Do PE firms care about your summer internship?

When BB analysts are recruiting with private equity funds or headhunters, do they care much about your work over the summer before full-time? For example, if two kids, say, Morgan Stanley M&A both recruit for the same position, but one kid worked at a no name boutique over the summer and the other worked at Goldman Sachs IBD, would there be a preference for the second guy, or is it not really important?

8 Comments
 

i would look at the internship exp, but in context of everything else. maybe he was hired into morgan m&a because his dad plays golf with an md, he did some seriously brown-nosing during the interview process, etc. if it looks to me like he shouldn't have gotten into morgan, i would obviously ding him in favor of the other candidate, but purely because he worked at a boutique is not reason enough.

 

Doubt summer would have thought much weight - no one usually does anything too meaningful (even those interns think that they have - trust me I was an intern) - it depends on your experiences at MS M&A, if you closed say ten 10B+ deals, then you've got a golden ticket to almost anywhere...

 

still early in the recruiting process, but every one of my initial headhunter meetings involved some time discussing my internship. I did pe at a known fund though (unfortunately they didnt give any ft offers my year)

 

Est natus consequatur dolorem et. Impedit ut accusamus eligendi unde. Sunt ut non sunt perferendis modi et esse. Rem accusamus quia aliquam et minima sed.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (26) $182
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $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

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...”