In my case, Bank or Boutique?

Hey everyone,

I am a 2nd Yr Bsc Business student, and i received several summer internship offers.

Unfortunately, no Bulge Bracket Bank invited me. Anyway, i evaluated all offers and now I have to choose between two. I would be really happy if you could help me.

The first offer comes from the M&A Division of one of the very biggest UK banks, I don’t want to write the name. Actually this sounds quite nice for me, but unfortunately the work I would do there is not very interesting: I would deal with a lot of agency, sort bonds and maintain databases. I would definitely learn about different kinds of debt (and there are a lot differences throughout Europe), but I would not learn any financial modeling - which I found quite sad. On the other hand, I would have a quite good name in my CV, and I would be located in a cluster, as the location of their office is in Frankfurt, Germany.

My other offer is from a 3rd tier M&A boutique. It does not appear in any league table, and I don’t think that too many headhunters would know this firm. But the company employees assured me that i would participate in every part of their business - modeling, valuation, customer meetings etc. So the tasks I would do there are very interesting, and I would probably learn a lot. Anyway, no headhunter would recognize this firm, and I don’t know whether my Internship would be valued in the future. Furthermore, the firm is not located in Germany's Banking cluster.

So this is my dilemma. I would be happy if you could comment it. Thanks!

 

the boutique. i understand you are worried about headhunters not recognizing the name of your firm but your experience will get you far.

also, if you're talking about using headhunters to find exit options or even another ib job, your relationships with your superiors matters much more as will the contacts you make as you work on deals.

just make sure you work hard/smart, are getting paid competitively and have benefits coverage. also, you should verify that the firm's deal flow is strong so that you are not pitching your entire time there. if that were the case, then you should re-evaluate your options. keep in mind, people often do move internally at bigger firms within 2 years.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

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