How to hit the ground running for first year - Incoming analyst in Coverage group
I accepted an offer a few weeks ago for a Full-time IB on a coverage group at an MM bank (Baird/ William Blair/That tier of banks) and am wondering what is the best way to prepare myself to be successful in my first year.
For background: I come from a target school but don't have the best GPA. I was still able to land a full-time role despite this, but I was asked about it in every interview and told directly that they don't hire people with my GPA. My school is known to be pretty rigorous among other top schools, and everyone who interviewed me acknowledged this. I attribute the low GPA to a lack of focus and responsibility during my freshman year, which I said in interviews. I still have had good internships during school and good extracurriculars, and everyone I've worked with seems to like me.
However, because of my low GPA I feel the need to prove I belong during my first year and set myself apart from other analysts. I don't want it to be something my seniors look to when I inevitably mess up.
Is there any advice on courses or anything else I can do to ensure I'll be ready when I hit the desk? I would really appreciate any help or tips.
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You may end up “doing too much” trying to make up for it. Also I would be surprised if people care that much about GPA out of college. If you have the job you have the job. Master the simple stuff I guess is the best advice I can give. Congrats on your job of course!!
First advice is to realize GPA is literally a manipulatable number that others realized was important before you realized.
I never viewed my GPA as an indicator of intelligence or work ethic (contrary to what others might say). I got into a LMM bank from a non-target with a 3.4 but was top of my class when it came to mindset, modeling, and other parts of professionalism starting as An1. I was honestly shocked at how dumb some of the target kids with great GPAs were.
Anyways yea the GPA does not mean anything in the professional world. If anything I would be interested to hear how your team brought you on cuz they clearly saw a concentrated positive trait from you which others with higher GPAs lacked.
Sent you a PM, is there anything you did before you started to be top of your class in terms of modeling preparation?
Took a modeling course for $500 during school. Sucks at first but it pays off well.
Do you remember which one it was? I've been looking at ones from CFI, Financial Edge, WSO, WSP, and TTS, but I'm not sure which is the best value.
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