I am an incoming intern at EY deciding between sectors in FSO. The options are BCM, WAM and Insurance. I feel that I would not like insurance as much as the others, but I am open to look into it. Is one sector better than another? Does one sector lead to better promotions? Does one sector give better opportunities if I wanted to leave the Big 4?
There a a thousand questions I could ask but I’m looking for any input from professionals in the industry. Any and all advice is welcome.




I would personally go for BCM, it's far more exciting. Had some friends that did WAM and they were bored out of their mind lol
What are you interested in? It’s all assurance, and there is no difference in promotions etc., so it really comes down to preference.
A good way to decide would be to ask yourself the question, “What industry would you want to work in one day if I left EY?” If you can’t answer that yet, do more research on what a career in a bank would look like vs. PE fund for instance
Coach
One thing that I didn’t realize about insurance before I started doing some work in it is that insurance is more complicated than it lets on.
Insurance companies are basically pension funds without outside investors. They generate revenue via insurance policies then invest them over long time horizons similar to pension funds. Typically these are lower-risk investments, but they can be sizeable.
I was in FSO consulting so can’t speak much about assurance. But I feel that WAM has better paying exit opportunities (hedge funds etc) and BCM has more complicated engagements. Insurance is pretty boring and insurance companies don’t pay as well as WAM and BCM as exit.
WAM has a never ending busy season. BCM is the way.