Have I failed life?
hello im trying to figure out my best options as of right now.
I am 21 years old, a junior in college, with horrible grades.
I have never interned at any good institution because my grades are crap.
In terms of skills, I have been working in real estate as a freelancer for different offices to sell clients, I am very good at sales.I also like mathematics since im doing a management science degree.
but i suck as a person, i have no work ethics or responsibility, I don't know weather this is a phase im going through or am i just going to be like this for the rest of my life.
i dont know what else to do, i'm trying to overcome my lazyness.
My grades can be fixed since i can take those classes again.
so my question is,
if i were to fix my grades, graduate when im 23 with a management science degree and a math minor, will i stand in a strong position to land a job in quantitative business field or Asset Management?
Or will i need to go to grad school?
Admitting it is the first step.
you failed
Network and see what happens.
no seriously, I'm losing it here just thinking about it. I'm not stupid the grades can be fixed, besides my math GPA is over 3.5 rounded...I'm an excellent problem solver (expect for my own problems). Just need to know whether applying for a job coming out of college at 23 with over a 3 and a screwwwwed up transcript going to land me a job??
looks like we've answered our own question, haven't we?
you chose a terrible time to be a slacker at a non-target
Are your grades 3.3 "horrible" or 2.3 horrible?
If you're great at selling you can sell yourself. If you can't sell yourself then you're not great at selling.
since when is graduating at 23 a fail??!
wtf is this talk..
my grades are horrible like 2.0 horrible. My college life consisted of partying, drugs, and over sleeping for everything. But recently I've kinda woke up and realized I should get my shit together. is it too late? I would like someone to give me a straight answer and some options. Thank you very much.
Na bro, you're good. It's actually an amazing time to be an underachiever imo. You see, all the half decent jobs are swallowed up by those already "in industry" who got laid off and would rather downgrade than exit altogether. All that leaves is shit that "overachievers" would rather pass on and wait on the sidelines, than ratify their loss. You probably won't even be competing with these ppl. On the other hand, if you have high standards- yea, I'd probably say you're fucked. I've seen plenty of ppl multiples lazier than you (I'm just gonna assume here bcuz I know nothing about you, lol) who got picked up by not giving a shit about wat exactly they were accepting
No, it could be worse. You have luck and time on your side. Keep your head up, options open and be optimistic. Make a plan and be realistic about your goals.
Also, remember that you define success and failure. Everything is relative.
Firstly, take a deep breath. I didn't graduate with decent grades nor did I graduate with much experience, so from experience you aren't screwed. Secondly, you note your good at sales. That is an extraordinarily good skill set to possess and quite honestly it is something that can carry you a long way. Every time I look around on job boards there are tons of sales jobs out there. They aren't ideal and certainly aren't easy, but hey, you run with what you have. Since you can fix your grades, I wouldn't be worrying about that side of the equation. The initiative to actually fix them does count for quite a bit at this point. Once they are fixed, that will make doors open more easily but obviously isn't the key at the end of the day. Get out there and get to it. You aren't screwed.
How do you live with yourself?
Starting out with either math/physics research or an engineering job pre mba is probably your best bet. Boutique manufacturing/IT consulting firms will take you and I'm assuming that you may be interested since Math seems to be your best subject. You'll never outcompete the kids with perfect undergrad grades without an MBA and it's way easier to get a top MBA through STEM + Good gmat then it is from shitty business degree -> shitty business job (no offense). Hope this helps!
I'll try to give you an honest answer. Your grades are certainly going to be a limiting factor right out of school, there's no getting around that. I also think it will probably limit your grad school options pretty severely, to the point where I would just scratch that off my list...I could be wrong on this point though.
You do have a few reasonable options though if you are as smart and as proficient a salesperson as you claim. The most obvious is to move into a sales role. This will likely not be in the field of finance for you anytime soon, but a very good salesperson is worth his weight in gold in just about any industry.
The other path, is the entrepreneurial route. If you can bootstrap a venture together, nobody will give two shits about your grades. The exception is if you try to get outside funding, for at least a few years (read: 5-10) people will be looking at how you did in school as one of the things they consider, unless you have been wildly successful in another venture.
In general, I would say the bigger the company or more rigidly defined the path is in a given industry, the worse your chances are in securing a reasonable job.
I have never met a succesful salesperson or entrepreneur who didn't have a very high work ethic, so you might want to fix that first.
What he said, especially the part about doing something entrepreneurial. I hindsight, I probably should have skipped banking and started my own company. I'd be much more happy / less cynical, and the long term potential is enormous.
Bro--first of all, don't give yourself too much credit for "drinking, drugs, oversleeping" and whatever incredibly normal shit you spent your college career doing. 99% of the college population spends their first three years doing that. However, 99% of the college population will never find themselves on Wall Street, either.
