HEDGE FUND TITAN: Do something more creative than intern at Goldman Sachs

Hedge fund titan Michael Novogratz, the president of Fortress Investment Group, wants kids he hires to do something else other than just intern at Goldman Sachs or a top consulting firm.

"We interview a lot of kids and they always want to have an internship and Goldman Sachs, an internship at McKinsey. And I was like, 'Go do something different. Get on a motorcycle, travel through India, and take photographs. Create a story where you learn something," Novogratz said on the latest episode of "Wall Street Week."

The show's host Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital and a fellow Goldman alum, agreed about the "gap year" concept.

"I think it makes sense too because it gives you a little more maturity," he said.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with interning at Goldman. That's not what he's saying at all. But it's important to do something outside of finance, too.

Novogratz would know this first hand. After graduating from Princeton, he served in the US Army National Guard as a helicopter pilot before landing a job at Goldman in 1989. He rose through the ranks there and was made a partner in 1998. He joined Fortress in 2002.

Goldman's CEO Lloyd Blankfein has told interns before that it's important to be "interesting."

"I think you also have to be a complete person. You have to be interesting. You have to be somebody who is interesting to yourself," he told the bank's interns a few summers ago.

Bottom line: Think beyond just filling out Excel sheets for a summer. Get out and explore the world first. That will make you interesting when you go to interview for a Wall Street job.