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FO Internship vs BO Full-time position

Which job would you choose?

  • 6 month FO trading floor internship

    Votes: 19 90.5%

  • Full time BO risk management position

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • Total voters
    21

feig

Joined
2/17/15
Messages
4
Points
11
Hi there,

I'm a recent math (pure, not financial) M.S. graduate looking to start a career in finance. It's going reasonably well so far and I currently have two job offers on the table, both from big banks in a large city. Bank A is offering me a six month internship on the front office trading floor at internship pay and with no guarantee of a full time position afterwards. Bank B (which has roughly the same size and reputation as Bank A) has made an offer for a full time junior position in risk management at 50% higher pay than Bank A's offer and with no contract limit.

Coming from someone with zero prior experience in finance and no idea of what the future possibilities are, would I be making a mistake by choosing the higher salary and turning down the opportunity to work in front office? Assume that I'm neutral about the actual content of the work I'll be doing.
 
To the poll voters: could you please briefly explain your choice?
 
No I'm dead serious. Is my question really so stupid or naive that you would mistake it for trolling? As I said my background is purely academic, I know next to nothing about finance.
 
Fine, I accept that it's pretty dumb - care to briefly explain why? Not knowing much about the career prospects, any reasonable person would when given the choice between a full time position with job security and 50% higher pay on one hand, and an internship on the other, immediately choose the former. But if the correct choice is so clearly the latter and I get labeled a 'troll' and 'dumb' for not immediately knowing why, perhaps you all can enlighten me?

Edit: If you are going to call me dumb, then please consider that I've been living in the ivory tower of academia for the past six years. Now apparently something I learned there must be useful enough for other people to offer me jobs, so maybe 'naive' is a more apt description for my approach to finance than 'dumb'.
 
I believe the general sentiment is that trading is more difficult to break into and offers more options coming out, regardless of whether one does it successfully or whether one wants to do it longer term.
 
think of it this way. most of us want to go front office. the guys in back office want to transfer somehow to front office. the goal is usually front office. you can take that front office internship and maybe it'll lead to a front office job. even if you don't that back office job will be avilable. but if you take that back office job a front office role is highly unlikely. you're in a great and enviable position. maybe front office isn't for you, but for most people, this wouldn't be a hard decision. i think that's what people are trying to say when they call you stupid. good luck let us know what you choose
 
front office is not for everyone though. markets get volatile, alarms going off all the time. it's a busy and noisy place, gotta keep thinking on your feet all the time and eyes watching. verbal abuse is common. at the very least, your goal is a positive pnl. one screw up and you're shown to the door.
 
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