BB vs Fidelity summer

Doing what in Fidelity and doing what in a BB?

pwm from bb? customer rep from fidelity?

S&T at BB and investments at Fidelity

I think you'd definitely be much better off with S&T at a BB, in terms of prestige, exit ops, pay, etc.

What is your goal for a FT job?

Thanks everyone for your input, I would rather be in S&T at a BB for the summer and full time, but I'm looking for someone to layout the comparisons between the two. I may not get the offer at the BB so what pros can I look forward to by being at Fidelity?

Guys, this sounds like a PM position- working on Fido's funds. This is one of the better places to land at Fidelity.

I think it's a pretty darned good opportunity if you are looking for a career in portfolio management. I am still a little confused about how people claim crunching merger numbers in IBD or S&T at a BB prepares you to work as a portfolio manager better than an internship IN portfolio management at a firm like Vanguard, Prudential, BlackRock, State Street, or Fidelity.

If PM at a firm like Fido is your dream job (it is for a minority of people who study finance), choosing Fido over BB S&T or BB IBD does not hurt you. However, if you are not 100% sure what you want to do, go with BB S&T.

I basically agree with what IP said. 2 different options, you just need to decide what you want to do long term. If you're not clear go with BB S&T, since it's easier to move from BB S&T to Fidelity than viceversa.

Eh, not two different options quite yet, Maximus Decimus.

My point right now is that for a PM career, OP cannot do all that much better than landing at Fidelity if he is working for a genuine PM team. Sure, it is always nice to have a top tier BB on your resume, and there are certain names that would be a bit of a step up (Vanguard, Citadel, BlackRock, Berkshire Hathaway Corporate Finance), but for PM, OP has landed in a good place (again, depending on his group.)

This is better than Scottrade. This is better than Big Four Accounting. This is better than F500 finance. This is on the order of a lower-tier BB, IMHO. Don't forget these guys compete with BlackRock.

Just because it's not in New York and it's not a bank or on the post-banking track does not mean it's not a very good place to start a career, even by the standards of banking.

I probably didn't communicate correctly, since that's what I meant lol. I'll try again. My point is if the OP wants to become a PM the Fidelity internship is a great opportunity for all the reasons you cited. If he performs he should be able to climb the ladder and eventually become a PM at Fidelity/Blackrock/etc.. However, I think if he's not clear about what he wants in the future (Sales? Trading? PM? PB?) he should go with the BB because: It should be easier to move from BB S&T to Fidelity/Blackrock PM track, whereas the opposite is much harder. IMHO it will give him a wider exposure to finance and markets, the different roles and products and will help him figure out what he really wants BB > Fidelity on his resume if he decides to pursue a totally different avenue

Edit: I just realized that you probably just meant that he hasn't the BB offer yet. Sorry about that.

It's been said, but assuming you've landed in a Research or PMG group at Fidelity, and your long-term goal is to be a Portfolio Manager, then it's hands down one of the best opportunities you could land -- at any firm. Getting legitimate investment experience out of undergrad is something that a lot of people would envy.

It's also been said, but if you're not entirely sure what you'd like to do down the line, you can never go wrong getting a Bulge Bracket name on your resume.

First of all congrats on Fidelity, I think the Investments internship there is really solid. If investing is what you want to do and you know that for sure, I'd say go for it over BB S&T. If you're not sure, S&T will open more doors later on and you can still probably make it back on track to be a PM if that's something you still decide you want.

Hate to hijack the thread but someone mentioned Berkshire as one of the places they'd consider higher up than the BB S&T or Fidelity gigs. Would working at a big place like Berkshire as a Research Analyst summer intern be a big step up and help w/ value HF exit ops or anything?

If you are set doing trading, take the BB.

If you want to do fundamental research and land a PM role in the future, take Fidelity.

If you are gonna base your decision on firm prestige, unless you are at GS/MS/JPM and one of the better groups, take Fidelity.

OP if you don't take the BB or live in NYC as a banker your life will be ruined and no one will ever accept you for any future jobs

Sure, but if you want to work in consulting, hop over to banking, work in Switzerland for a year, do a finance PhD, anything that does not directly involve research or PM, working for a global investment/commercial bank gives you more options and IMHO a more well-known brand within finance.

This is really an MIT CS vs. Stanford Mathematics debate. If you're pretty sure you want to be a programmer, do CS at MIT. But the catch is that MIT is largely an engineering school. Once you leave engineering, certainly STEM, MIT is no longer the best of the best. Stanford is #4-5 in CS, but it's also top five math, top five in english, top five in econ, etc.

I see what you're saying and yes, working at the BB will give you a larger network. One other consideration is that if you wanted to do a career change you could go to a top MBA from one of the large MF families and make the switch that way. Also I'd say that since he's only doing an internship then he would still be set up nicely for FT recruiting if he wanted to pursue that. Obviously this is a good dilemma to have, but those are just my two cents.

He does not have the dilemma yet. Right now, he's just in at MIT. He hasn't heard back from Stanford yet.

My general advice would be that if he has a deadline, accept the internship at Fidelity and forget JPM/DB/GS/MS.