IB and SWE: Recruit for both?

I know the IB vs SWE topic has been exhausted on this forum, but I don’t think this specifically has been covered. If I really want to keep my options open, is it feasible for me to recruit for both jobs for my junior year internship, or would I be spreading myself too thin? I’m assuming that I would have to network with alumni in both industries, prepare for both interviews, and maybe even get steppingstone internships in both fields. I’m still an incoming college freshman so hopefully those of you who went through recruiting can explain if this is feasible or not. Additional background: I’m going to school known for grade deflation, in case that makes a difference.

 

If this is Princeton, it may be possible, as you will not have trouble getting interviews anywhere. Learning by doing is always best.

If it's not P, may be spreading too thin - Leetcode practice takes 100s - 1000s of hours before you can mastery necessary for a FANG spot. 400 questions guide on IB can be memorized in less than 100 hours, but then there's networking and preparing fit questions and getting into investment clubs and so on...

If I were you, I would look into HFs/quant trading like Citadel, Jane Street, Akuna, etc. Overlapping skillset with FANG + also under finance umbrella + comp better than both SWE & IB.

Best of luck and remember to stop along the way to enjoy college

 

Since this is anonymous, I’ll say I go to UChicago. I know it places well into IB and maybe some prop shops for top performers, but I’m not sure about tech. Have any other advice given this?

 
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It is feasible, but brutal. You'll have to do a lot of prep for both, with very little overlap. IB: technicals, behaviorals, lots of networking, cold emailing, etc. SWE: leetcode, leetcode, leetcode, leetcode, and a little bit of networking to get a referral for 1st round (these are given out fairly easily since employees get $$ for successful referrals). On the bright side, though, the recruiting seasons are distinct, with FAANG beginning in the fall. I wouldn't worry too much about SWE networking, it really doesn't matter past getting 1 referral per FAANG. 

I know people who have done both SWE and IB internships, and it's all a game of optimizing extracurriculars. Make sure you do some CS stuff/have personal projects, while focusing more on finance. Have two separate resumes where everything is spun SWE or finance, focus internships more on finance. 
Here are my thoughts on SWE recruiting: you don't need experience or much personality. You need a way to get through the resume screen (referral! or great resume and some luck), and then the ability to do 300 leetcode questions until you know them all. IB recruiting, imo, is much more holistic, difficult, and unstructured. I would focus 70/30 on IB/SWE, if you legitimately intend on doing both. 

All that being said, you are an incoming freshman. Better than trying to do two (very different) things at once, spend your first year figuring out which you enjoy more and talking to people in both industries.

 

Yeah I’ll surely look at them, but aren’t these roles ultra competitive? How many  people have you seen go into them? And more importantly what kind of people? I think I’m good at math but not Chinese-international-student good.

 

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