Advice to graduate with a shit major and shit job

Hi, what advice do you guys have for a recent grad with a shit major and shit job. Only 21 yo but feel like life is over. I’ve seriously considered hunkering down and just moving to a place like the Philippines where I can at least feel like the boss I never will be here.

But seriously, I messed up. If you guys were me, or if I was your son, what would you do. I’m not a stupid kid, I took a shit ton of ap classes in high school. I graduated a T15 college with a high gpa. But it doesn’t mean shit. I only found out about the gravy train of IB, consulting, etc. only after I graduated. sigh I am by all means a loser^2 (squared).

 

I’m in no rush to hop into the banking industry, but I would just like to have the option open. There are zero exit opportunities as an appraiser. This is because we don’t have any actual skills. We don’t model

 

You could take on-line modeling classes like the ones on this website, as well as others. I am not sure what your major is, but you could try to break into a corp fin role. I have friends who work in an FP&A role and they majored in English. They broke in through a temp agency. Another way is corporate banking, a good quality middle office role like finance, internal audit, credit risk, market risk. Are you located near a city that is a center for banking and finance, (think Chicago, NYC, Charlotte. San Fran, Boston) ?

 

I have never messaged someone via anonymous post. I have been on this site longer than you have and I am still trying to figure this out. I am posting anonymous because I have had trolls message me and post strange things. There are some on this site that are not here for the right reasons. They ruin it for everyone else. I am so sorry for this. 

I do not think you should rush into an MBA. An MBA should be your last resort because it is so expensive, you really do not learn anything useful, and you lose 2 years of earnings. It is a nice vacation from real life, but not everyone can afford 100K a year and still does not guarantee placement. 

What are your job responsibilities?  

 

In the next 2 years: crush the GMAT (720+), start a company on the side (can be mostly bogus), get involved in some sort of charitable organization, get a promotion in your current job where you can say you manage people. Inflate all of this on your apps (without outright lying). Apply to the top 15 MBA programs. Guarantee you will get into several with your current background.

 

By that point I’ll be 24, and I’ll have made less combined than the price of the MBA program I sign up for. I’m not trying to negate you, but I would seriously have to consider if it would even make sense at that point. If there’s a way to get to PE without an MBA, that would be the ideal route for me to go cost-efficiently. Plus, I can’t bank on the fact that the mba accepts me, what if they don’t? Then my plan goes to shit and I’m still an appraiser

 
chosethewrongmajor

By that point I'll be 24, and I'll have made less combined than the price of the MBA program I sign up for. I'm not trying to negate you, but I would seriously have to consider if it would even make sense at that point. If there's a way to get to PE without an MBA, that would be the ideal route for me to go cost-efficiently. Plus, I can't bank on the fact that the mba accepts me, what if they don't? Then my plan goes to shit and I'm still an appraiser

Similar to my response to your original message, you want some magic bullet that fixes everything. Everyone is offering completely reasonable ideas and you keep saying they aren’t possible. What are you actually looking for? I’m not trying to be mean, but I am trying to give you a dose of reality. 

 
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chosethewrongmajor

Hi, what advice do you guys have for a recent grad with a shit major and shit job. Only 21 yo but feel like life is over. I've seriously considered hunkering down and just moving to a place like the Philippines where I can at least feel like the boss I never will be here.

But seriously, I messed up. If you guys were me, or if I was your son, what would you do. I'm not a stupid kid, I took a shit ton of ap classes in high school. I graduated a T15 college with a high gpa. But it doesn't mean shit. I only found out about the gravy train of IB, consulting, etc. only after I graduated. sigh I am by all means a loser^2 (squared).

Not to pile on but your attitude is a real issue here. You went to a T15 school with a high GPA and have a job; you are light years ahead of most, but somehow you think life is over. 

I see this a lot with people in their 20’s, it’s like any negative thing means everything is over. That also becomes self fulfilling. People becoming paralyzed and answer like you have to everything, any suggestion you shoot down as not possible as opposed to seeing how it can be possible  

You are behind people who started in IB but so far ahead others. The only way to move to what you want is: 1) have a plan 2) work like hell 3) get lucky. You need to be willing to work like hell, not say all is lost when you are 21. 

So a few options: 1) grad school (people recommended this and your attitude in your response was again bad - you are losing before the game even starts) 2) move internally or to another company to something more aligned, moving directly to banking will be tough but plan out where you want to be in 5-10 years and see how to incrementally get there 3) network like crazy.

I realize one data point isn’t the answer but at your age I was making $45k/year in a F500 job, at 30 I had little in savings and still struggling to move into my desired career and by 35 was clearing 7 figures in finance. Need to change your attitude. 

 

I appreciate your response. Yes, I am being a defeatist. But also, I’m scared. I’ve applied to a million jobs using my undergrads job portal, and I am not getting any knocks at the door. I want to follow your step #2 and go through with moving to something that is more aligned, but just don’t know how! My parents aren’t exactly literate with this stuff, and neither were the college counselors.

