Advice on boosting career despite mediocre credentials

So this is my situation:

Last year I graduated from a school on the lower end of the T50 with an econ B.A., a mediocre GPA (between 3.4-3.5), no econometrics experience and a couple of completely irrelevant internships. I currently have a job in New York at a well-known F500 financial services firm; unfortunately its a dead-end position in back-office compliance. It is also crushingly dull.

Despite my lackluster credentials I am a pretty smart guy and while I understand that I'm not going to be landing interviews for sweet gigs at top firms any time soon, I do aspire to something that offers more juice, more opportunity to build a professional skill-set, and that I'm not embarrassed to explain at parties, hopefully without having to leave New York City and break my recently extended lease. Unfortunately I have no real idea what to aim for or how to go about doing it. My first thought was just to begin applying for mid-tier consulting firms (which I take to be outfits like IBM or Deloitte), but that was just for lack of any better ideas. I'm not particularly fixated on any one company or field; my main goal is to escape my Office Space job for something that might actually help me develop professionally.

2 Comments
 

Figure out what you are interested in, then focus in on a particular area in the industry you want to be in, and network with alumni.. And non-alumni... network, network, network. If you don't know how you would go about networking or preparing for interviews then buy some of the guides that WSO has to offer. They are pretty good and concise.

Fear is the greatest motivator. Motivation is what it takes to find profit.
 

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