MM REPE SA offer! - Drop out, Career Changer, Sub 3.5 GPA
Hey everyone,
It has been a very long year for me and by no means is it over for me since I just got a SA position. But just wanted to share my story to motivate others in search for their end goal position.
Before last Jan, I had no relevant finance experience whatsoever. I was a senior in a "semi-target" if you can call it that, with some random insurance and HR internship during my sophomore and junior summers. However, during the fall of my senior year, I finally got my shit together and decided I wanted to break into finance, whatever way possible.
I coldcalled my way into my first finance internship doing PWM at a MM bank. Worked there for 20 hours/ week while studying full-time. My weekday schedule looked like this: Work -> Class -> Work -> Evening Class -> Study. After my senior year, I took an unpaid internship at a boutique doing IBD after coldemailing 100 firms and meeting up with senior people; I even once paid $50 to go to an event that a MD of a boutique was going just to speak with him for 5 mins.
I got into a target MSF program in the EU after the summer. I thought to myself, I can finally get something through OCR and be set after graduating. I even had a final round with JPM in their MO/Risk division which was what I thought I wanted to do....
Then, BOOM, my application for my student loan got rejected even though I called them up beforehand to make sure it was doable... expected it to fund half of my tuition. 4 months back and forth dealing with bureaucracy during my first semester... to the point where I ran out of time and I was hit with repayment for my loans during undergrad. At that point, it was clear. I had to drop out. From there, I landed back in Toronto. I used up almost all my savings for day-to-day expenses during my time in EU and the ticket. I crashed with a friend and had to borrow $2K from my dad to just survive.
Initially I started reaching out to different people in banking, AM, HF, anything... While I was talking to them, I spoke to an alum in REPE (was always interested in RE, just never acted on it). Having him go through the entire industry and the different functions immediately sparked my interest. From then, I networked with over 50 senior guys in the industry (met almost all of them in person) to learn more and see which part of the industry interested me. I lived pretty far from the city and commuted 1.5 hours via public transit each time to get to downtown and once even took a 3hr commute to meet some VP.
Shit got real this last month, when I met with a partner of a REPE and got a spot to interview for a SA position and met a director at an Elite Boutique where he got me an interview for a FT position. Last week I finally got an offer from the REPE, tried to accelerate the process with the Elite Boutique... failed but told to stay in touch since they liked me.
Now I will be starting with the REPE next month for their SA! And given that they know I am looking for a FT, they said there might be a possibility to convert to FT due to some changes in their firm after the internship!
TLDR; got shit together, got experience, dropped out, networked into REPE SA
Persistence (+ doing the right things) pays off, so for all those still at it, don't give up and hit up everyone everywhere!
Congrats brotha! Great to hear. If only the real Paul George can convert like you did..
+1 SB. I love myself a good hustle story.
Congrats, never giving up pays dividends
Great story. These never get old, especially for those of us who are on the grind constantly. Good luck there.
Congrats man, keep hustling
Do you think reaching out everywhere helped you or would you recommend a more focused approach?
What I meant by reaching out everywhere is that I reached out to everything I had an interest in to gather more info on what the specific industry/ person's job entails -> helped me understand better what I wanted to do in real estate.
Also you never know who knows who, I always asked for referrals even if I may not be targeting that specific role that the person is doing (i.e. asking principals to refer me to people they know in brokerages).
Love the hustle. Congrats!
Damn right! Congrats!
congrats!
YESSS Congrats man!!!
thats BEAST MODE! congrats
Congrats man, always good to hear these stories.
You earned it bud! Keep up the hard work :)
yew
Congrats! Great story.
Congrats! You earn it.
This is super inspiring. Congrats!
great story thanks for posting!
Nice comeback!
Thats awesome. Congrats
Great Story! Good hustle out there. Love hearing success stories like this. Persistence and creative thought is the key to success....
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