89nk wrote:
Are most going for BB or are there a good portion of students interested in boutique firms? From what I have been learning about the differences between the two, boutiques sound more interesting, work wise, and I was wondering if anyone could shed more light why it seems more are interested in BB internship experience?
Couple of reasons actually. First of all in terms of types of deals you are going to work on, it's going to be larger deals (which I like). The learning process is better too I think: these banks are used to have a lot of new associates to come in and they know how to integrate them fast. You will learn how to execute a deal properly and you'll learn every facet of the job, fast.
I'm not saying that you won't have that kind of experience in a boutique, but there is a chance that they'll not tick all those boxes. Plus, since they have less resources in terms of manpower and access to information (and the deals are typically smaller), you might skip some processes that are important in larger deals.
Finally, to be very pragmatic, BB looks better on your CV too.
I think it makes a lot of sense to go from BB to boutique, but I would defo start in a BB for the reasons stated above - if you have the choice that is, which does not seem to be the case nowadays. Making the move in the other direction is definitively tougher.