I wish I had studied more and had a higher gpa. As I'm recruiting full time in my senior year, I'm well connected with alums that refer me for interviews, but my gpa is sub 3.5. For that reason, I wish I had done more work and networked less in college. That said, I've made some great friendships that will last a lifetime. What's your biggest regret in undergrad?
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honestly, don't have any regrets as such. I went to a non-target but was able to be a big fish in a small pond where I was able to shine compared to my peers and get the best possible opportunities. I have a high GPA and also landed a good offer. If I had to think of one, maybe be more outgoing in my first 1.5 years. I am an international student and thus was very introverted and stayed in my dorm for most of my first year. Would love to have had more of the social aspect of school. Also don't have any friendships that I can necessarily call life-long, definitely have some strong friendships but nothing drastic, so maybe a bit more on that side would have been nice as well.
Wish I had gotten into better shape.
Plenty of posts on here discuss workout routines with a busy schedule, but bottom line, it isn't hard to keep your weight in a stressful job, but it's near impossible to lose any signifcant weight.
In hindsight, I had plenty of time and a killer metabolism in college. I should have taken advantage of that. What weight you enter IB is probably going to set the tone for your weight for the next 10 years or so. It's probably not getting better and could get worse.
I am graduating this year and the pandemic is making me realize all the things that I should have done but didn't do. I am glad that I studied really hard, got good grades and broke into IB (going back to a BB FT next year).All this came with a trade off: I didn't go to as many parties, literally went on ONE DATE in my entire college career (Can you imagine. don't even ask about my sex life) and basically didn't have much of a life outside academics, career stuff and closest friends. It would have been nice to go out with more guys. oh well. it's nice to have a job tho
went on one date (think holding hands/hugging/talking)
Wish I would have soaked it all in more. Enjoy the moments. Everything seemed so stressful at the time but looking back it was all small potatoes.
Also wish I would have done a full semester abroad. I didn't have the money and had to get hella scholarships to get a summer semester in Madrid. 6 months would have been incredible.
Wish I paid less attention to, and spent less time trying to achieve someone else's definition of success. Oh and branch out to more non-finance related organizations on campus. As an impressionable underclassmen, I was led to believe that grinding 24/7 and only being focused on finance was the only way to succeed in this industry.
Sure IB is nice in that you have very nice financial stability for someone fresh out of college, but whereas I was once following the "BB IB -> PE/HF or bust" mentality that hardos at my school preached, I'm now questioning whether I even want to enter the buyside if it means sacrificing my health and time that I can spend developing personal relationships.
My biggest regret was allowing my end-goal (Bulge Bracket IBD my sophomore summer) to rule my entire existence and push away people I used to be very close to. I succeeded in my goal, and now have two more years to deepen existing relationships with others, but the entire recruitment process was very mentally exhausting for me. People over things man, people over things.