A day after I visited my target school when I got in, I was in a major car accident. I was in a coma for a month and suffered a traumatic brain injury. What I also did not know at the time was that I had undiagnosed ADHD, which was amplified by the brain injury. My parents told me to take a gap year, but I was confident that I could push through it as long as I took a light course load my first semester and didn't stay on campus. This led me to miss out on most of the freshman year fun, but I also quickly realized even with academic accommodations my academic abilities were no where close to where it used to be. I ended up with a 3.4 GPA right before IB recruiting in sophomore spring, and I did not get a first round at a single bank which I applied to.
The stress of recruiting and my heavier finance course load caused my GPA to sink once again to a 3.3, and I tried in vain to recruit during junior year to once again not get a single first round. One of my family members who runs a hedge fund had told me not to do IB, as he felt I was not a cutthroat person, and I gave up on this dream. I ended up getting a rotational analyst full-time offer at a F15 tech company in possibly their AI Product Management group and their startup accelerator group, but part of me still thinks I'm a failure.
I had worked my ass off to get into my target school, had been studying technicals since day 1, and I dreamed of the friends I would make in the bull pen getting a $25 seamless dinner every night. My friends who had gotten IB SA positions this summer made DOUBLE what I made this summer at the tech company, and they're going to be starting in positions (I'm a senior) where they will be making $30K-$50K more than me all-in starting and will likely be able to move into PE where their earnings will explode. While I could potentially move to a FAANG PM role, I feel like I am an absolute failure for screwing up my GPA at my target school (which my parents paid a great deal of money for) and missing my shot at IB. I don't know how I'm gonna get over this, and I truly wish I had taken a gap year and tried to recover from my brain injury as much as I could. I truly feel like I have failed and I will never forgive myself. Thank you for listening.
Hey I know this was really important to you, but you have to realize that getting into IB by no means makes you a successful person. Not one bit: a lot of my networking chats have been with people who love to say they work at a BB but in reality are sleep deprived, out of shape, have no social life, and are rapidly destroying their health because they thought it was the badass thing to do after college. This forum and hardos at a bunch of colleges, which by the way make up literally less than 1 percent of 1 percent of the population, put it on a pedestal and young people absorb it. Yes it likely leads to a lucrative career, but then again you can get to a great career in about 100,000 different ways. It's amazing that you were able to recover from your injury, and honestly after going through something like that I'd expect you to really weigh how precious life is and understand what your values are. Is it worth giving up 4 years for the hardo dream of having no life and maybe making 700k after taxes? Would you, right now, trade 1 million dollars for 5 years of the best years of your life if given the chance? I say enjoy life, kill it at your company, and if you really do want to spend 90 hours a week adjusting logos and chasing prestige then apply to business school and come back as an associate. Your "target" school is likely a good university and you should have no problem building a great career, so I'd recommend living your life unconcerned by what some virgins on wso think of your company brand name, becoming amazing at what you do, and really looking at values and what's truly important in life for you.
This actually brought me to tears, thank you so much
I wonder how many Prospects on wso are virgins...
Well at least one right here.
Aww poor baby. Don't feel bad, be better.
Damn for a banker, you sure lack social awareness.
Never said I was a good banker.
I don't think he said you were a good banker either
Dude, you're already a success! Made it into a target school, overcame a bad injury to achieve a good GPA... and sounds like you've got a great job! Hell, tons of college seniors right now have nothing and we're in a freaking pandemic. You might not have what was your "dream" job, but a ton (if not most) college seniors are probably envious of you bc you've got a great gig and don't have to sweat out being unemployed coming up on graduation. Plus, like the previous poster said, if you still want, you can almost certainly do IB after you do an MBA later on.
But you've got to get some perspective. I just watched a Shark Tank... what does that have to do with anything? The founder of Spanx was on... said, after college, she took the LSAT and bombed it so bad she couldn't get into any decent law school. I looked her up -- after that, she worked at DisneyWorld, sold fax machines door to door and did stand up comedy... how do you think her career was going 3-5 years out of college? Fast forward to today, she's worth a billion bucks. So again, just have some perspective. This thing -- your life, your career -- is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on what you've got -- still your life after that accident, and a damn good job waiting for you upon graduation. And if you're still bummed about IB, it's not out of the picture. If you still want it bad enough, just network your ass off, read up on the industry and be prepared when someone offers you an opportunity, because somebody will.
