Undergrad MM PE or IB

Undergrad here, may have an opportunity to pursue MM PE Junior Summer (2nd tier city) and FT. Wondering if I should push for it or keep recruiting IB. I’m considering a lot of things and want to see if I’m missing any factors. Long term goal was MM PE anyway, but I know IB is a good experience to have.

 

Yep, that’s what I’m thinking. Just worried I might be closing some doors too early (but I could pivot with an MBA). Was never super interested in the MF route, just personally find somewhere in the MM (LMM, MM, UMM) the most interesting. I do find IB somewhat interesting but know the work I would be doing at the junior level probably wouldn’t be that exciting, however does keep a lot of options open. Also not sure how recruiting will continue to play out over the next few month

 

One downside is that it becomes much harder to move around once you're in MM PE. I know an MBA student going into AM who did MM PE out of top target undergrad. They candidly said they regretted their decision and wished they did IB because when they lost interest in PE they were unable to recruit for any other industries without that banking foundation. Outside of the MM space most other employers probably won't know the name of the firm you work at so pigeonholing is a very real possibility.

 

The way she put it is that she was simply less marketable. It was a high quality firm and the work itself was likely more productive than IB, but employers didn't know what to compare her against unlike say JPM IB which is a known quality.

 

Was in the same boat earlier, MM PE in 2nd tier city vs IB in NYC. Ended up choosing IB, but unlike you I wasn't sure I wanted MM PE in the long run and wanted the optionality of IB.

Factors I considered were platform (generalist IB internship vs MM buyout PE), location, compensation, culture, exit ops from IB shop vs PE shop. Hope this kind of helps

 
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