This B-School Is The Go-To Pipeline For Investment Banking Internships Focused On Tech

Want an investment banking internship in the fastest growing sector of the industry? This Bay Area B-School has the best track record in the market. UC-Berkeley photo

When Rawool Sahu decided to pivot careers, he first considered MBA programs in the Chicago area, where he worked several years in healthcare financial planning and analysis. Sahu looked at both the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, but neither provided everything he was looking for.

Eventually Sahu realized that among the things he was looking for was a move to the West Coast after years in the Midwest. And that led him to the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he enrolled in the school’s part-time Evening and Weekend MBA program, commuting to and from Chicago.

Sahu didn’t know exactly which direction he wanted to go, but in his first week at Haas he attended a series of intensive information sessions on investment banking and thought it sounded intriguing. 

A PIPELINE FOR INVESTMENT BANKING INTERNS 

This summer, Sahu completed an internship with a boutique Bay Area investment bank Moelis & Company. He was offered a full-time position with the firm beginning next year.

“Haas was great in terms of helping me get started in the process,” he tells Poets&Quants. “Berkeley has a really strong network of investment bankers in the Bay Area, including a lot of Evening and Weekend MBAs, and I was able to connect with alumni who are working in the field.”

Sahu is one of 14 Haas MBAs who secured a coveted — and lucrative — summer associate internship at a Bay Area investment bank this year. That is a 22% market share, more than any other B-school, says Bill Rindfuss, a continuing professional faculty member and the Haas School’s manager of financial services recruiting for MBAs. In 2019, it placed 33% of Bay Area interns, or 24 Haas students.

INVESTMENT BANKING INTERNSHIPS OFTEN LEAD TO FULL-TIME JOB OFFERS

Bill Rindfuss, Haas School of Business

Haas has established itself as the go-to pipeline for such internships in the Bay Area – the world headquarters for investment banking firms covering the tech industry. It is a train ride away from San Francisco, Palo Alto and Menlo Park. It’s easy for students to go meet with bankers, and it’s easy for banks to get to Haas to find students.

Further, a lot of Haas MBAs are interested in tech or come from tech backgrounds, and most of the Bay Area IB internships focus on tech or life sciences.

“We’re very fortunate to live here, at the global intersection of finance and technology, and tech investment banking is a great example of something really interesting at that intersection,” Rindfuss tells Poets&Quants.

“For those who want to pivot into investment banking, we have a very straightforward proposition: We are the hometown team. We produce the local talent that the banks are seeking.”

For students who want to pivot to investment banking, the summer associate internship is invaluable. Internships often lead to full time offers which come with salaries averaging about $175,000 per year along with $50,000 signing bonuses. 

Because Haas MBAs compete with graduates from other top B-schools for the internships and the full-time offers, the school has built a very deliberate and intensive program for helping students through the rigorous application process.

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