How to break into Finance?

Hello all, this is my first post here and I would really appreciate any advice!

I have a BA in Economics from a top 10 or 13 public school with a 3.0 GPA. I was pretty sure I wanted to be a doctor in college but I didn't have the grades. I took Biology post-bacc courses at my local state school to improve my GPA and maintained a 4.0. After weeks of studying for the MCAT, I finally realized that I can not sacrifice the rest of my 20's and do this for the next 10 years. I'm a social person and being locked in my basement for the past year reading about respiration and enzyme kinetics has been killing me; the science is amazing but just not for me.

I feel that finance might be the right path for me. I enjoy working with others and also have a decent quantitative abilities (Calc I: A, Calc 2 : B-, Stats 1&2: B, GRE Quant: 157, ACT Math: 30). I took the GRE cold and am confident that I could raise that or a GMAT math score. Should I be looking into graduate programs? Ultimately, I would love a job that challenges me but doesn't make me work 80-120 hours a week. I understand that this is probably the initial time commitment but I can not do that long term.

Is my best bet just to network like hell? I have applied to maybe 100 jobs over the past week and have already gotten several rejections. I feel this is due to my lack of experience since my resume is full of volunteering/community service engagements and scientific research. Today I reached out to my school's alumni group inquiring about finance committee opportunities. I have several family members who work in various financial areas that I plan to reach out in the coming days.

My question is, what can I do ASAP to get more finance experience? I have been watching videos and reading up on everything finance and have dabbled in programming as well. There is so much to learn and what I'm doing isn't very structured. Is there any type of shadowing, volunteering, or entry level type job that I can get involved with right away? Any tips on who to reach out to? I am strong in Excel! Any and advice would be greatly appreciated! I apologize for the frenetic nature of this post but it accurately portrays how I feel at the moment )=

Skills in progress: SQL, Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript

1 Comments
 

Est ad et quibusdam. Quia est voluptatum provident atque vero aut architecto quaerat. Aut et aperiam impedit qui laborum ab voluptas beatae. Et aut dolores voluptatum quia voluptates. Nisi possimus minima animi voluptatem dolorem beatae. Id necessitatibus expedita qui sunt.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (78) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (72) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”