Some advice on getting a job or internship by Monty09

Hello everyone

I put up a post once a year on this topic and this year will be no different...

While not a "to do" this is simply a game plan to help close the gap from student to s&t....

  1. Take care of your grades.. while a good gpa may not get a job, a bad gpa will not even get you an interview in most cases. While not the norm, you do find sub 3.0 people every once in a while who do in fact get a posh job. I am one of those and it took me twice as much work to make it happen. Do yourself a favor and take care of your grades.

  2. Make your schools career office work. Hit them up, email them, ask questions. Your paying for it so make them earn their keep. No question should ever be off limits. Get to know them and what they can and cant do for you

  3. Network. With classmates, professors, people that have left school recently and 2,5,10 years ago. The connection you make via a college can help get you over the hump on your search. The best networking I done have been via email. "Hi, Could I steal you for 10 minutes to learn how great you are? " I would say its almost 100% going to work. Think about it like this... if someone emailed you and wanted to take you out to hear how bad ass you are. Would you say no? Highly doubt it

  4. Internships... just get em as early as you can. Does not matter as much in freshman and soph summers but please do something. Also winter breaks are a good time to try something for a few weeks. You have to work to line these up but dont be focused on $$.. focus on exp. I did not make a dime until my junior year internship but did something every summer. Work to build a resume that shows you have done something.

  5. write down your goals and check them off. could be as simple as making it to class on time or finding some leadership in a club. write down goals and track how you do to meeting those goals. dont worry if some take longer then others. I am working on one goal that is rather dumb but quite important to myself. make your goals a point in your life to check off. and if megan fox is on your list..... your not alone. happy hunting

  6. Relax and live a little.... the most fun i had in college was when I went on a few random road trips with my friends. Dont forget these are the years where you still have a great deal of freedom and free time. Use it to the hilt. Some of the best times in college were the random chats about random shit at 3 am at taco bell, jack in the box, etc etc.

 

"Take care of your grades.. while a good gpa may not get a job, a bad gpa will not even get you an interview in most cases. While not the norm, you do find sub 3.0 people every once in a while who do in fact get a posh job. I am one of those and it took me twice as much work to make it happen. Do yourself a favor and take care of your grades"

I might be one of those few people as well. I'm a bit paranoid though:

I got my offer letter to join full-time but I'm freaking out because I don't put my GPA on my resume and it didnt come up in any of my multiple interviews. When you join though, you have to supply your transcript + go through a bg check. I assume I'll be safe since it's never come and up and I have not lied about anything on my resume.

Do you think I'll be safe or am I going to get screwed?

 
banker1987:
"Take care of your grades.. while a good gpa may not get a job, a bad gpa will not even get you an interview in most cases. While not the norm, you do find sub 3.0 people every once in a while who do in fact get a posh job. I am one of those and it took me twice as much work to make it happen. Do yourself a favor and take care of your grades"

I might be one of those few people as well. I'm a bit paranoid though:

I got my offer letter to join full-time but I'm freaking out because I don't put my GPA on my resume and it didnt come up in any of my multiple interviews. When you join though, you have to supply your transcript + go through a bg check. I assume I'll be safe since it's never come and up and I have not lied about anything on my resume.

Do you think I'll be safe or am I going to get screwed?

Once you are in that phase, all you can do is knock yourself out by lying on your resume or on your job application. You could have a 1.01 cum gpa, but if you didn't lie about it, no one is going to ask. All they are going to do is verify that everything you said is true on your app, and you didn't lie or withhold any information about any questions (IE you said you were never arrested and it turns out you were convicted of statutory rape in '97).

Some firms are intense about this- a buddy of mine almost didn't get a job at GS, because in his prior work experience he didn't put down a job in college where he taught an inter-session course over winter break when he was a grad student. There was a lot of wrangling and his start date was delayed for over a month because of it. I have heard similar stories- hiring managers tell candidates to not give notice until they have passed the background check.

 
someotherguy:
banker1987:
"Take care of your grades.. while a good gpa may not get a job, a bad gpa will not even get you an interview in most cases. While not the norm, you do find sub 3.0 people every once in a while who do in fact get a posh job. I am one of those and it took me twice as much work to make it happen. Do yourself a favor and take care of your grades"

I might be one of those few people as well. I'm a bit paranoid though:

I got my offer letter to join full-time but I'm freaking out because I don't put my GPA on my resume and it didnt come up in any of my multiple interviews. When you join though, you have to supply your transcript + go through a bg check. I assume I'll be safe since it's never come and up and I have not lied about anything on my resume.