You need to first realize that Wall Street is not the only place to make money--assuming you equate success with money. Folks make obscene amounts of money running their own financial planning firms, selling insurance, selling real estate, or starting/buying small businesses. Shit that people from anywhere can do. So, everyone on here would agree that you can't make investment banking for GS at age 23 your end-all.
That being said....you're never going to amount to shit with this mopy 'failure' attitude. Hate to sound like I'm spitting recycled HS wrestling coach platitudes at you, but seriously--the fact you had to go online and ask a bunch of faceless forum posters whether you're a failure shows a striking lack of self-confidence, even to the point of self loathing. Everyone has their problems. Rise above it. Bankerella was raised by two dads, and you don't see her posting self-aggrandizing bogus three times a week. Well...
No one is going to do shit for you. You said so yourself--you don't want to be lazy anymore. So set your alarm for 8 am every morning, go to the gym, and work until it's dark out. Work on finding an internship, finding a job, school, anything possible. Being idle is the worst thing you can spend your senior year doing, especially when you're trying to claw your way out of a k-hole. You're user name is fucking "calc stat;" clearly you're good at math man, so use that to your advantage. You might not get your quantatative trading job next year, but learn a trade and be your own boss in 6. $.02
needed to hear this.
Thank you guys for the advice.
but lets say my grades weren't the issue, if i stay in school for another year i can retake the classes ive done bad in and come out with a gpa over 3.
This means i would graduate undergrad 2 years late!
is this something a financial institution would frown upon?
you're 21, you'll be fine
If your minor is math, and you have a 3.5+. Why not major in math (you're already considering another 2 years in school)? Fuck business, you can learn that on the job. You won't learn linear algebra and PDE in an office. You can always MBA later for that background.
Smart people get an education first, learn a trade second.
Please, you're going to end up fine. You're not 50 and being laid off. As so many people have posted before me, you have a ton of options: 1) Retake classes, and only list graduation date on your resume 2) Graduate, get a sales job. Wall St. isn't for everyone. 3) Start-up scene. and the list goes on.
-You are still young -you caught it early -didn't graduate with a 250k degree in art history before you figured this out.
You'll end up fine as long as you pull your shit together.
just major in math and put only your major gpa on your resume
Youre failing now, certainly. That said, you can redeem yourself with a shit ton of hard work. Consider joining the military, doing classes part time and then pursuing a masters and switching to banking for 2 years then doing B school.
I think one thing you have to realize is that not everyone is perfect/can make that much money/ get into GS/MS or whatever HF/PE/VC.
I know here a lot of people are confident and aiming at big names and it's also true that everyone in this world is trying their best to find the best position.
But think about how many people eventually end up working at a BB IBD in the world? how many people get fired after one year? The world is actually BIG AS HELL. Tons of people are doing other interesting jobs and making shit tons of money.
So just be patient, work hard, and be nice to everyone; good things will eventually happen.
You are not in a good position, just as a high school senior kid with 1600/2400 SAT/3.1 GPA but still trying to get into Ivies.
You are just a college student and have a long long long way to go in life. Do your work and don't worry too much. Network can help you a lot, but i think what you need the most is to adjust your mindset.
you still have a great shot at UBS
Maybee you could get an internship at a drug company or a brewery.
this is the worst attempt at trolling i've seen...you are not invited into Troll Club
bump
You'll never amount to anything.
id hire him as a classy janitor at my firm
It is against the law for employers to ask you your age...so who cares.
there are plenty of ways to discriminate based on age, sex, race, etc. without breaking the law. PLENTY.
Your best bet is to graduate now and try to get a reasonable job as a banker at a local bank or any job in the public sector such as community development or as a teacher.. While you work, complete a certificate program and do so with great grades. Study for the GMAT and use our service to help make your application amazing. Once you are accepted to a top MBA program you will be back on track. Hope this helps.
always keep this in mind: what do you want to get out of life?
I personally partied a lot in college, joined a crazy on campus frat and all that.
but I kept up all my grades because I know I want to go to b-school eventually. So after a crazy weekend of partying, I'd drink some gatorade, do some light cardio at the gym to sober up, take the girl back to their dorms and study all day sunday for that exam on tuesday.
woah dude..you hung out with girls in college overnight?
you must hang some serious dong
I wish I had the presence of mind when I was your age to even come on a forum like this and ask for advice. Changes come incrementally. Dream of reaching the stars, but just focus on baby steps.
I was a crappy student most of my life and I came to a Decision Point, same place that you are at now, so make something of myself. Look for some role models. Find a 'Michael Jordan' in the business world that you can relate to. Important thing is to get inspired. That my friend, will help to get you out of bed in the morning!
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