maxcanada

Hello,

I would like your opinion as to what are the most prestigious internships out there, i.e. those that are going to be highly regarded by potential employers.

Many thanks,

herodotus53

It depends on the area of employment you're interested in--- for something related to business or finance, I imagine something with a major investment bank such as Goldman-Sachs would be pretty impressive. For the political science/IR types, maybe something in national government such as the CIA or State Department.

For sciences (biology, chem.), maybe something related to medical research, like the CDC (center for disease control) or the NIH (national institutes of health) or doing research at a prestigious medical school (Harvard, Johns Hopkins, etc.) For other sciences and engineering, maybe something with NASA? Or some government agency? For general humanities or social science majors anticipating life in academia or some other kind of grad school, maybe something with the Smithsonian Institute, National Archives, or any number of cultural institutions in D.C.

To recap: pretty much anything that operates on a national level--- like a government agency or cultural program--- will probably be fairly competitive. And anything that involves a lot of money or deals with national defense.... can't go wrong there, either. It would help if you told us what you were studying.

But I would have to say that an internship, at least in part, is what you make of it. Just because you don't get a super-prestigious internship at some world-famous investment bank doesn't mean you're doomed to fail at life. Just try to keep some perspective. Good luck!

Brendank

I agree that internships that operate on a national or even global scale will probably be more prestigious than local ones. I think more importantly though, internship jobs that perform important and significant tasks should be more prestigious than those that don't.

I had an internship at a highly prestigious laboratory. It was the best summer of my life and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity.

ns347

Goldman Sachs

maxcanada

I meant corporate/business internships, sorry !

ixjunitxi

Consulting: Mckinsey & Co, Bain, Boston Consulting Group

Finance: Blackstone, KKR, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lazard, ...All the other Bulge Bracket Investment banks

Google, CIA

mike3yo

are there age limits for internships? I am 16 currently ( rising junior) and I want to know if I am eligible for any of the internships stated above regarding finance/ir.

TriForces

CIA internships aren't hard to get though...Not a lot of people want to work there.

DunninLA

I can give some input here...

At Northwestern this past spring, 250 students applied to the Goldman Sachs internship program in Chicago which had 5 spots. 2 from Northwestern were offered spots... one for brains, one because of athletics. For the remaining 3 spots, 1 went to a relative of an executive in that office, 1 to a U of Chicago student, and 1 to a Notre Dame student.

That's pretty typical of highly regarded business jobs with a sales component in general -- half go to brainiacs, half to athletes who have proven the ability to spend 30+ hours per week in their sport, understand teamwork, and still get good but not great grades.

<1% is the chance of getting a highly prized internship.

Brendank

"CIA internships aren't hard to get though...Not a lot of people want to work there."

I would disagree. I think they are in the most selective organization bracket in the country if not the world for internships and employment. I would also put some other federal agencies including the DIA, NSA, NNSA, Secret Service, FBI, State Department, etc. into the most selective bracket.

TriForces

^^^^
You forget there are ALOT of these jobs.
isn't the NSA only in the top 5 employers?

The DoE is where it is at.