Putnam Investments Intern vs Commerical RE Venture Intern

Hi everyone so I am new to the forums but have read through it quite a bit. I am in my senior year of college as a finance major and economics minor at a state school. I will start by saying I am not sure what area of finance I want to break into - hence my question. I have been searching for internships in my area and have an opportunity at a commercial real estate venture company as an intern. I also just received an email to schedule a phone interview with Putnam Investments for an investment services internship. My understanding is that the Putnam internship is essentially a customer service call center.

Assuming Putnam goes well and I get an offer, these are my only internship options at the moment. I want to choose the internship that will allow me to learn and get solid real world experience (obviously lol). Putnam probably looks better on a resume compared to commercial real estate venture if I want to go into financial services, and vice versa if I aimed for a real estate investment career. However the commercial RE internship seems like it would be more interesting. The commute would be much nicer to Putnam compared to public transportation to Boston for the RE company (but I guess that should be a secondary thought).

Just hoping to get some feedback from you all to help me decide what direction to go in. Thanks in advance everyone!

 

Update: I will be going in for an in person interview with Putnam so that process is progressing.

Again, would really love some feedback. Should I go with Putnam because of their name for resume help even if the day-to-day internship is not quite as interesting? Or would it be more beneficial to get more real world experience with the CRE company (which still makes $10+ million deals).

Please let me know what you all think as I do not have much time! Thanks!

 

Thanks for the reply. I will be going in next week to interview and shadow the position I will be doing. As far as resume/experience, do you feel that one would be more beneficial than the other?

 
Best Response

I did my co-op at Putnam. Yes, what you are doing is working in a call center. Many people start their careers at Putnam in the call center but just be aware that you will have to put your time in there to get the opportunity to transfer out. Did the CRE company tell you what your job as an intern would be? Because if it is going to be administrative work, Putnam would be better because you would at least get exposure to the funds they have and practice talking to people. (Unless you want to go into CRE, then obviously take the CRE internship)

 

The CRE internship would potentially be 9-5 in Boston 4 days per week for 3 months. It wasn't an official job description but I know one of the principal owners so he said he was thinking I would work on some long term research projects and there would be some time for some live deal stuff.

I am interested in CRE but also financial services. I just am not sure which would be the best option because this is my first internship and then I graduate after the Fall semester. The CRE could be a path directly into that field, but Putnam would be a good name for me to have on a resume when searching for other opportunities after the co-op.

 

Had my in-person interview with Putnam yesterday and I think it went well. Will hear back within the week. Still trying to decide if this is an option for me - exposure to CRE investing or financial service customer service with some exposure to financial products and what not.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

Yeah I did. Essentially a call center for shareholders/advisors to call with questions and stuff. It's a customer service role but he also said here and there you have the opportunity to sit in on upper management meetings and even pitch an investment (not sure if this truly happens unless I asked to do so). Seems kind of basic especially coming from retail banking but also good intro to a solid name company here in New England

 

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