I urgently need some advice and help for IB.

Hi people of WSO. I know this is a long shot, but I wanted to write an intro to my story. I am currently a junior at a non target college with a GPA of 2.6/4.0. Before anyone starts telling me that I'll never make it into IB, I just want to say that I've finally come to an epiphany several months ago. When I was about to enter high school, my parents had forced me to enter into a finance magnet program. In high school, I did not know what career path I should take and what I wanted to be. I know many of you have had IB in your mind since high school and the beginning of college but I know I am very late. I had learned the basics of accounting, finance, and marketing throughout high school and passed with a advanced honors diploma and a weighted GPA of 4.1 / 4.8 and a unweighted GPA of 3.3 / 4.0.
Now this is the where the bad part of my life begins. I decided to go to a state college because my parents were not very wealthy and did not have have the money or funds to help me pay for a more expensive school. I know I'm very dumb for messing around in college and not taking it seriously. I went through two years of college not knowing what I should do within that time. I completely regret it now and wish I had looked into investment banking while I was in high school. The problem is that I am in my second semester as a junior now and have obtained a GPA of a 2.6/4.0. I know this is absolutely terrible but I really didn't know what I wanted to do in life. Until 6 months ago, I started doing research on the many divisions of IB such as Sales & Trading, Investment Research, Corporate Banking, and Investment Banking internships. I had messed around too much in my first 2 years of college and only now have I realized I want to get into IB.
You may ask why I want to get into IB. I'm not going to bullshit any of you and I'll give you my real reason. I first wanted to get into investment banking because I saw the average salaries of the many analysts and associates that make six figure salaries coming out of their undergrad and MBA. This had excited me a lot because I really wanted to make money. Coming from a lower class to mid class family, I had to deal with a lot of life issues that dealt with money. My parents had always been careful with spending their money. I had been eating mostly only rice and vegetables for over 13 years now. My parents rarely go out to restaurants because they are too expensive. The reason why I was so interested in making a six figure salary was because I want to make my parents happy and give them as much money as I can provide to them. I had always thought money can't buy happiness, but I've lived a very dreadful life where money has always been an issue. Six months ago, I started doing a lot of research on investment banking and reading hundreds of forums on WSO and mergers and inquisitions. I have started to step my game up and have been reading many investment books on my spare time and self developing myself as a person. Now I know many of you may call me stupid and dumb, but I WANT to break into IB. I want to learn about the fundamentals of Sales & Trading and Investment Research. I am very passionate about breaking into this career and I will do anything to learn and become the best.
Anyway, I wanted to share with all of you my experiences so far in my life. In my first year of college, I worked two jobs during the summer as a back stock person. I worked at Nordstrom and Abercrombie at the same time and had learned a lot about the retail business. I know retail will have no effect on my resume but I honestly did not know what to do my freshman year. My second year of college, I spent my summer working at a real estate property management firm. During this job, I showed hundreds of people properties that my firm was renting out, and I spent a lot of time in the office marketing out the properties online. Again, I know this will have no impact on my resume but it is some of the only work experience I have. It wasn't until recently that I started reading that I should have got finance experience in my first and second year of college. I still deeply regret not looking into a career path before I decided to go to college.
So my question to all of you at WSO, I want to know if I can still get into or break into IB. I am very passionate and willing to learn right now. I recently obtained a financial adviser mentor and have been reading a lot of financial management and investment books. I do not want to give up on this career, but I know it is very very slim for me to even get an analyst career. WSO has been an amazing place where I have learned a lot about IB and the financial industry. Since I am a junior in college right now with a bad GPA at a non target school, should I go through one more year of college and try applying for IB again next year? I have already applied to many IB everywhere such as Barclays, BOA, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and many others. I know my chances are very slim but I still want to try my best. I have many questions as well. Should I apply for a financial based internship this summer if I don't get into any other internships? Should I go through another year of college so I can fix my GPA and try for another chance in IB? What should I do is my biggest question? Thank you very much to any of you who could help me out. I am very passionate about this path and I will do anything to get a shot at being a summer analyst.

5 Comments
 
Best Response

Your only shot would be to transfer to a new school, add a year and get a very high GPA at the new school. You should also keep in mind that some schools combine your prior school's GPA into their cumulative GPA so it may not be a 100% fix. You should also try to get some type of finance experience on your resume starting tomorrow. Ask your mentor to work part-time.

 

Agreed with the above poster. Transfer to the best school you can get into, start networking seriously, do EVERYTHING you can to raise your GPA, try to score whatever internship you can get. And continue teaching yourself about the technicals.

 

Great. Thank you guys very much for the advice. I really appreciate it. What if I can not transfer to another school? would a financial internship or even a PWM internship help me out? I know I might not be able to get a internship in IB during my undergraduate years, but does anyone know the chances of graduates applying for an analyst position and getting it? I was also thinking about studying for the CFA if I was unable to obtain an internship and I would just love some feedback on whether a level 1 CFA would help me out after I graduate?

 
CaptainBananas

Great. Thank you guys very much for the advice. I really appreciate it. What if I can not transfer to another school? would a financial internship or even a PWM internship help me out? I know I might not be able to get a internship in IB during my undergraduate years, but does anyone know the chances of graduates applying for an analyst position and getting it? I was also thinking about studying for the CFA if I was unable to obtain an internship and I would just love some feedback on whether a level 1 CFA would help me out after I graduate?

Without something to reset your GPA, your chances are virtually zero. Transferring to a new school will allow you to minimize your currently terrible GPA. As it stands, you have zero chance without a transfer.

 

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