Career planning...IB internships vs. IB new grad, full-time

<p>I'm looking for advice from people who know about the hiring process after graduation.</p>

<p>I'm a junior that just transferred last Fall into Berkeley. As long as I've heard about it, I've always tried to avoid learning about investment banking (I'm a real skeptic of hype...that kind of thinking has caused me regrets before, e.g. now I wish applied to Haas instead of Econ :p). Over the past semester, I actually looked into IB and I'm finally convinced. As many of you know, all IB internships were handed out months ago. I'll be having an internship with a brokerage instead.</p>

<p>So now I'm trying to figure out how to plan the rest of my academics and career.</p>

<p>On the one hand, I feel like I really did not have enough time here at Berkeley and that I would want to extend my stay another year. In accordance with this plan, I would just apply to I-Bank internships next fall, hope to get in and graduate later. Would it be worthwhile to stay the extra year and go for the internship? Or does it sound like a ridiculous waste of, well, loan?</p>

<p>On the other hand, I'm trying to figure out if I should just forget my feelings, graduate on time and then go for a new grad IB analyst position. Are new grad positions as competitive as internships? Would I be qualified enough with the brokerage experience and a nice Econ/Finance GPA?</p>

<p>I'm probably gonna see a career counselor for this but I wanna know what CCers think.</p>

<p>how high is the gpa? You should start networking too, i heard the business frats at berkeley carry weight and have alot of connections. Go through full-time recruiting and look at other jobs too. If you can't get any ib positions or don't like the other options, I would stay the extra year. You should probably start preparing for full time recruiting in the summer to make sure that you are ready.</p>