Keep your head up buddy. I know it can be tough looking inward at this site but it is a distorted view, and I assure you that there are successful careers all over the map and sound like you are on the path to one. Forget about banking. Find something at your new job that you really love and zoom it on it. Be good at everything, but really be THE GUY for whatever it is you landed on. Being the go-to guy at something will help you both with advancement in a place you're interested in, and will save you if bad times come and your career is on the rocks. I do IB and it is not all that its cut out to be. Take the time in your new job to truly become great at it and roll from there. I actually found your story impressive and it is pretty fuckin cool that you got to where you were after being dealt a shitty hand.
We are all just a bunch of cells forged from the dust of fucking dead stars, floating on some rock through the universe. Drink beer, party with your friends, have good sex, etc, etc, etc, and then die. Work comes after all that other shit. Don't let it define you like so many people on this site do. Keep your foot on the gas boss, I hope your company is wise enough to realize the killer hand they drew by hiring you.
Hey man, let me share part of my story which somehow relates to what you are going through (at least the part of feeling like you failed), I hope you see there is a bright side as well outside IB after reading it. I graduated from a semi-top uni with average grades and worked my ass off to get into IB, which I did only to be fired after the first year because I wasn't made for taking orders without questioning. It was my fault and only mine, I never felt I was fitting in the job anyway. After being fired I felt I had failed miserably, that I wasn't made succeed and that it would take me maaany more years to earn as much as my peers in IB, well now I can say I was wrong. I accepted a finance job at a big multinational as a fucking intern (yes, after 1 year in IB this is the most I could get) with a very low salary and my plan was to spend maximum 1 year there while I was trying to get back into IB again, I couldn't, it seemed all banks I interviewed with were reluctant to hire a 1st year analyst that had been fired for misconduct, so you know what? I said f**k them, I'm gonna rock it anyways, as someone said above there are 100,000 ways to success. So I took it easy at my job, never gave too much importance to the fact that I was an intern while I should be a second year analyst anywhere making good money but I didn't mind what others thought because I had experienced something not a lot of people experience early in their careers (being fired and deal with it) and I knew it was a matter of time before this experience paid off. After 1 year as an intern at this company, I had my 1st year review, my management told me they were very surprised with my performance: How I communicated, my modeling skills, attention to detail, maturity to deal with top management at the company, etc were the factors that made them offer me a senior financial analyst position abroad (I skipped 5 years of experience in what would have been a normal path at my company to reach the position I was offered), I negotiated my conditions considering it was my company asking me to move abroad and now, after 9 months I am making similar money than a 1st year associate in IB, while working 50h/week (with some peaks once every 2months when big negotiations come in which I get to work 70h). Most importantly, I really enjoy what I do, it is not my passion but it is a very enjoyable job which pays good and gives me time for myself. It might not have the prestige of IB but to me, is not about prestige but long term success and pursuit of happiness (I especially realize this every afternoon at 7pm when I can go for a run, hang out with friends or work on my other personal projects). Now, I will not say I am successful, but I would be crazy to think I am failure and I have learnt that it is stupid to waste time feeling like one because you did not get into IB. Man, trust your gut and show you are good at whatever you do, keep working hard and smart, either in IB or not you will make good money and have a lucrative career if you focus. Not all paths to success go though IB!!
This may not be useful to you, and I by no means want to cheapen your struggles -- I hear you and I feel you. However, a useful exercise I like to do is below:
Don't forget that today, someone woke up in the middle of Côte d'Ivoire at 4:00 AM to go mine palladium for 12 hours underground, only to wake up and do the same thing the next day, and every day following until their untimely death.
Macabre, I know, but you really have to think about how wonderful life is, and how fortunate we are to have the opportunities we have. In our world of 7.8 some odd billion people, I bet 7.7 would wish they traded places with you.