Internship at big 4 HR departement or Ag-Tech start up?
I am a first year business administration student, in the future I would like to work in a consulting firm, I have landed two internships positions and I am having a hard time to decide which one should I join, it is a classic dilemma between start-up vs big corp.
Start-up Ag-Tech Start-Up
It is currently in the B series funding level, it is an agricultural startup that has been generating a lot of profit and attention, I really like their business model and also I am quite fond of anything that has a correlation with green-tech. I will be working with the business development team, which I suppose would be beneficial for my future career in the consulting industry and also I would really like to specialize in agricultural and green tech if I ever break into any of the consulting firms.
Big Corp HR Departement
It is one of the Big 4 (Delloite/E&Y/PwC/KPMG) but they offered me to intern at the Talent-Recruitment Division and not at the advisory department which I applied.
I know that working at the Big 4 will give a sweet brand name to my CV, but would it still be attractive if they know that I only interned at the HR division? And would it be useful for my future career? Perhaps it would be useful since I will learn about human capital management?
Knowing that I am only in my first year, I am leaning to intern at the big 4, supposing that the brand name would stand out, giving a greater chance to land an internship at front office positions for my next summer internship.
Should I take the HR job which come with a brand name, or the start-up hoping that I will learn a lot more from it?
I'd personally go with the start up. You're a freshman. Big 4 will always be there. And as long as you have a good GPA, you won't have a problem getting an interview.
Assuming the start up actually has real work for you to do, try it out for the summer. You may forget the whole consulting thing to begin with.
Thank you for the reply!
I'm a freshman, but I'm studying in a european university that has a 3 years programme. So with that being said, will your opinion be left unchanged? since I will probrably only have 1/2 more chance to land a decent internship...
I am a bit tempted by the Big4 brand name, i am assuming it would make my cv more attractive to future companies. But I think, I will be learning more useful stuff with the start up, do you think interning in a HR division will give me some skills/knowledge that could be useful for a career in the management consulting industry?
I have my doubts you'd learn anything in the HR division internship. Unless you have a keen interest in going to HR consulting, I'd stay away. Only skills you'd learn in the Big 4 HR group is how to deal with bureaucracy...
My opinion is still unchanged given your 3 year program. Like I said, as long as you have a great GPA, you should be extremely competitive to get an interview at any of the Big 4 - and then at that point, it's just how you perform in the interview itself.
Alright, I thank you for the input, it really clears things up for me!
Obviously talk to other folks and your uni's career office advisors. Mine is only one perspective. My first FT job, back in '08, was at EY, which I got via internship. And prior to that, I had no prior work experience.
Of course, I have talked to a bunch of people, thanks for pointing that out though. I just wanted to hear some opinions from wso. So far I am leaning to the Big4, because I live in a particular country where the Big4 is highly regarded. I have posted this question on some forums and almost all of them are in favor of the start-up.
I think, I will hate the job (just a little bit) but the brand name is too tempting..
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