Hey everyone, looking for perspective. Made the mistake of getting a bit too comfortable and have now put myself in a bad position. Did soph. year at a BB, and junior year at a EB. Going to a MM full time (P72/MLP) but completely let my grades slip my senior year and finished with a 3.1 GPA.
Am I completely finished for HF recruiting post my initial stint or does GPA not matter at that point where you’re 1-2 years out?
Would appreciate any help.
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Did your current shop with the offer not pull your offer? 3.1 is a big drop from the 3.7 they usually require for applicants.
I don’t recall having a grade req for my MM role after I graduated unlike my peers going to BB/EB though… if it isn’t an issue right now, it shouldn’t be an issue in 2-3 years so long as you stay for a while. Network with the PMs you’re interested in working for afterwards assuming it’s an MM shop you want to later to. hedge funds don’t have as much of an internal hurdle such as a grade req which completely stops even a top candidate from migrating to them so it could be less of an issue.
again, this depends if your current shop is aware of your grades and isn’t pulling the offer though.
OP here. Thank you for the comment and for sharing your thoughts on the topic. I am already set with my current shop as I am towards the end of wrapping up my background check, and they did not pull my offer or even bring up the grades, fortunately. Also, the drop-off is not as extreme as I had a 3.5 or 3.4 when applying for the role. Have not been above a 3.7 since my junior fall but have still had success to an extent, when recruiting during undergrad.
Assuming it continues to be fine, you'll be okay(ish). Depends on the recruiting processes of the places you lateral to, if its incredibly centralised and done online through their website you would have some trouble. Through HHs and PMs specifically less so.
GPA doesn't really matter. People may look at your school (undergrad), and degree but after a year or two, majority of your career trajectories are determined by some luck and how you worked over the past years.
This is quite impressive to drop that hard in senior year where you taking classes in your major you typically enjoy. Truly must have taken some effort. Now try to do the exact opposite next two years and it will never matter again.
Also get out of the mindset of “my next job”, this could be your employer for the next 5 to 8 years here just crush it.
Surprised myself, have been thinking about it for the last two weeks as I can’t believe how it happened. Think I thought I was in a way better position than I actually was. Will definitely never let it happen again.
Let's get some context here, what did you drop from to a 3.1? Dropping from a 3.3 to a 3.1 is not as bad as dropping from say a 3.7 to a 3.1 which one of the above commenters mentioned. How did this happen? Did you have some sort of mitigating circumstances (medical, family, etc.) you can point to or was this purely you being a lazy SOB and not doing the work? If it's the latter yes, you're probably finished and 100% deserve to have your offer rescinded because no platform is going to trust someone who gets complacent and won't grind out the final stretch just because they think they have something locked down already. Are you required to tell them/was the offer contingent on you graduating with a certain GPA? Lots of variables here.
Yea I definitely did not drop from a 3.7 to 3.1 lol, not even sure at what point that becomes possible. I had a 3.3, when I signed my offer. Had my best-friend die during my senior spring which was something I wasn’t prepared to handle as well but wouldn’t fully attribute the drop to that. Think this was all me and something to just learn from.
Ayyy 3.3 club lets go, clearly you're a sharp guy then to have gotten the offer. You have my condolences for the loss of your friend.
A close friend dying during the tail end of your graduating year is absolutely a mitigating circumstance. Even if you can't honestly attribute the entirety of the drop to it, I would lean on that. A .2 drop when you were already on the lower end is not something they're going to be happy about but it shouldn't make/break anything either given they were ok with you having a 3.3 in the first place. I would be up front with whoever the senior person you're reporting to/built a relationship with (sr. analyst or PM) about the personal event and how it impacted you finishing out the semester, reiterate you're committed to this role and ready to work hard and show them they made the right choice. Maybe put some extra work in before you start so you can come to the table with some fresh ideas/value to add and be ready to hit the ground running.
Good luck!
As mentioned, you got BB, EB, MM while holding down a 3.3. Not sure you should ever worry about your gpa clearly you do not enjoy the classroom and thrive outside it.
Sorry to hear about the personal situation, just focus on the future no one was hiring you because of the gpa anyways.
Nah, doesn't matter that much. Hope you did spend your senior year having fun.
The way I think about it is you landed a role which is the only hurdle with having a low GPA. Especially in MM world meritocracy is king. If you're a rockstar analyst who's put up good numbers, knows your industry cold, no PM or future employer is going to care about if you have a 4.0 vs a 2.5 since your experience speaks for itself.
FWIW it can go two ways, a PM could be anal about academic achievement (rare) and so what? Idk if I'd want to work for someone who cares about something from 4+ years ago that's pretty much irrelevant. The other way is some PMs are turned off by high GPAs since they're worried about social skills and just care about if you know your shit. That's the sort of person most people would want to work for.
You haven't even started your MM role yet, just focus on being the best analyst you can and not optimize for optionality/your next role. If you focus on the former, people will actively reach out to recruit you. I've worked at MMs before and know analysts who have some of the largest books at well-known MMs and they all fall in the former category + have recruiters reaching out consistently since they're well known - it's a small industry.
Your GPA is out of your control, your grind and becoming a good analyst is in your control, so just focus on that.
I never really understood the assumption that high GPA = bad social skills especially in university. This aint high school where you could just do some homework, study for tests a couple nights before and get good grades. You can't just sit in the library all day and expect 4.0
If anything, I've seen many social adept people in "high finance" have high GPAs.
Yeah I get you, also wanted to clarify my first comment and say I don’t think people with high GPAs are socially inept.
Just based on my own conversations, some people look at high GPAs in subjects that require a lot of grind work as you’re married to the library and spend all day grinding out exams (which shouldn’t be a bad thing). This doesn’t apply as much though to majors that are actually intellectually challenging like Math/Physics. Having a high GPA there might mean you’re actually intelligent vs spent a lot of time memorising content.
Real question is how you were able to get an offer at a top MM with a 3.3? They saw something in you very special.
Make money get bitches
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