I message people on LinkedIn asking if they’d be willing to have a conversation about how they got to their jobs and they always just say “i studied finance” then they tell me to network. How! How do I network now? I’m out of college, people on LinkedIn think I’m stupid. What do you want me to do! I even try to frequent area where people are having lunch in the financial district and strike up conversation. I even go to the gym there as the office is there, and try to talk to people there too! I’m losing my mind. Network, network, network, but I have zero/zilch/zip to offer these people! I am a cockroach living in a finance bro’a world.

 

First of all, IB and Consulting are pretty terrible.  Have you read posts here about how miserable the life is?

Do you just want money? Plenty of ways to make money.  Just want prestige? (you already went to a top 15 school....)

Anyways, you are getting good advice.  If your heart is still set on MBB and IB, go do something interesting and hard for the next few years then apply to MBA programs.

Its not hard. 

I joined the Army after college, did a tour overseas in Afghanistan, and then got into an top 15 MBA program.   I had a BAD undergrad GPA.

 

It doesn’t have to be IB or consulting, but those are the only 2 things I know that make money. I’ve never been good with computers so count that out.

If there’s another job that’s less exhaustive than IB or consulting and pats similar, sure if freaking love to jump on that boat even more, but from what I understand there’s not many, and they’re all equally as impossible to get into.

What I like about IB and Consulting is that you get exit opportunities. If you ever want out, you have PE or HF or basically any job barking at your door

 

It sounds like your heart is set on money rather than what you’ll actually enjoy doing.

As the prior commenter stated, read these forums throughly. There’s all kinds of people who were die hard finance majors. Top schools, top GPA’s, and got top jobs paying big bucks right out of school. Life is awesome right?

Lo and behold they quit because the work is extremely demanding and the money doesn’t compensate them for doing something they hate for 80+ hours a week.

Do you genuinely love IB/Consulting? Because if you don’t then you will have spent years of your life studying for the gmat, getting your MBA, landing an IB associate role, only to hate your life and wish you did something else.

You need to stop looking at those around you and on social media. Comparison is the thief of joy.

From a quick Google search you are making the median salary for someone under the age of 25 in the state of California. You are not a failure, and there is no reason to be embarrassed with where you are in life.

I gather you’re currently an appraiser in RE. RE is a tiny world, and I don’t see why with some hard self-study and networking you can’t move into a seat where there is more upwards trajectory. Learn how to model, and know your technicals inside and out.

RE is nice because long-term when you get some skin in the game you’ll be doing extremely well on less work than most in “high-finance”. It’s not sexy, but I think you need to stop comparing yourself to others and do what you want to do with your life.

 

Lol this is going to be my first post but I actually relate to this a lot. From experience, you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, take a deep breath, collect your thoughts and appraise (pun intended) the shit show that you made for yourself then come up with some plan to chart a path forward. 

Little back story: I graduated with a very useless degree from Maryland and spent my first year in the real world up to my eyeballs self-loathing because I, like you, realized I had made some very short sighted poor decisions regarding my future while in college and felt I was doomed to pay for those decisions for the rest of my life. I was making shit money and all my boys were doing pretty kush for 22 y/o.

I wanted to get into IB too and pretty much distilled my options down to two paths: continue to spray and pray my outrageously underwhelming resume all over indeed, LinkedIn etc and hope for some miracle from God that some of the shit I threw at the wall stuck or I could figure out a way to revamp the story an employer would see. I decided if I ever wanted any chance at getting a job at a BB or EB I needed the pedigree to match. So I joined the military and eventually tried out for and was selected into a special operations unit. I always wanted to do it, schools and employers love the special operations vet narrative and the Army would pay for my MBA eventually. Killed three birds with one stone. Ended up doing 6 years, got to deploy and do some awesome shit. I got out of the Army a few months ago now and was accepted to a T10 b school for the fall ‘23. Obviously still need to execute in b school to eventually land in the right place but nonetheless I’m confident my career trajectory is leaps and bounds more well positioned than if I had done nothing but just kept applying everywhere. 

Bottom line man, you fucked up and put yourself in a tough spot. Like the dude above me said you need to take accountability for it and own it. I’m certainly not telling you to go join the military but I am telling you that you really need to go figure out the answer to “why would an employer/school want to hire/admit me over the next guy?” because waiting for the job portal gods reigning favor on you is not a strategy. Guys like us made it hard on ourselves, so stop getting frustrated when you have to be proactive and go to extraordinary lengths compared to the next guy to get your foot in the door. 

But look I’m just a dude on the internet giving another dude on the internet a quasi motivational speech, so should you really listen to my advice? Idk. Either way good luck man. 

 

Idk man I’m not the good idea fairy. This is probably where you need to do some introspection and not ask others to do the work for you. Figure out the answer to the what’s going to make you stand out question. 
 

Some ideas though - You said you might want to do RE finance - you don’t necessarily need an MBA for that. Take modeling courses, get a grad certificate from any of the dozens of programs that offer them, literally anything that shows you have genuine interest in the industry. Then google around and email some MD/VPs at real estate firms saying you want to make a career transition and are willing to do an unpaid internship or find a small owner/operator and latch onto them for experience. 
 

