Long term IBD goal

Career Opportunities & Internships Investment Banking
1

<p>Hey guys, seeing as many of you seem to know a lot about general IB Internship/FT roles, I thought you could give me good advice in how to pursue my long term goals. Let me give some background first.</p>

<p>I'm a second year at Oxbridge(rather leave it ambigous), doing Computer Science and I've secured an internship at one of the major BBs, albeit in their Technology(front office tech, for what it's worth) Division, in London. While applying, I thought this would be more of an algorithmic trading - basically strat/quant role. However, it turns out that it's more of a software development role that isn't even near to the standard investment banking roles, not with the work/benefits/exit opportunities.</p>

<p>I will do the internship nonetheless, as the brand name + salary I'll get must be worth something in the long run.</p>

<p>I was interested in how likely you guys think it is that I can network my way through to IBD/S&T roles? It's not just about the salary or the ego trip - my long term goal is to do an MBA and a role in IB Technology will not get me far in that pursuit. Do you guys think that if I apply for an IBD role next year I can leverage this internship? I wasn't sure whether I want to do a Master's degree before the MBA(seemed like a waste of time), but if that's what it takes to have another year to do the internship, I'd be ready to do it. Do you guys think that doing a master's in mathematics(which I'd be inclined to do), would work better for breaking into IBD (or even S&T), than continuing Computer Science?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>I’m going to guess you’re at Cambridge, since you’re doing CS.</p>

3

<p>Networking from a tech job to front office IBD is pretty hard, especially since you probably won’t be interacting much with IBD/S&T guys. There’s also not much to leverage in my opinion, since most of your work is not finance related. However, you’re only a sophomore so I wouldn’t be too worried. Were there no boutique/MM finance internship opportunities available?</p>

4

<p>This internship will give you a leg up when you apply for your junior year internship, and that’s the one which matters. It is very hard for a sophomore to get a front office internship, or any meaningful internship. The fact you got one must means you have a good resume. Do a good job this summer, see if you could get a good recommendation. </p>

<p>I would continue with your CS major. It is a very good background to have. A good CS student is a good problem solver, smart, good with project management, good critical thinking…You will have many options - IB (both front and back), and many sexy tech jobs like Google, FB.</p>