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Internship Opportunity

Joined
6/15/13
Messages
1
Points
11
Hey,

So I recently got an offer from a small company that sells specialty data to quant funds. They say 90% of their clients are quant funds and business is growing. I was told that I was their best candidate and so was extended an offer. I am not the best candidate compared to the caliber of students in my classes. My biggest advantage is that I am an American citizen.

The strange thing is that, they are offering me 60K on an annualized basis, as an exempt employee. Not bad if this is an internship. I have some money saved up from working for a few years, so that is not a huge concern of mine (I can survive for 2.5 years reasonably). I can graduate this December, or extend it through taking useful courses by graduating in May or December of 2014 next year. However, the downside is, if they were to extend a full-time position to me, they would only pay a fixed salary.

Fixed salary means (at least this was what I was told by the interviewer) that they don't pay overtime, but just a fixed amount. This was what worried me, because they said as a full-time employee, there will be occasions that I would have to stay up late, such as 4 am to possibly present to a client the next morning at 8 am. This probably will happen quite frequently, as I only heard of 4 people working on the sales team and business is growing.

As an exempt employee, they would pay me by the hour without benefits up to 40 hours a week. If I work more than 40, then I won't get paid. I would not be required to work during class time and my course load is lighter. This arrangement holds until December. I like the opportunity to do research and interact with clients. However, I would not like to work here full time, although they said that I can expect to make the market rate. (not thrilled with the idea of fixed salary with unpaid overtime where overtime will be a frequent occurrence). I am also concerned that if I take this position, it might adversely impact future compensation, in the sense that it seems kind of high for an internship, but low for a full time position. Any feedback would be appreciated, thank you.
 
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