<p>I recently got an internship offer for JP Morgan's technology summer analyst program (Business systems analyst role) and GE's benefits accounting internship. </p>
<p>Here's some background:
- The JP Morgan one is for 3 months and the GE will be for 12 months.<br>
- The pay for JP Morgan is a bit more than 2x higher than GE (the overtime pay for JPM is 3x higher).
- JPM is in NYC and GE is near my house and school.<br>
- JPM will most likely lead to a full-time job offer, while the GE near my house might not give me a full-time offer (they are cutting back on full-time employees). </p>
<p>I want to get into finance, whether it's JPM or GE. Which internship will give me a chance to do that? I am really leaning towards JPM right now, but I read somewhere that it's not possible to get into the JPM Finance team without some serious networking - how true is this? </p>
<p>Also, if I do intern at JPM, will I have "analytical/financial work experience" so that I can apply to financial jobs in other companies for full-time (i.e. Google, Disney :D)? </p>
<p>Congratulations. These offers seem quite different:
NYC vs home town,
3 mos vs 12 mos,
technology program (IT?) vs benefits consulting (actuarial?). </p>
<p>Internships are stepping stones to get that all-important “experience”. You should seriously think about those differences to answer your questions, especially what’s involved in each internship program. For instance, If you went with JPM, where would that lead you vs GE?</p>
<p>GE is for accounting, JPM would be more for risk analytics and cost vs benefit analysis and a bit of SQL and Java coding (I have no idea how I got chosen for this internship since I have very little programming experience).</p>
<p>haha, I am actually asking that question. I can look at the job description for both internships, but those job descriptions don’t necessarily have the whole picture. I was hoping the parents here have some experience and would be able to guide me. My father wants me to do JPM because of the prestige and name associated with it (GE has that too, btw) =>> JPM has “wall street prestige” :p</p>
<p>Do you want a front office banking job? If so, JPM IT isn’t going to get you there… although it might get you to Front Office IT… I work in IB consulting and am at an international tier one bank right now -from what I can see, you get former traders going to work in IT (they want a better life) but I’ve never seen it the other way…</p>
<p>the full time job you get from JPM will be in IT and not a front office finance/trading role… </p>
<p>I think if you want a job working in front office, you would do better with an internship or work experience in that area… it is rare to go from IT to front office. I will say, however, that the internship/graduate program recruiters from IBs focus on a narrow set of schools for on campus recruitment. You can probably find out what they are from the bank’s career websites… is your school on there? If not, it is going to be harder for you, although not impossible…</p>
<p>About GE I cannot say, although it sounds like actuarial… this is not finance</p>
<p>PS I don’t mean to be Debbie Downer. These are great internships and you will get fantastic experience and in the case of JPM IT, learn a lot about how the bank works. But if you want to work for an investment bank in the front office (Sales. Trading. IB) then you need experience in these areas.</p>
<p>I don’t know much, but I’m a rather avid viewer of Wall Street Oasis and I would say JPM is a no brainer. Having a job lined up, especially one at such a prestigious firm, is, well, amazing. </p>
<p>I have seen a lot of IT going into front office. A business analyst role within IT is someone who could understand how business works, then analyze what they want to get done, and write a spec for developers. To be a BA, one must understand very well how a business functions. </p>
<p>As an example, if corporate bond desk wants to enhance their trading system, the BA would need to understand actual calculations of the enhancement (if necessary, sometimes it’s just reporting or change the look and feel of an application). It would be up to the BA to write the spec that developers could use in order to do the enhancement. At some firms, often developers would also have a lot of business knowledge (they would usually get paid more), but more often than not, it is a separate function, and the actual IT development is out sourced. Sometimes a BA would have a lot more business knowledge than the front office (they are just users). It is not unusual for a good BA to move to the front office.</p>
<p>My vote would be to take the JP Morgan job. You will have a lot of options.</p>
<p>The fact JP’s pay is 2x more than GE, it tells you how much you would get paid when they offer you a full tme job. After your internship, you could always interview for a front office job when you are a senior. You would stand out relative to other seniors with no finance experience.</p>
<p>I also know somebody who started in IT for GS and is now a successful hedge fund manager(at least his name is on the hedge fund). His fund is one of the more successful hedge fund in Europe. He did not start working for GS until his early 30’s. I wouldn’t discount an IT job.</p>
<p>3 of D1’s roomies went into investment banking after college graduation…all for big firms in NYC. Three years later, all three are on their second jobs–2 no longer in investment banking and 1 still in IB but with another big firm. </p>
<p>I would go with the JPM internship. Assuming that you get a permanent offer–the experience will help you more in moving on to your second job.</p>
<p>I agree with SoccerGirl. There really is not a path at investment banks to move from IT to front office IB jobs. Not to say it is impossible, but it doesn’t happen very often; I have not seen it.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should worry about that at this point though - I think you should be looking to get the best experience possible this summer, learn as much as possible, hopefully get a full time offer, and then interview in the fall (hopefully with an offer in hand) for whatever position you want on a full time basis. Given that, I think the JPM position is a better option, both for the experience and the likelihood of getting a full time offer.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what I plan on doing! And I figured that they would interview over someone else because, well I’ve already interned there :o Okay, nice So I can do that! :D</p>
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<p>Well the part I’ll be doing will not really be strictly IT, it’ll have a lot more finance than the other parts of the IT program at JPM (the recruiter told me specifically to know finance well), so I’m hoping that that will allow to apply to other entry-level finance jobs for full-time (such as google Drgoogle :p) - thanks for the advice and the encouragement! :)</p>
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<p>Hmm yeah, I think I didn’t take that into consideration (that I will be changing jobs after a few years) - thanks for pointing it out! I think at this point the JPM is starting to look really good :D</p>
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<p>Okay good, so I can apply for whatever I want right? I just wanted to make sure that the JPM internship won’t hinder my opportunities for a full-time in finance in other corporations :o Also, you brought up a good point, jrpar! I shouldn’t be thinking really long-term I guess. In all honesty, the JPM internship is going to give me a LOT more
exposure than GE…>_< Thanks a lot! </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all of your great advice! :D</p>
<p>That’s the way the law biz worked when I was in it also. You go work for a big firm for 2-5 years to get some really good training and then move on to your next job with the big name on your resume.</p>
<p>I’m going to guess that the ibanking business also works like the big law firm business in that the system is not set up for all 1st year recruits to work their way up to partner. The pyramid gets skinnier and skinnier as you climb to the top. They both expect a lot of the bottom of the pyramid to melt away.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is as much of a requirement now for analysts to get MBA after 2 years. I know D1 is going to wait and see. Getting a business degree is a good way to change profession. People at the firm where she is going to be working at are telling D1 if she were to get an MBA, she would be coming back to the same job she left.</p>
<p>Hey Aiko, I know this is an old thread but I came across it while browsing through CC. If you don’t mind me asking, I have a few questions. Could you explain how you came across the said internships with JPM & GE? What were you stats like? & did you have any significant previous work experience?</p>
<p>I’m currently a sophomore majoring in Finance looking everywhere I can for internship opportunities and I would love to here from someone who has been in my shoes! :)</p>
I sent you a PM :)</p>
Oldfort you made my day :') <– tears of happiness :D</p>
And I figured that they would interview over someone else because, well I’ve already interned there :o Okay, nice 
So I can do that! :D</p>