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PT opportunity vs. Internship

Joined
6/21/08
Messages
6
Points
11
I will be graduating in spring of '09 with a BA in Economics and a minor in Applied Computation and Math Sciences. I did an internship for an advising group at Merrill Lynch for about 6 months and recently I was offered a P/T job starting in September with them doing various tasks. I would be basically do anything that the group needs assistance with whether it's filing papers or doing research on securities.

Currently I'm not pursuing a career in financial advising. I do want to work at a hedge fund or investment bank in the future and would like to do quantitative research and/or strategy.

My question is: should I take up this PT opportunity with the group or should I look for an internship that is closer to the field that I'm interested in? I'm debating whether it's better to have PT experience which would indicate to future employers that coming out of college I will be competent. However, doing an internship at another firm would show varied skill set and would be closer related to what I would like to do in the future.

When I graduate from college, I hope to join an investment bank or another firm doing research in securities. Ideally, there are a couple companies in this area I want to work for, one of which offers an internship during the winter, spring, and summer quarters. So, taking this PT opportunity would mean foregoing any internships for winter and spring.

What should I do?
 
Hey, my recommendation would be to go with the internship -- something that is close to what you want to eventually do when you get out.

Sameer
 
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