Networking in Investment Banking

I hope everyone is having a great day!

I wanted to get some input on how strongly networking for Investment Banking will apply to my current situation. To give you some background information, I am a third year student studying finance and go to a top 5 Canadian school with lots of IB and other job opportunities. After my first year of school my GPA was a 1.9 because I wasn't interested in attending school that year. After that year, I decided that I want to work in high finance (IB) and have maintained a 3.7+ GPA since. My cumulative at the end of my third year will be around 3.1 which is far below the minimum grade required for IB (3.5 is the bare minimum I believe). How much will networking help me in trying to overcome the cumulative GPA barrier and hopefully land an IB internship in the summer of my fourth year when I apply with my 3.1 in November? How would I go about networking with other bankers in regards to my situation? Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your valuable input.

3 Comments
 

For what you "lack" in grades you can make up with networking and extracurricular activities. When I broke into investment banking abroad, I had built a cv with achievements other than high grades (I had the same GPA when I graduated) but it took me more time than my peers. Networking helps whether you have good grades or not. That's what I'm doing now to get a job in IB in NY. Hope this helps.

 

Thank you! How do you go about networking with regards to overcoming a low GPA when talking to a banker? Are extracurriculars not related directly to finance still useful?

 

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