Do I have a chance to break in?
Good Morning,
I just joined this website so I hope it's a right place to post my discussion. I am currently a junior at the University of Arizona and majoring in finance & entrepreneurship. I am also a Division 1 scholarship athlete (tennis). I really want to start investment banking career on Wall Street but I have some issues. One is that I am a foreigner. Two is that I think my overall GPA will be around 3.2 by the time I graduate. And three is that I haven't really worked in summer because I had to play tournaments even though I will probably do an internship this summer with a local firm in Tucson. Could you guys give me any advice if I have a chance to break in or what would you suggest in this situation?
No chance
Savage
Hate to be harsh - but your chances are (at the moment) very, very slim. You attend a non-target school, your GPA is pretty low and won't meet most banks minimum GPA requirements (usually 3.3+), you have 0 internship experience (let alone relevant IB internship experience), and you're a foreigner. Only large banks with enough resources typically sponsor international students, and you have to consider that sponsorship is extremely expensive. That means they have to justify that extra expense to hire you over a US citizen. This is probably your most significant barrier, as the small 20 man boutiques that you would otherwise be able to network your way into probably will not sponsor.
Given that you are a junior, that means you will be going into full-time analyst recruiting with 0/3 of the main boxes (school, GPA, experience) checked just to even get your foot in the door. FT recruiting is a bloodbath, with most large banks hiring all of their FT analysts from their interns, and the other banks will generally have only a few openings, with thousands of applicants per spot.
Again, hate to be harsh, but sometimes a dose of realism is needed. I suggest looking into MSF programs, doing internships round the clock between now and your graduation (meaning in-semester internships part-time) and getting straight As in every class you have left to take. If you're able to do that, you'll get yourself a puncher's chance at making it into the industry.
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