What can I do to fix this situation and how?
Just finishing up sophomore year at a state school, has some recognition on the street, but not so much for front office positions. My cumulative gpa fell drastically this year and I am finishing up the year with around a 3.0-3.1. I have pwm and some modelling experience from last summer at an unknown firm, nothing special at all. As for the upcoming summer, I have no offers for anything relevant.
My goal is to break into either commercial banking, ops, or something of the sort which is still "better" than a "regular job" but on the low-end in finance. What should I do to make myself competitive for these positions for the upcoming summer? If I improve my grades, I will have 3.2 by the time internship recruiting starts, and a 3.4 by the end of junior year. Best I can graduate with is a rounded 3.5.
Will my 3.2 hold me back significantly for positions of this nature? What can I do to increase my chances? I am willing to do anything at this stage to ensure that I end up getting a job.
You're certainly fucked for front office. As for the rest, just get your shit together and ramp up that GPA.
thanks mxc, yes I am not looking at front office for now, do you think a 3.2 will be looked down on by back office / commercial banking, or will networking +3.2 help me at all?
Forget about ops/back office. Commercial banking on the other hand is respectable, but if I were you I still wouldn't want to make that my ultimate goal. The way I see it you should still be shooting for FO, even if it isn't at a BB/top MM. You are only a sophomore and you have some solid work experience. Get on the phone with alumni at smaller shops and start networking asap. A 3.1 is going to be a tough sell, but by no means is it in the irrecoverable end of the red zone. I think that if you get your act together right now, develop a thick skin, and set your sights on the target you will get something by the time you graduate.
It's going to be about bring up the grades and networking hard. Best of luck
Look, I don't know why Ops and other BO positions get shit on so constantly here (oh wait, it's a bunch of adrenaline driven college juniors), but the simple fact of the matter is if you can come out of college and pull a job in Ops at any BB, you'll still be making $60,000 a year out of school. Yeah, you won't nail giant bonuses, but the job security and ability to move up in title to the point of MD by your late 30s or 40s and pull down serious six-figure income with the best work-life balance of anyone at the bank means you still have a better job than 95% of college graduates, all things considered.
People get into Ops with 3.0 GPAs from non-target schools. If you know you want it, it is not a hard thing at all to recruit for. You're still young though, so there's no reason that at this point you can't start networking so that by your junior SA season or FT recruiting in senior year you have a realistic shot at FO. Only do that if you know you want that though, there's no need to follow the pressure from everyone here and chase FO if you don't think you want it. You're a sophomore, if you wanted to find something boutique or MM you probably still could, and that would set you up better for junior year, which would set you up better for FT.
Good luck.
Ops usually makes more like 50k out of undergrad.
still beats most college kids who are unemployed / working for 30k a year.
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