Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor (straight out of college)

Not a huge number of financial advisors on this site dude, go here for some good info:

http://registeredrep.com/

Bro, with that GPA you should set your goals higher than Financial Advisory. I've done an internship at ML during college, it sucked pretty bad.

Maybe you'll like cold-calling people all day and sending out letters asking for business. If this is truly what you want to do then go ahead and do it. When I was at ML some of the senior people were EXTREMELY wealthy and worked only a 5 to 6 hours a day. But it takes a lot of time to build up that kind of a book, so yeah it might be a good career in the long run but short term you're going to have to struggle a little.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

^^^ Couldn't agree more. Being a financial advisor (particularly @ Ed Jones) is broke-dick. If that is what you enjoy, that is one thing, but if you are just dong it on a whim or in anticipation of retaking the LSAT, etc it is a horrible idea.

Two things could happen.

1. You love it, are good at sales, and able to bring in a lot of clients - then make a career out of it.

2. Love it or hate it, aren't so lucky when it comes to bringing in new clients and move on to another job in a relatively short time. If this happens, that will be a HUGE tarnish on an otherwise great resume (3.9, honors).

That GPA w/ honors at Georgia should provide ample opportunity. Don't settle for a sales job that anyone can have....

I do agree with you being a struggle early on, hence there are better jobs out there. It's tough right now because finding a job in IB which interests me as well is near impossible late in the game this year. I don't have much as far as internships go, so I am looking for the next best thing to put on my resume for the mean time.

Thanks so far for the input.

I am curious, what particularly attracts you to be a financial advisor?

If you have the right personality it will be perfect for you, if not it will probably be hell. So one key thing would be to check out how they work and come across and see whether it clicks with your personality.

Edit: if you are not particularly keen then remember that you will for the foreseeable future be lumped together with financial advisors by whoever sees your resume.

You most likely will not being a FA, especially with a 3.9,honors. I'm going to go out on a whim here and say that you enjoy intellectual stimulation, which you most likely will not find there, especially if your goal is to do IB. Why not look into a MSF or keep throwing your name in the hat

I think that you gave up on law school too easily, especially if that's what you really want to do. With a 3.9, you should be able to get in somewhere in the top 30 with a 160 or so, and that is certainly attainable with a bit of studying. I don't think that law school is the best course of action for everyone, but it seems better than the options you have now.

Being a FA straight out of college is an uphill battle. Think about it from the client's perspective -- would you want to give your hard earned money to some kid straight out of college with little to no experience? Probably not!

Successful FAs have white hair -- they look trustworthy and experienced, even if they aren't. Remember, it's a SALES job first and foremost. Perception is everything.

Can you make a decent living being a FA right out of college? It's possible IF you come from a wealthy family that is highly connected to a wealthy network of individuals. If not, it is very, very difficult.

If you truly want to do law then you should keep on pursuing that. A friend of mine told me that they didn't even ask for his college transcript when he started work for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. They don't care what your major is or what your gpa is. You have a 3.9, you should apply at some fortune 500 companies, all of which have finance positions available. You should contact your school's alumni network. Start networking bro, if you send out enough cold-emails I'm sure you'll be able to land a very good position. IB is competitive but if you network hard enough you can possibly land a analyst position at a local boutique. Start pouring through this thread (especially "Success Stories") and try to devise a strategy.

Solid stuff on this thread. Thank you all thus far for the advice. I'm still considering a regional school for law school, but from what I heard you gotta be top 5-10% in your class to have a chance at BigLaw and that's just for a chance in the dreary legal market right now. Taking out 150k in loans for a chance of making it big to me seems like the ROI is horrible.

As for IB, my network right now is shallow because I never thought I'd be looking for a job so soon, going to have to get busy on that immediately. Now, I wish I had not put all my eggs in one basket.

I understand their are other jobs out there for lawyers that pay good money in the finance world, but those jobs are tough to get out of a top school. Going to a less reputable school which I would like have to do with the low LSAT score would make the odds of making this happen far less than making it big in the FA world, I may be wrong, but that's what I'm thinking right now

A conceptual understanding of finance goes a long way once you're actually a working lawyer. Most of the money that's made in law revolves around some type of financial transaction. If your LSAT results were really that bad then sit your ass down and study before retesting.