Post-Grad looking for advice/guidance on where to go from here
Hi everyone,
Thanks for clicking! I'll try to keep my anonymity while giving context to the situation and not make it too long.
For as long as I can remember, my immediate family has always had someone in the family dealing with health issues that we would take turns looking after. My family wanted me to focus on academics and make something of myself, so I was fortunate to concentrate solely on that in high school. I gained admission to a t25 and felt bittersweet as I knew I achieved something great but I would ultimately leave the family behind (For context, I’m one of the few in my family to attend college and the only one to leave our state, though I stayed within a 5–7-hour drive.)
Through networking and speaking with older students, banking seemed up my alley (the skills you learn, where it can take you, and compensation). I worked hard and got an internship at a smaller PE shop my sophomore year which ultimately helped me land my IB offer at a large bank the following summer. During my internship, a member of our family passed which created tension between families. The sentiment was that my family threw their kid (me) to a top school to get away from the messiness and make my own life.
While I did get mild criticism for my performance from my team after the review, they ultimately took a chance on me and gave me a return offer. Since I had that backing, I ultimately spent my senior year going back and forth from school and home to do my part and look out for the family. That took a massive toll on me since classes were skipped, social life/fun was non-existent and my mental health deteriorated as well - which led to my 3.7 GPA falling to a 2.9...
While that was worrisome, I knew that I was going straight to work after school so I was ok. Unfortunately, things got worse for my parent, my sibling could not handle taking care of them while working and told me I needed to move back. What kind of person do I look like arguing that? I ultimately turned down the offer and moved back home Summer of 2023. Since then, I've been the family housekeeper and working odd jobs that my friends from high school throw my way.
After all this time, I think its time for me to think of myself and move forward. I haven't been able to land anything finance related in my city. I've been recruiting like a dog and looking into masters but the gap in the CV is a red flag and so is my GPA....
Apologies for the length but would appreciate any advice even words of encouragement! Have a blessed weekend
I am in no position to help you, but I admire your morals / path and believe you will do great things.
Praying for you and your family, you are amazing for helping out. Was in a similar situation. Keep your head up, good things come to good people!
My suggestions are 1) Add your family situation as an 'experience' or 'career break' so that a reader can tell exactly what your story is when someone sees your resume and list your odd-jobs as 'projects'. I would assume most people that hear your story are compassionate about the experience gap, but you need to take the opportunity to show them your story up-front. Nothing personal, but if I see a resume with experience that ends in 2023 I assume they are not employable - so frame your time as a voluntary choice to stay out of the workforce. Maybe call this 'family leave' 2) Look for more 'remote' FP&A roles or maybe branch into VC scouting and/or vCFO roles. You will need to do some personal business development for all three, but this can get a brand-name company on your resume and generate some good cash. Some headhunters will hold these roles for people in your position - there are a few West-Coast firms that have a significant appetite for BDR people right now too so make sure to get in touch with SJ, SG, CP, all those names 3) Flag/make very clear you got the return offer, and maybe reach out to the team and ask if there is anything you can do to help (maybe a relationship manager or back-office role, even). 4) Make sure to focus on yourself and go to the gym, socialize, date, etc whenever possible - connections with people will hold your spirits up even when the world is crumbling down. Good luck brother.
I really appreciate the time you took to write this and thanks for the words! I definitely plan on looking into part-time VC internships/remote FP&A roles.
My friend said the same thing and suggested I add a "post-grad" line where I have one line about taking care of family and my random jobs. I didn't want to since my ego was in the way but I figured I'd do it. I also don't want that section to be a sob story so is one line about the family okay?
Thanks again my guy
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