Asset Management experience to talk about and parlay into other interviews, roles, etc. - even for roles in corporate development or others.
Sure, you can still apply to ER if you take the Corporate development role - but why bother? It doesn't really help you in this case, that promise of an FT offer is nebulous at best (it's a long way away) and a lot can change within a year +. Things change, people move on, openings pop up - you want to put yourself in the best scenario, with the best experience you can and go from there.
Good luck!
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