Complete non-target to Buyside Research Associate - Thanks!

I go to a complete non-target state school in California with no name recognition and no notable alumni (not accepted to UCLA or even UCSD). My GPA is mediocre (3.6) and we have no on-campus recruitment services for any finance positions.

At the advice of some of my friends I decided late junior year that I wanted to get into Investment Banking. Luckily, I had just gotten my 3rd internship (this one with Merrill Lynch PWM) and I immediately started networking. After visiting this forum I realized just how far behind I was and quickly learned how to network. This was extremely difficult for me as I am not a natural extrovert and like I said, our school has no notable alumni. After much hard work I finally landed a summer analyst position (sort of) in the public finance department of a regionally respected boutique.

When full time recruiting finally came around this fall I sent out over 300 applications; also utilizing linked-in contacting the 3 (total) alumni from my school that had broken in to banking. From these efforts I managed to make it through to 3 different super days (2 boutique IB and 1 buy side ER).

I ended up accepting an offer from the Buyside fund for their Research Associate position and couldn't be happier. They pay is comparable to banking (probably higher hourly), the location is amazing, and the MBA placement is top notch. My fellow 1st years are all from name brand universities and I managed to break in!

I just wanted to thank everyone on WSO for your support in giving me thoughtful advice when I did not know who else to ask. Thanks so much everyone for your help!