Need advice on what internship to choose

Happy New years everyone!,

Hope everyone enjoyed their new year and got home safe. I wanted some advice in which internship to choose from. My background: I am currently a sophomore at a non target school double majoring in accounting and finance. My goal is to get into IB / a good mba program.

Based on these goals which internship will be most beneficial to me at this point: Johnson and Johnson finance intern, Big 4 internship, or an internship at Moody's client services. I know essentially none of these are directly related to investment banking and I will keep trying to network and apply to some mm ib internship's like key bank. If you were in my position as a sophomore which internship would you choose to gain some experience from the options I listed above?

 

Honestly as a sophomore its less about the name of the internship (all 3 of these are totally fine) but more about picking something where you'll get some meaningful experience. I think being able to have an experience that you can talk about in interviews is the most important thing. You'll have to explain how your past experience led you to want to get into banking, and that is what's more important than the job title on the resume.

just my 2 cents

 

Thanks for the reply camelboy69 you make some valid points. In your opinion if you were in my shoes which of the 3 do you think will provide me with the most valuable and meaningful experience?

Also touching on the sophomore level not being so much about the name of the internship, so I am guessing come junior year the name of the internship will be of more importance correct?

 

It's hard to tell what will provide you with a better experience without having spoken to the people at each firm. That's a decision that's going to be up to you.

And yeah nowadays for the vast majority of people the firm you intern at junior year is likely the firm you will work for after college (provided you perform well enough to earn a return offer). FT recruiting is pretty limited, most spots are filled by SA's who convert to full-time.

 

Thank you for the reply CanadianEnergyBanker . The big 4 internship is in audit. As you mentioned big 4 has a robust training program which I have heard and also read some discussions on wso talking about how big 4 is a good place to build experience. Just wanted to see how it compared to the other options. Thank you for your opinion.

 

Thank you for the reply Charizard . The big 4 internship is in audit. Although I am considering trying to apply for an advisory internship at another firm among the big 4. Can you explain why you would choose j&j finance intern opportunity over the other options?

 
Best Response

definitely not Moody's so cross that off. Now it's between big four or J and J. I would 100% go with the J and J finance internship. It's common for sophomores to get F100 company finance internships their soph year before going into banking. I dont hear this as much with Big Four. Additionally, I think the finance internship will be more interesting and play better into your story. As a sophomore, you have limited finance experience so you wanted to really take a deep dive into corp fin and see how companies operate. Additionally, you may get exposure to an industry (consumer goods) that interests you and plays well into your answer when asked "which group would you be interested in joining".

In short, regardless of pay/location, take the J and J internship. it will hands down set you up the best for SA recruiting your junior year. I just landed a IB SA position with a BB this summer and took an unpaid internship with a small PE shop over a paid internship with a F100 in Boston. My friends called me crazy but your focus needs to be on what plays better into YOUR story.

That all being said, you're in a good spot.

 

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