Like I said before man, people like us that made bad initial decisions made it hard for ourselves. You’re going to have to get scrappy. Unless someone at BX also works for the make a wish foundation and offers you a position you’re wholly under qualified for you’re going to have to do something’s that suck. Keep working a shitty appraisal job, unpaid internship, join the military, go back to school and pay it out of pocket etc.. Up to you to figure what sets you up best in the long run man. Just don’t be one of those gen z/millennial losers that emit defeatist vibes, no one wants to hire that. 

 

A lot to unpack here. I think the previous comment speaks volumes to the mindset and the attitude you have. I was in a similar position headed into a downward spiral. It's so easy to feel defeated when things don't go your way with recruitment or career. That's someone self-fulfilling and forums like this one where everyone speaks to the cut-throat nature and few access points into these careers don't exactly help. I felt incredibly defeated graduating during a pandemic and failing to place in management consulting, and then once more when I had been branded as the "technology consulting guy" whilst trying to lateral into management consulting or finance oriented. 

What helped me first and foremost was answering the bigger question: what do you want to do with your life - be as specific as possible. Create a realistic vision about one year into the future. If you could have an ideal position, where in investment banking or corporate finance would you want to be? The field is big and any given firm has different product groups, industry groups, and even functional teams. It's best to some serious thought and research into clearing up the misconceptions of what you may think the field entails versus what it actually entails. This will help you understand the skills necessary to succeed on the job and through this research, help you build a network of folks you can learn from. 

The next aspect is to create a self-development plan broken out into three categories: core professional performance, self-development initiatives, mental & physical health habits. You can't just abandon your current job because you dislike it, in fact, the folks that were able to move between industries were often top performers who were able to make impacts in the positions they were in with the cards they were dealt. I can even go as far as to think of a few colleagues who went from technology consulting to private equity consulting or venture capital work. Therefore, even if it's not something you would see yourself specializing in, the best way to jump to another career is to prove yourself to be an asset. Now, for self-development, you can think of this as bridging the skills gap between the skills you're currently developing and where you would like to be. You could dedicate some time toward the CFA exam as a way to showcase your interest and prove your competence in the field of finance. You could take a financial modelling course and even craft equity reports on a portfolio website. You could lead an internal firm initiative or training session in the uses of MS Excel /PPT if applicable. The point is, the ways to build on your skills are endless and it's not necessary to do everything, but pick a few and stick to them over the long term. Finally, you need to maintain mental & physical health. One thing that saved me when I was having bouts of angst, depricative thoughts and all in all, feeling like sht, was my therapy sessions, and two books: Atomic Habits, and The Daily Stoic. It helped me shift my mindset from looking at what I lost: my opportunity to get into consulting early in my career, my dread of being trapped in my home or having to dig out of a hole, and this feeling of being a failure given others from my program had succeeded. Instead, I saw it as a way to accept the past for what it was and look at the tools and resources around me to build from where I stood right now. Instead of growing bitter or envious of others, I hopped on a call to better understand where my gaps lied specifically. That lead me to some data analytics courses, and furthering my passion for finance with the CFA exams. It also helped me adjust my attitude and behaviour to make better/healthier relationships with my new colleagues and friends.   

Finally, you need to accept a few facts of life. The first, comparing yourself will never help you if you're bitter. There is always going to be folks that are worse and better off than you. Looking to compare yourself to the select few who spent their high school days working to get into top universities and then continued to dedicate hundreds of hours in coursework, extra-curricular involvement and career-building pursuits to land in the few opportunities that exist is like comparing yourself to billionaires to some degree. You see the result and not the effort, the failed interviews, the stressful study sessions, the gut wrenching financial modelling at 2am and think yourself deserving of those same opportunities. The second, your plans will go astray for uncontrollable reasons often at the hands of externalities. You can't create a plan and have it work 100% of the time. In my case, the global pandemic wiped out the majority of the new graduate programs for management consulting - it felt like my life had been ending. Like what I had spent the past two years for had crumbled before I even had the chance to showcase a skillset I had been honing. But you know what happened? I continued to live, grow, and reposition myself for more opportunities down the road. This single position you currently hold is just the beginning of your career, it will only be the end of your career if you allow it to be. Don't grow impatient and throw away the cards your dealt by poisoning your relationships or lowering the quality of your work product out of spite. I have seen that happen to a few and then they proceeded to recruit during a recession and in a position of weakness. 

I sincerely hope you took some of what I said to heart. I understand your intent and impatience to proceed and propel forward into the career you always hoped for. But it takes time to build yourself up into an ideal candidate and a bit of luck to win over the hiring committee once you have. Don't rush into things without thinking it through. 

 

You’ll be fine. Majority of the people that I knew in my top tier university did not go into ib or consulting as there is too much demand relative to supply for these jobs even if you are at a target.

Just be happy you got a decent job and try to learn as much as you can. Get an mba if you really need to

 

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