Need Advice: Family Office Wealth Management Internship or Cold Call Boutique Investment Bank?

Hi everyone,

To make a long story short, I am a college student majoring in business, biology, and premed. I have finished all of my premed classes. But while applying to medical school, I realized that my true passion was in investment banking, not medicine.

Unfortunately, I came to this realization two months ago, near the end of my Junior year. By then, it was too late to apply to a IB internship at a major bank. I am currently on summer break do not have an internship in finance. This is worrisome as when I apply to investment banking analysis positions next year, I will not have any job experiences in finance.

After some failed networking, a friend of a guy I met a few times said that he is open to the idea of taking in interns. However, he runs a fairly small wealth management family office.

So... I am now left with a conundrum. I know that I want to pursue investment banking, and maybe trading one day. But based on what I read on this forum so far, investment banking internship tends to be better on a resume than a wealth management internship. If it's that case, should I mass cold email or cold mass all of the boutique investment banks around me? I manage to get my hands on a master list that a Middle Market MD sent me. Furthermore, when I talked with the owner of the wealth management firm today, he said that some of their projects involve investment banking and private equity. Is that correct, or did I misunderstand him somehow?

In either cases, should I take the wealth management internship or should I try to find a boutique investment bank internship via cold calling? If I choose to stay with the wealth management internship, which roles should I request that would be most beneficial to my resume?

Thank you guys for reading this and for all of your advice!

tldr; herderp noob no finance job experience, ever, in summer of junior year. Want to apply to IB next year. May have internship in wealth management. Should I still cold call boutique investment banks? If I take wealth management, which roles are best for IB Resume?

editor's note: I have applied (last week) to Jane Street and D.E. Shaw. They replied with "Thank you for your interest... We have review your resume, and, although it is clear that someone with your qualifications has much to offer, we have been unable to identify an ideal match between your particular background and experience and our current needs." What should I say back?

Associated Resource: WSO Family Office Database

 

"But while applying to medical school, I realized that my true passion was in investment banking, not medicine."

-Why? What experience has led you to this conclusion? You also mentioned you might enjoy trading for a career path as well......you are clearly confused with what you want to do.

Investment banking recruiting isn't as simple as landing a cold call, and with your sporadic background, they are going to question your sincerity and/or credibility (as they should). Can you walk someone through a DCF model right now? Could you explain within 20 seconds why you are a bio major looking to work 80-90hr weeks at a bank?

As for the whole hearing back from Jane Street and DE Shaw....there's nothing left to say, they aren't interested in you. You NEED to leverage your resume with something that will grab their attention. You likely aren't going to pull down an offer from those places.

Be realistic with your options, you are a peaking med school hopeful, so realize your path to investment banking isn't going to be as easy as "cold calling" banks. If you truly don't want to pursue medicine, take the family wealth mgmt gig (prob the most generalist business internship you can get) and network from there. You said you have a list of contacts that a MD gave you.....try reaching out for some questions first, don't immediately try and ask for an internship. There aren't really "roles" in an internship in PWM, you're essentially doing basic research or cold calling potential customers (how ironic).

FWIW, if you want to pursue IBD, Trading (S&T or Prop or Phys), ER, AM etc. then you need to expand your time horizon. Ultimately, it boils down to you going into medical school or giving yourself a year to refocus your networking and getting a solid internship.

 

Hi, thank you so much for your reply.

I got to better understand what a doctor's lifestyle was like. Specifically, for internal medicine, it involved a lot of meaningless paperwork and rout memorization to keep up with techniques. I thought about it deeply and realized that it will become dreadful at a certain point. I never wanted to become a doctor because I truly enjoyed the work, I wanted to become a doctor so I could help people.

But investment banking and high finance seemed to be a field where I would truly be enjoying what I was doing. I mentioned trading as to say working at a hedge fund and doing valuations or other related matter is something that I would enjoy too.

I certainly can walk someone through a DCF model. I know a goodly amount of accounting and know how to use Bloomberg Terminal. Much of this was learned in my spare time, during when I was premed. This shows that I always had the interest in finance, but never made that jump.

I don't think I would be cold calling customers if I take the PWM role? I could be very wrong, but based on what I know, they are an family office with very few clients. I would be managing those client's wealth and assisting with other needs that they may have. When I asked for what roles I should be involved in, I mean should I focus on assisting with risk analysis, private equity, or etc. If I was given the chance to choose certain projects to focus on, what should I pick that would be most beneficial to my resume?

Additionally, I am wondering if a boutique investment bank would be better than an family office on my resume.

I have decided to not attend medical school. The question is, when I graduate next year and apply to jobs, if I am offered an analysis position at a boutique no-name investment bank, should I take that over the position that the PWM may offer me? What about a private equity position? What about equity research? To be honest, equity research, in my possible wrong opinion, is what I have the highest chance of being hired in. I basing this solely on the fact that a Goldman Sachs recruiter from "Global Investment Research" saw my resume and liked it.

 

I got to better understand what a doctor's lifestyle was like. Specifically, for internal medicine, it involved a lot of meaningless paperwork and rout memorization to keep up with techniques. I thought about it deeply and realized that it will become dreadful at a certain point. I never wanted to become a doctor because I truly enjoyed the work, I wanted to become a doctor so I could help people.

But investment banking and high finance seemed to be a field where I would truly be enjoying what I was doing.

 

Once again, you are moving in circles. *IF you get an offer from a boutique bank for a summer analyst position then yes, that would look better than a PWM internship. You will not be "managing clients' money" in your PWM role, you have zero certifications or exams under your belt, so soak up as much as you can knowing ahead of time that you won't handle a dime of your clientele's capital. That being said, and if you do have a say, I would suggest you start learning some risk management, understanding PnL models, your firm's diversification among various client-specific intentions etc.

*what about private equity *what about equity research (your claim is that this is your best option)

You won't land a PE gig with your background; you can hardly land a IBD gig. Additionally, I continue to hold true on my statement that you don't know what area of CF you want to go into, you're just phishing for people to tell you your best plan of action. You need to do more research to find out for sure which specific field you want to dive in, not just hoping for the best because you know you don't want to go to med school. If you think your lifestyle would be better enjoyed as a banker rather than a doctor, you are probably setting yourself up for a rude awakening.

Having an interest in finance does not equal the actual reality of working in finance. My suggestion is that you research your interests more, and do your best to network at the boutique bank. If it comes to it, maybe settle for a back office (you mentioned you learned accounting on the side) finance role at a bank and then move up from there.

 
Best Response

whyowhyowhy would you give up a nice, safe 40 hour/week (after residency) job as a doctor making the world a better place and earning $400-$500K/year for being a banker?

As a quant who's probably as smart as some doctors (not all) and who gets to work only 50 hours a week while earning as much as many bankers, my question is very simple:

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?

Apply to med school.

Ok, so you're stuck this summer, You might as find out what investment banking is like, how much it sucks, and why you want to be a fucking doctor. Take the job at the boutique, and then run-- don't walk-- back to medicine.

(If the facts and circumstances had been slightly different, I'd recommend the family office-- 50 hrs/week vs. 80 ftw. But the purpose of an internship is to know what you're getting into. So don't dip a toe in-- jump in all the way)

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