What would you do? - Sophmore at a semi-target
Hey guys,
I'm a sophomore at a semi-target, and I have a little bit of dilemma deciding between SA positions. I have an offer from a boutique equity research firm, but I will be interviewing for an internship with a well-known hedge fund (think SAC, Citadel, Fortress type) in their operations division.
If my goal is to end up landing an S&T SA position after my junior year, what do you think is the best choice?
The name of the hedge fund will certainly stand-out more, but will the more relevant experience at the ER shop be more useful?
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
I'd really appreciate your input. Thanks.
Not sure if ER is really that close to S&T, same with Ops. Might go ER just because it keeps other options open and Ops is probably not as solid of a learning experience. Is the boutique decently well known?
Narrowing it down to just S&T leaves the door pretty open. What exactly do you want to do in S&T? Brand and prestige can only go so far. What you do in your position matters more. That being said, I don't believe SAC's janitorial staff has lateraled into buy side roles.
The name of the hedge fund will really stand out, and so will the fact that you ran tickets, cleared trades, and fetched coffee for the other back office mongoloids.
Take the ER job.
Think of it this way: Do you want to be a waterboy in the pro's or a starter on a triple-A league? Do six months in ER at the tiny shop and then lateral to a MM/BB
Easier said than done but yes. UFO and EB have it spot on. Don't let a name usher you into a role in which you'll be kick yourself after a month thinking 'what if'.
PM'd
^ Are you implying Ops isn't a great experience worthy of consideration?
Hey you're pretty good at this troll crap.
For all those bashing the back office...my friend did back (middle?) office at a small hedge fund last year and ending up getting a bunch of OCR interviews for boutiques (in ibd, he didn't apply for S&T) and some big PE firms.
I think any sort of experience can be good--you just need to leverage it correctly once you get into the interview process.
For SA it isn't as bad. For FT it is hell.
Interviews =/= offers.
Well he did get offers. Honestly, once they're interviewing you, the actual facts on your resume become less important. If you can't get the technicals or whatever it's a moot point (or if you can...) I believe getting the interview (and then of course performing well in it) is the most important part.
I should also add that I got BB S&T (albeit abroad, but I wasn't going for NY) with only a government internship on my resume...
Umm...how many sophomores do you know with any sort of FO experience?? I highly doubt it was "in spite of." Considering how many people I know personally who got either no or almost no finance interviews, with either similar or much higher Wharton GPAs and more finance classes, but whose sophomore internships had nothing to do with finance...I would say because of. Or at least correlation since we obviously can't prove causation here. Excuse the poor structure of the sentences here.
I mean, if you can provide evidence to the contrary (in spite of), please do. Obviously everything is anecdotal, but I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence here at Wharton this year.
I said in spite of, meaning your friends grades, background, extra curriculars etc were probably all at a very high standard and hence, the dealbreaker was NOT his BO experience. Your point about how many sophs have FO experience is irrelevant to the OP as he has a CHOICE between FO at a small firm and BO at a well known hedge fund. From a recruiting perspective, FO experience anywhere > BO experience anywhere.
Mirin' the unnecessary Wharton name drop though ... douche.
Yeah, you're a fucking tool.
My point of mentioning Wharton was not to be a douche;, my point was that even at Wharton, having finance experience, even back office, is apparently way more important to recruiters than anything else once you're at a certain gpa. Maybe it's different at other schools, but somehow I feel (and please confirm or refute this) that recruiters would prefer someone from a different school with back office experience in finance over a finance concentration at wharton who had no finance internship experience.
I also wasn't really replying to the OP anymore (my mistake), but pointing out that back office internships as a sophomore aren't as bad as everyone seems to make out. I would think there are so few "front office" internships for sophomores that recruiters know that and look to see if you tried to do something in finance.
And I also replied to this after posting on a thread where someone was asking about Wharton, so it was just top of mind. Really didn't mean to name drop, I swear (and not that anyone cares, but when people ask where I go to school, I say Penn, not Wharton).
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