26 Comments
 

I don’t have mine on my CV and no one has asked/cared (except for Dartmouth Partners who ask for them during every first round lol)

 

Nah, you’re cooked bruv. You should just retire and move to the mountains, even the mailman laughs about your A-levels

 

At a point, it stops being annoying, and just becomes entertaining due to numbness/desensitization

 

I got A*AB in my A-levels, 2.1 at a semi-target uni and eventually got a job in credit buyside for a large pension fund after a few years at a credit rating agency. Not saying that's comparable, but I still had no chance getting a place in IB in retrospect with my A-levels.

If you're truly dedicated to finance, there are plenty other opportunities othan than IB (which you don't have a chance at getting). Big 4 basically hands out jobs to anyone these days in Audit.

BUT! You need to work on your mental health or seriously assess your cababilities. Anyone can blame depression, but if you're not cut out for finance from the start you WILL get found out in the first few years and then you'll be far more depressed.

 
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Look, kid. My best friend is the cleverest person I know, got a first in Maths from my uni and got a Goldman internship in S&T. Didn't even get a full time offer because he couldn't hack the hours. Now he's a scientist in quantum computing and loving his job.

There's a million posts on here complaining about IB. It isn't the dream you make it out to be or what everyone thinks of in university. It involves huge sacrifices which only appeal to the most hardworking and competitive guys out there.

Chances are, you aren't intelligent enough or hard working enough for it. And, that's ok, because neither am I.

IMO ditch the ambition for IB now and think what you WANT to do - not just what pays the most, although consider compensation too. It doesn't even have to be finance, but could be. Finding some identity other than being the finance bro everyone mostly hates will help you a lot more than crying over your A-level results which are a sunk cost anyway.

 

Real talk, isn’t this obsession with A-levels beyond uni admissions a bit nuts, or am I just an ignorant foreigner who isn’t tuned into British customs?

 

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