Need advise for recent graduate that's got a shitty job

So I recently graduated from a business school with bachelors in finance in San Diego last May. 3.23 GPA, and within 2-3 months I took a job out of desperation at a financial advising firm.
Pay is pretty crap with no benefits,vacation,etc=$13/hr.
Mainly doing paperwork, client services, etc.
Recently got offered to take up the Series 6 and 63, 1 year contract, and to get an override on part of the commission.

However I am also currently studying for the CFA® level 1 to open some doors into Asset Management.
I have been looking for other jobs around the area, and it seems like San Diego is a bad place to be for finance.
But the girls and weather in San Diego is hard to leave haha.

However I feel like I need to move on and look for more opportunities either in LA, San Fran, Chicago, or New York.
What would you recommend I do? Right now I am thinking of just taking the CFA® level 1 results, and then look for better opportunities in Los Angeles which still has the girls and weather. Or actually move to SF or NY which has a higher abundance for finance related jobs that pays more obviously.

11 Comments
 

There is no real finance in SD. To be honest, this is going to be an uphill battle that requires serious hustling so prepare for that. A 3.2 GPA from a no-name business school in a small city will put you at a severe disadvantage in comparison to your competition that went to USC/UCLA/Berkeley and got better grades. Furthermore, people in LA look down their noses at SD. If you're serious about working in LA I think your best shot would be to move there and begin networking aggressively. Be focused in your search (e.g. if you want to work at an asset manager, you need to have a thoughtful reason why Asset Management, be versed in the firm and the space they invest in, etc), have a solid looking resume (learn to spell advice correctly), and be very persistent. Good luck man

 

Get on google, linkedin, etc. and find every asset manager (with some legitimacy) within 30 or so miles and start cold -emailing/ cold-calling, etc. Something will turn up sooner or later.

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
 
Best Response

thanks guys for your input. I took this job because well, I couldn't find anything else but still related to the industry I wanted to step a foot into. Got desperate not wanting to be unemployed. A lot of the jobs related to finance from my college career services was a lot of sales, and I did not want to go that route. Also did not want to go into the "corporate like HD supply" So while I am somewhat happy, I know I am not learning what I want to be learning. And to make up for this, am currently studying for the CFA.

Back office client service role, but I feel like if I do this for at least a year I can build some experience on my resume and transition later on to the same type of role but around 40-50k. $13/hrx40x52=$27000 salary? Anyone know the average salary of a non-target business school guy right out of college? I didn't plan to make 70k-120k right out of college. I'm definitely not in the same league but I probably would have been happy with 40k+.

 

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