Do you think I'll be safe or am I going to get screwed?

Once you are in that phase, all you can do is knock yourself out by lying on your resume or on your job application. You could have a 1.01 cum gpa, but if you didn't lie about it, no one is going to ask. All they are going to do is verify that everything you said is true on your app, and you didn't lie or withhold any information about any questions (IE you said you were never arrested and it turns out you were convicted of statutory rape in '97).

Some firms are intense about this- a buddy of mine almost didn't get a job at GS, because in his prior work experience he didn't put down a job in college where he taught an inter-session course over winter break when he was a grad student. There was a lot of wrangling and his start date was delayed for over a month because of it. I have heard similar stories- hiring managers tell candidates to not give notice until they have passed the background check.

I thought it wasn't necessary to list all prior work experience if some of it is not relevant. Are you saying that firms could potentially take back an offer if they find out you have worked other jobs than the ones listed on your resume? Why would they care about this?

 
monty09:
your fine. my 2.6 was good enough for gs

I'm kind of curious about this. It looks like you're talking about S&T here, but does anyone actually know of people getting in to IB divisions at BBs with sub-3.0 GPAs (aside from if your dad is the CEO of a major client, of course)? My impression is that because the math isn't particularly difficult in IB, they don't need people that are math whizzes from non-targets or with low GPAs and they care much more about your pedigree. Obviously pedigree doesn't matter much in trading as long as you make money, but this doesn't seem to directly translate to IB.

Anyone know of someone like this? I know people with 3.0 - 3.3s who are in IB, but never heard of someone who's sub 3.0.

Hi, Eric Stratton, rush chairman, damn glad to meet you.
 
Best Response
Otter.:
monty09:
your fine. my 2.6 was good enough for gs

I'm kind of curious about this. It looks like you're talking about S&T here, but does anyone actually know of people getting in to IB divisions at BBs with sub-3.0 GPAs (aside from if your dad is the CEO of a major client, of course)? My impression is that because the math isn't particularly difficult in IB, they don't need people that are math whizzes from non-targets or with low GPAs and they care much more about your pedigree. Obviously pedigree doesn't matter much in trading as long as you make money, but this doesn't seem to directly translate to IB.

Anyone know of someone like this? I know people with 3.0 - 3.3s who are in IB, but never heard of someone who's sub 3.0.

it was with jaron

 
monkeysama:
Well, maybe I should think more about editing my resume.

Shameless plug: If anyone is interested in hiring a TA with serious math and econ chops send me a pm and I can shoot you a resume.

piece of advice: the more you brag, the more people want to put you down. not going to serve you well in an interview

 
pillz:
monkeysama:
Well, maybe I should think more about editing my resume.

Shameless plug: If anyone is interested in hiring a TA with serious math and econ chops send me a pm and I can shoot you a resume.

piece of advice: the more you brag, the more people want to put you down. not going to serve you well in an interview

I wasn't bragging. Quite the opposite actually. My GPA is so-so, I just thought that it was a requirement to put it on one's CV. If not that's definitely a plus for me I think.

 

Something I'd like to add is to do interesting things while in school! There are so many opportunities to make yourself a more interesting person that not enough people take advantage. I'm a first year analyst right now and I've noticed that too many of you analysts/future analysts are so narrow minded and only do things finance related....go abroad, join a photography club, learn a language, volunteer....idk, just try something different,....these are things you won't have time for when you start work, yet in my opinion make you a more attractive candidate.

 

Thanks for capturing a successful college experience in a single post. I've been letting my grades slip over the past few weeks so this thread definitely proved to be a vital warning.

Transitioning into GS with a 2.6 is highly commendable. Good on ya, Monty!

Silver banana'd.

I win here, I win there...
 
monty09][quote=<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/trading-investing/arbitrage target=_blank>arbitRAGE</a></span>.:
i declined offer but my gpa was not a factor

Do you mind sharing the reason why?

 

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