So I'm a sophomore at a target. I have an internship with RBC in Toronto this summer on their DCM desk -- that's the good news. The bad news is that my semester went pretty awfully: My overall GPA went from a 3.25 to a 3.05 (which, for resume purposes, means it's gone from a 3.3 to a 3.1).
My questions are twofold:
1) Does my GPA matter at all in getting an offer to return to RBC next summer as a junior (and then hopefully as FT after that)?
2) If I could get my GPA back up to a 3.2-3.3 (possible given my course selection is much wiser next semester...this semester I took four very tough classes with a 50hr/week EC), how much does work experience like mine help in getting at least some interviews in Jan/Feb? I'm a decent networker too.
Thanks. I know this sounds really worry-wartish, but I'd like some peace of mind (or at least something resembling a definitive answer/consensus).
Are you interested in top-tier consulting? If so, I think your GPA might not even get you a first-round interview. I interviewed with the top consulting firms and I am fairly certain that they had an unofficial GPA cutoff (just from looking at the others who were invited to the pre-interview info session). Ditto for one bank (guess who).
That said, I think you should be fine for most investment banks in terms of first-round interviews (obviously depending on how the market is at that time) and especially RBC if you do a good job there this summer.
For your first question getting a junior year internship offer from your sophomore summer internship should not depend on your grades this semester at all.....
For your second question...... if your concerned about recruiting think about it in terms of how you stack up against the other kids applying from your school. For example, if there are 20 other kids with your resume and a higher GPA then you will have a problem..... but if your EC and work experience already separate you from your competitor students then you should be fine. It really is more a function of how you are relative to your peers as opposed to your GPA. If you are not doing well in terms of your peers you will have to network more and work to lift your grades. In general a 3.0 GPA is below what is expected for an applicant in the banking/consulting field, but again nothing is absolute.... If you have a low GPA make sure you network more so that you can make connections that will get you pulled for interviews and once in the interview the GPA is only considered if two candidates are too hard to decide between and they use GPA arbitrarily to give it to one candidate over the other
Networking is were it's at. If you know someone, they will get you in the door no matter how low your GPA is.
When recruiting season started for me, my brother told me to try and get a job on my own. I did and succeeded in doing so; otherwise he told me that he could get me interviews at a few BBs just by talking to his friends... It did not matter what my GPA was, or which school I had gone to.
Remember, you will always be a salesman, no matter how fancy your title is. - My ex girlfriend
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