What am I going to do..?
Hello there. I'm a new member looking for career & life advice.
Here's a quick overview of my past & present:
- finance degree from a non-target school
- spent 5 years to get a 4 year degree
- graduated with 2.48 cumulative gpa (out of 4.33)
- bank teller
- passed level 2 exam for cfa
- want to be in IB/HF/PE before I hit 32. (I'm turning 27 next year)
- (if that last point made you laugh, it's ok, because i can't say that last point without laughing at myself either)
I've used the search function, but I wasn't able to find a case that resembled mine -- probably because people who have failed as miserably would know that they simply don't have what it takes to succeed in the investment field.
The problem with me is that I don't want to quit.
My academic history is so embarrassing that I have never shared it with anyone, not even on the internet - it's painful for me to even remind myself of my past. But after reading some of the posts here, I have decided that this is one of the most resourceful online communities to get advice from.
Regarding my utter failure in school, I have no good excuse. I simply lacked the discipline to succeed. I was badly addicted to games, movies and tv shows. This was so severe that I had often played 15-20 hrs a day for two to three weeks straight before final exams - I almost thought that I had a mental illness..perhaps I did.
Since graduating in the Summer of 2011, I started working in retail banking and registered for the CFA exam.
So far, I have passed level 1 in 2012 and level 2 in 2013.
Although I have read posts on WSO that CFA has nothing to do with the actual jobs, I still think that it'll be a plus on my resume.
The problem for me is that..that's about it. I have nothing else to convince the potential employer to hire me for an analyst job and the likes -- given my past academic performance.
What're your thoughts? Is there anything more I can do to increase my chances? financial modelling courses? Or..do you think it's time for me to give up..?
Let me know if there's any more info I should provide.
Thank you all in advance!
Sorry bud- I'm the last person to get down on something but it's not looking good for you. I don't even know what advice I'd give you- I'd say MBA at a top school, but that's out of reach for sure.
Thanks for your comment. I know that there's no easy way and that's the reality - nothing more, nothing less.
On another note, have you heard about anyone who successfully converted from an admin position to an actual analyst position?
you should change your name to notthehospitableER ;)
network with local cfa or nyssa chapter
There's always a chance. I think you can take classes online through BYU (might be wrong on the school) in order to take relevant finance classes and get grades for them that can count towards a gpa I think. You'd have to do some digging into this, I've only ever seen it mentioned on this site, but I've seen it more than a few times as an option for people with lower GPA's. So maybe take some of those classes and just crush them and get all A's for a year or two. At that point you'd be 27/28, which is about average age for an MBA I believe, just a tad old if anything.
If you prove yourself in those courses, maybe claw your way to a 3.00 gpa (if you can add those to your undergrad GPA), get involved in something interesting over the same time frame with volunteering or something, you could have a shot at a top 50 MBA program, maybe even better.
If you can crush the GMAT that will help tremendously as well. In two years if you can apply to MBA programs with a 3.0 and 680+ GMAT you would probably be in fine shape as long as you show that you're determined now. I'm not sure if you could get into a school with solid IB recruiting, but I wouldn't say it's out of the realm of possibility. At the very least you could go into corporate development.
It definitely won't be easy but I think that you can do it if you're truly determined. Also, if you could somehow go score a 750+ on the GMAT, I'm sure you could get into some decent MBA programs even with your gpa. That might be the easiest thing to try first, just in case you could pull it off.
Best of luck
Is there any way you can network and try to get into commercial banking at your bank?
If you're good at selling, I would shoot for some type of sales role, as most people care about GPA a lot less when hiring sales people. Good sales people make good money.
If you're good at selling, I would shoot for some type of sales role, as most people care about GPA a lot less when hiring sales people. Good sales people make good money.
This.
Im going to sound like a dick here, but you are fucked.
Get a masters in finance.
You need to retake some classes and boost your GPA. Someone on here I know did some classes at NYU to make up for a less than stellar undergrad. Maybe @shorttheworld ?
If you passed level 2 of the CFA you are at least smarter than a bag of bricks. You need to start networking aggressively to get someone else to see that and take a chance on you. I agree that a sales role might be more up your alley if you have any competence in that area.
Let me amend what I said. Go to a RE capital investment group in your area. Ask them if you can try out for a position. Some of them will let you do a project for them, this might be another analysis for a deal they are looking at or it could be finding them a project and doing all of the analysis on it and presenting it to the group. I had a buddy who got a job doing this.
Stay focused, look out for more options and try them. Good thing is you have passed your CFA level 2, continue with Level 3.
your work experience is going to be a huge killer but ive seen people who were hotel front desk agents in other economies get into cornell (although they are a hotel/RE school so thats kind of why). get an uber solid high score on the gmat and retake some classes through ucla extension and shoot for top 30-15 programs would be your best bet
can you make it into a commercial banking area or mortgage loan officer or anything to show progression at all? might be a few year thing but i think that would be your best bet
Do whatever you have to do. Think outside the box.
You've veered from the normal path to this goal, so think of short-cuts.
Thank you very much for your inputs. You guys provides some very valuable insights for me.
I'm going to look into all the ideas shared here -- gmat, online re-takes, networking with cfa and many more.
If I have any success with these, I'll come back to let you guys know.
Thanks again!
Why have you been a teller so long? If you are working for one of the larger retail banks you should move up to the equivalent of an advisor/financial sales representative inside the branch. That's what I did (after being a teller for less than a year), then graduated, also without a great GPA, networked and with that experience was able to get a good analyst job.
Working for a large bank has many networking opportunities and several areas to work in. MANY people from retail move into commercial banking, and I've heard about moves from commercial into IB. There are also several other areas within the bank (not necessarily analyst) someone with your credentials could move into with decent pay.
That's a long time to be a teller.
Look into a MSF. And do follow-up and ask people on WSO for help as well. I would offer but I am in no position. Taking extension courses might be a good bet to bring up your GPA and do well on the GMAT. UFOinsider broke in from being a bar tender if I recall so you to can do it. Will just require a lot of work.
Didn't know much about the extension courses when I first posted- it's still obviously going to be super tough/the odds are not in your favor at all, to put it lightly, but definitely take some extension courses, boost your GPA etc. Get the CFA Level 3 when you can, and get a top GMAT score and go to grad school. Although MSF would be easier to get into, I imagine, I would recommend an MBA over a MSF- to my knowledge, it would be tougher to get into IB etc from an MSF and you need all the help you can get. Additionally, work on moving from retail banking to other, more related, roles- b-schools love to see career progression.
Finally- and this is the most important point- consider your career goals very carefully, and be sure that IB is really what you want to do. If it's money etc, there are easier jobs for similar amounts of money (when comparing to entry-level IB) that would probably take you around the same amount of time to attain. If it's not about the money and you want to get to, say, a HF, because you like investing for example, maybe investing on your own for a personal account would be easier. Not trying to discourage you- I'm heading into IB and I can see why people would enjoy the job and want to get into it- but you have a really long road ahead of you and it would take an investment of years to get to what you say you want; just make sure you really do want it for the "right" reasons, and that you won't get there years from now and realize it was a huge waste of your time.
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