I don’t want to go to med school.
Hello,
I'm hoping someone can offer some career advice. I graduated from a target undergrad with a 3.1 GPA in finance and accounting. During my senior year, I was an S&T SA at a BB (JPM/GS/MS), and in my junior year, Management consultant SA at a Big Four firm, both in New York City offices. I also had IB SA offers for 2 BBs. Unfortunately, I did not receive a full-time offer this summer despite receiving very positive performance reviews. A combination of headcount restrictions and my lackluster networking skills ultimately led to the missed opportunity.
I'm at a crossroads at this point. I haven't had any promising leads in my job search, and I'm horrible at networking (very shy and somewhat awkward, I can talk a lot about technicals/industry questions but am seen as boring/disinteresting on personal questions. My only hobby/interest outside of finance is bodybuilding)
I am a former premed so my family thinks I should complete my premed courses (I only need orgo and physics) and apply to medical school, but I'm not passionate about pursuing a career in medicine. However, at this point it seems the best option. I’m not willing to take the risk and roll the dice on an MBA.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m open to IB and consulting roles anywhere on the east coast/midwest/south. Also, to those of you who are also boring/lack hobbies and interest, what did you do to become more likeable/sociable?
Additionally: I’d rather go to med-school than work as an accountant. My science gpa is high enough that with a good mcat I’m not worried about getting into a DO or MD program.
If you really don't want to go to med school, you have to figure out how to network. You'll get better with practice.
Hey, medical student here who has done MBB consulting as well. DM me
Seems like if you're willing to go back to school/have the means to do more school, but don't want to do medicine, that a 1 year MS in Finance might do you good. I'm by no means an expert in them, but I've heard of folks having decent recruiting outcomes if they need a year to reset and bolster the resume.
Otherwise, you probably just have to get to networking. You went to a target and have a top tier brand on the resume. Take some public speaking courses and learn how to hold a conversation better, it'll do you well in life.
Becoming a doctor is a long and challenging path that you probably won't survive if you already know that you don't have the heart for it. You're embarking on basically an 8-10 year journey. I also wouldn't use med school as a feeder to MBB. Doesn't make sense to do 4 years of non-related school, knowing you're just trying to pivot out to life sciences focused consulting. With some hustling now, you could probably build a narrative to land that type of role.
To give you some tangible things to do:
1. Take some public speaking courses, get more comfortable talking to strangers, only way to do it is practice. Toastmasters, reading books about starting convos/being likeable, etc. People seem to think that being charismatic and a good conversationalist is purely innate. For many it's not, you can get better at it with practice.
2. As far as being interesting goes, that's on you man, are you not curious about anything? Sports? Music? Books? Movies? Video Games? Fashion? Shoes? Watches? If you have a 3.1 GPA what were you doing in college the entire time? If you truly have nothing, pick a couple of things at random and use them to fill your time. Or do a little traveling if life/time permits, see some of the world.
3. When your'e ready to get started, make a list of contacts across the key jobs/functions you want to work in. Sounds like you're aligned to consulting/trading. With a target school background, there have to be hundreds of alums in each of fields. Go through the alumni database, make a list of a hundred from each category, write a nice note saying that you want to chat for 15-20, decent change they'll pickup the phone give you're from the same school and your resume should looks pretty decent, ask a couple of generic yet smart questions, and then slip something in at the end about if they're hiring for analysts in 2024, to let you know as you're interested in xyz firm. Rinse and repeat until you find a job.
At the end of the day, saying you're a bad networker isn't a good enough excuse in my opinion. Plus you're probably not going to have much success in consulting, banking, etc if you're not comfortable speaking to others. So to me, you either get better at it, or if you really don't want to/can't, pick a career where those skills aren't as valuable. Go do a coding bootcamp and be an engineer.
You don’t want to go to med school? Who are you? Icahn?
I mean can you get into med school with a 3.1? Don’t you need 3.5 minimum?
Maybe the Caribbean assuming no post-bacc for DO / osteopathic programs.
You should really look into your chances of getting into medschool. You say that you don’t want to risk the dice and do an MBA but if you apply to the next cycle of med school applications and get denied you will have effectively wasted your time. Med school also isn’t just about GPA (which yours is very weak in already) and a good MCAT score, you also need hours of research and work in the field to have any competitive chance. I have friends who had hours of clinicals, 3.8+ GPA and a solid MCAT and didn’t get in their first time around applying. I’m not trying to put you down but in all honesty the chances of you getting into a medschool might be very low and the work required to even apply will be hugely immense. Just take that into consideration before committing to it
Fully agree and I appreciate the candor. I expect it to take a minimum of a year to put together a competitive packet for admissions. I have the clinical hrs and shadow hours just need the research and to strengthen my gpa. Won’t be applying until the class of 2030 (2026 start). I’m applying to MD/DO programs and live in an extremely uncompetitive state (poor southern).
I think this is still a better option than the mba. Even with a good mba, I’m still rolling the dice on recruiting. At my age (24) I can’t afford anymore set backs and wasted time. Medicine is a much safer career option/path to success. The tradeoff is the time ofc.
You’re young. Avg matriculation age is 25.
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