Need Advice
Hey to anyone who sees this, firstly I’m not in banking or anything finance related. I spend time on the forum because it’s entertaining and I also admire those who are in banking. I have a passion for something else, which is marketing. I’ve seen it kind of get a bad rep on here and some other places as something to not take very seriously and some aspects of that I can understand(doing stuff in Canva). I like the strategy, analytics, and side that actually helps grow a business. Here’s where I need advice and hope to get some serious opinions(aside from the Monkey Bot). I’m 21, turning 22 this month and haven’t attended college—i’ll spare the details but I was just a late bloomer and took a bit longer for me to figure things out. I’ve decided that I want to go, but I would have to do Community College transfer route. Do you guys think If I can’t go to any out of state T20’s because of cost that going to a 2nd tier school could hurt my career? I’m from Illinois and my only T20 is U of I—UChicago & NU not happening as a CC transfer unless my dad was the mayor(he isn’t). Having the hard time handling the thought of having to go to some school just anyone can get into. Maybe you’ll think this is a stupid post but just needed to talk yk
Since you didn't mention it, I assume your GPA from HS sucks. You may want to look at going to community college in CA and doing the TAG program.
The University of California (UC) Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) program guarantees admission to one of six participating UC campuses (Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz) for qualified California community college students.
Yeah I all but jerked off all 4 years—had terrible Adhd, no direction, understood nothing about life and now am in the place I was i was 5 years ago and am doing everything I can to get to where I wanna go. Through studying in my free time I’ve managed to pull of getting 2 internships, 1 being a corporate one. But yes to answer your question the gpa was shit. What’s the reputation of those schools you mentioned?
Also forgot to mention connections helped with the first internship which got the ball rolling
Out of those schools I like UCI, UCSB, UCSC. They are good UC schools, but are not as good as UCB, UCLA.
Unfortunately living costs and out-of-state costs are the 2 main barriers. I wish I had the funds some of these other kids on here do where they have unlimited options and can go anywhere in the country because price isn’t an issue. Is there any way of getting into a top public school without it costing me an arm and a leg? Excluding scholarships, like some transfer path or route I’m unfamiliar with? Thanks for your responses
My first piece of advice - stop listening if anyone says Marketing shouldn't be taken seriously. It's a great career, and if you are passionate about it you should absolutely pursue it. My second piece of advice - stay out of Marketing for large, financial services firms and especially banks. Unless you love the color blue, and saying things like 'strong, stable, and resilient' - then by all means, go get 'em!
Joking aside - I think the best route for you right now is pick a local, community college that you can afford and get started. Don't just focus on 'marketing' classes - where they toss porters five forces at you - take writing classes, design classes, public speaking - Marketing is ultimately about building, and telling, a story that resonates with your target marketing. Get fluent in office products and if you can get student discounts, get the adobe suite to be proficient in items like adobe in-design - if not, Canva or any number of the hundred different online tools can work. Also - AI. Start using that relentlessly - become fluent in using it as a tool to supercharge your efforts, not rely on it. I'd also start listening to folks like Gary Vaynerchuk, Scott Galloway (though he's gotten way more political), and others - there's a lot of really bright folks, that I do not always disagree with, out there to learn from.
I'd also start getting practical experience yourself. Build a website based around something - try and drive traffic to it. Setup a newsletter - start creating SOMETHING - and see what you can do. Learn google analytics, start learning the basics of SEO and how to optimize your website/content structures. Learn how to structure emails to grab attention, then drive to a call to action. Create an Instagram for something you like - see how that goes. Write, re-write, and re-write again anything and everything you see. Learn some basic video and content editing skills - and start posting it. It will suck. Then it will suck less. Then it will suck a little less. You get the point. Over time, you could build your skills to the point that you go to local small businesses or elsewhere and offer up your services - the amount of small or medium sized businesses, that have no idea how to market themselves, is astonishing.
Happy to be further helpful or answer any other questions.
Best response and advice I’ve ever gotten, thank you sir. Just one question since you didn’t mention it, what are your thoughts on doing my bachelors? there’s really no excuse for not at least doing an associates but Im wondering if the other 2 years could really help or not at least for marketing. If i was in IB of course its required, but where I currently work, my director is encouraging me to do a bachelors and another member of the board who i know has also encouraged me to do school but Im not sure if they just have an old fashioned approach or if they’re right, so I thought I’d ask people on here since you guys might have a better grasp on something like that since a larger portion of this sites users are younger. Thank You again for the thoughtful response, will be referring back to this.
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