I have a just received a couple of different job/internship offers. Financial analyst intern(evolves into a full time job after graduation) at William Mercer in their Investment Consulting division, Financial analyst intern(6 month co-op) at Microsoft-they only hire full time people from their internship program in Finance or a Financial analyst position at Washington Mutual's finance development program(2 year program, four 6 month rotations through various divisions such as auditing, treasury etc.) I also made it to final rounds with Goldman Sachs(PWM division) and JPMorganChase's investment banking division. Goldman is my number one choice, followed by JP-though I don't know about the other 3 which I have firm offers for(compensation and work load are fairly similar). My ultimate goal is to work in a corporate finance I-Banking. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Have you read the book "Monkey Business"?

Eh...congratulations?

Read monkey business. I know quite a few people in I-Banking-aware of what is involved. If I could get a job in I-Banking I would be there in a heartbeat. Not exactly the easiest job market right now. I am leaning towards the internship at Microsoft-it would delay my graduation for 6 months. I could come back and finish in two quarters-or go two additional quarters, add marketing and accounting options to my Business degree(finance option) and graduate after spring quarter in 2004 and be able to apply for an analyst position at an I-Bank again.Hypothetically, would working for Mercer until Jan (when Microsoft starts), be benefical for my career aspirations (working only 2 months) and potentially burning a few bridges in the consulting world? Daniel

In my experience you should pick the bigger name.Recruitment is a multi phased process, and if you think that bimbo is a sexist term of abuse, you clearly haven't met a male HR droid.Fact is that for any good job a person with limited intellect and a set of prejudices that would shame a membr of the KKK will filterresumes. Since they don't understand half the words on most CVs they filter by "quality" of employer. At the risk of showing my ownignorance I haven't heard of Washington Mutual, but of course have heard of M$.Aside from the money that G or JPM will lavish upon you, your net present value jumps because of their recogntion factor as you progress.Another thing that HR people obsess about is exact keyword match. If the specification they get says "Investment Banking", then they wil filter out anyone who's current job is not at an I-Bank.My "favourite" failed job application was where I was filtered out for not possessing "SDK" knowledge of a product.I'd actually helped write the SDK for it, and was the person the vendor sent to important clients to sort out their lives.I was dumb enough to assume that anyone reading my CV would be able to work that out.In that environment, it may be worth accepting a less satisfactory position or training programme in order to get better logos on your CV.

As in every respectable IB there are the 2-3 years program with periodically rotations in different desks. The goal of these programs (which are in a way or another similar in most IB on the street) is to follow you and see if you can be fully assimilated into the firm's system and into one or two of their desks in particular. Another goal is to see if you are able to product steady income for the firm directly and/or indirectly. You might be one the most friendliest or smartest persons but they are not after that at all. Usually after six months, they will know roughly whether you are fit in or not. Hence, these two-three years will obviously be the most critical years in your financial career, of course then after you will be able to rid off most of this keeping job pressure. My advice is to get much information regarding the working environment before you step in working there, whatever it is, the dress code, the characters your bosses desire for and etc. Some firms' search for kind of entrepreneurs, others stress on excellent teamwork (who don't), and other focus on potential customers you can find or bring. It would be easier for you to focus on your goal if you have such advance information before you start, or it could be too late... There is a warning here; if you do not complete the 2-3 year program because of whatever reason, your chance to find another similar job in another IB will be very slim. Going for the PhD will be ex post wisdom, which is absolutely irrelevant after all. I hope this help.David

This is a good point to choose better name. But does it matter that the name is well-known or that it is known in the narrow area you are interested in? Imagine you work for investment baking devision of a bank that is well known for its reatail banking, say NatWest. If you apply for the next job in London, hardly anyone will say I don't know them.And is rotation that important? People coming to investment banking with MBA, PhD and in many other cases just skip the rest of the rotation when they find out how to make money for the bank.Thaks!

QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFCIn my experience you should pick the bigger name.Recruitment is a multi phased process, and if you think that bimbo is a sexist term of abuse, you clearly haven't met a male HR droid.Fact is that for any good job a person with limited intellect and a set of prejudices that would shame a membr of the KKK will filterresumes. Since they don't understand half the words on most CVs they filter by "quality" of employer. At the risk of showing my ownignorance I haven't heard of Washington Mutual, but of course have heard of M$.How do you consider someone working at the MBS risk hedging group at Washington Mutual today?Thanks