Ranking The Best Summer Internships

EVERCORE, THE ‘BIG BOUTIQUE’

So what has Evercore been doing right the last two years? Loosvelt says unlike big players Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, Evercore has flown under the radar and used its reputation as a “big boutique” to its advantage. “Evercore is probably one of the biggest and most well-known of the quote-unquote boutique firms,” Loosvelt says. “And so they’ve been really picking up in the market, doing well deal-wise, and they’ve also been concentrating on culture. Wall Street — even the top firms — has been making culture a focus. They know it is a problem.

“In any case, Evercore has been rising for a number years and I think their name — their brand — is just becoming more well-known.”

That view is borne out by comments from those who interned at Evercore, which also was voted Best Investment Banking Internship. “I could not have been happier with the culture, opportunity, and flexibility afforded to me by Evercore,” one intern wrote. “The firm is wholly committed to advancing its intern class, and everyone in the entire firm made an effort to welcome us, include us, and ensure our questions were answered throughout the summer. On any given day, I could be chatting with partners, the COO, on any relevant issue pertinent to us or simply in the news. People are down-to-earth and want to make the environment enjoyable for all.”

Added another intern: “Evercore is a great place to work. I truly believe it is the best investment bank at which to begin a career. The training program was much better than the programs my peers participated in at other banks, the people are friendly and intelligent and you get the opportunity to work with some of the most elite companies in the country.”

THE COOL FACTOR

For the second year in a row, Google ranked No. 1 for prestige, with survey respondents calling the “top tech firm” “fun and innovative,” the “#1 best company to work for,” and an “absolute dream job” that is “about to be the biggest company in the world.”

“One of the the things that we look at is, when we ask interns and former interns to rate these companies in prestige, we also ask them to tell us a little about the firm in a few words,” Loosvelt says. “And one of the things we see is that it’s correlated with a few different things: ‘innovative’ is one thing that we see with a lot of these top firms that people tend to care about, and they equate that with prestige. Also quote-unquote cool — so cool culture, fun atmosphere, innovation, and those things, these top companies probably still have a handle on that.”

One survey respondent described Google as “a company where you must work very hard, but they also provide opportunities to play,” while others noted that Google “looks impressive on a resume, and it’s an amazing company” with a “cool culture” that hires the “best tech minds and “creative thinkers.”

DO-GOODERS GET HIGH MARKS

In addition to Google maintaining its top spot, Apple held on to its No. 2 ranking, while Disney remained at No. 9. Facebook and Microsoft each jumped one spot, to Nos. 3 and 5, respectively, while Tesla Motors also moved up one ranking, to No. 6. Some of the bigger moves: Nike jumped four spots to No. 8; Amazon.com jump five spots to No. 11; PwC, IBM and Deloitte each moved up three spots to Nos. 12, 14, and 16, respectively; and ESPN moved up five spots to No. 15 this year.

“It’s not a lot of movement, but it’s interesting to see Tesla move up a spot, and a lot of the responses showed that people are interested in the fact that they’re doing something beneficial,” Loosvelt says. “Their business model is kind of in the green tech industry, and so I think that’s something that is reflected in their small leap. My guess is that going forward, that kind of thing is going to play into the rankings even more.”

Some move up, others move down. Goldman Sachs dropped a spot to No. 4, while J.P. Morgan fell from No. 5 to No. 7. Morgan Stanley went from No. 8 to No. 10, and Twitter — making the wrong kind of news amid speculation about financial troubles this summer and fall — slumped from No. 10 to No. 13. “That’s probably self-explanatory there,” Loosvelt says of Twitter. “That’s a perception problem for them, and we saw that in the quality of the comments too. The perception is that Twitter hasn’t been quite as successful business-wise as some of the other tech firms, in social media in particular.”

Rounding out the top 20 Most Prestigious Internships are Deloitte, Berkshire Hathaway, McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, and Intel Corporation.

See next page for Most Prestigious Internships.