What to do with my life? - College senior at a large university in the Southeastern Conference

I just don't want to make the same mistake my father did in that he's an electrical engineer for Dell but all he wants to do is trade. He trades options at his desk while at work but hates the Dell job. If I'm an accountant I'm going to run into the same problem.

I like learning about accounting, but the only reason I really majored in it was because it is the best program at my university.

How did you get your first job?

...my first job was atrocious. But it was at a good firm and ended up allowing me move on to other things. And BTW bad news: your first job is probably going to be atrocious whether you are an accountant, an investment banker, or anything else.

Southernstunna, definitely pursue trading if that's your passion. Both of your posts illustrate the fact that you know what you want to do, so you should pursue it. Does your school have an alumni directory? I'm sure it does - I would go into that and search for alumni at firms in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and e-mail / cold call them. Since your school isn't a target school like mine, you'll have to be more proactive and assertive in order to land a job. Connections help significantly. When you contact these people, give them a quick sales pitch about your passion in trading and how you'd like to break into the industry. The key is to let them know that you're willing to start anywhere in the firm and will do whatever it takes to make your way up (this will show them that you really want it).

Do you have any family members / family friends that work at a firm w/ S&T? Maybe someone you know, knows someone who knows someone. You never know until you ask around. Good Luck in the search.

I don't know ANYBODY who works as a trader or in sales, which is obviously an enormous disadvantage.

I appreciate the advice, and I'm definitely going to check out the alumni directory. I've never heard of anything like that before, but I gotta think that we must have one somewhere.

Can anyone comment on the competitiveness of trading jobs in Houston/Dallas vs. NYC? Am I correct in my assumption that they are less competitive?

southernstunna:

I'm going to be a college senior this year at a large university in the Southeastern Conference. The school itself is average, however we have a top 20 Accounting program in which I am currently enrolled. I'll graduate with only about a 3.4, as I did poorly my first year of college and have been forced to pull my GPA back up.

I really want to get into trading but the problem is my school is definitely not a target and my GPA isn't great. I read EVERYTHING I can get my hands onto about technical analysis and have been trading forex on a micro account for the past 6 months or so successfully.

What are my options here? I would actually RATHER work in city such as Houston, Dallas, or Atlanta and I've heard these cities are far less competitive than NYC?

Another option would be for me to go Big 4 Accounting (they recruit heavily from my school) and try and move to a bank after that? However, I don't feel like my odds of accomplishing this are great and the absolute last thing I want to be is an accountant.

Thanks for the help guys.

if you likes trading and would like pursue that career, go straight ahead for that.

And I definitely want to do that. However, that is far easier said than done. I'd be willing to do "equities in Dallas" or literally anything, I just want to break into the industry.

If your looking to trade phy power or natty... Houston is where you want to be. It is tough to get a job but once you have one...another world opens up