Graduating today Summa Cum Laude with a 3.85 cum GPA from possibly one of the most overvalued non-targets in the country.
OCR & my overpriced non-target university:
Tuition runs about 40K a year, and this year there was no finance career fair. Last year Fidelity was the only decent firm at the finance/accounting career fair and they recruit for client service reps. Best firms that recruited here were Eaton Vance, Putnam Investments and Fidelity and they were all for mutual fund service rep/client service rep.
Career services was the biggest joke on the planet (does barely anything beneficial for finance students). I didn't even know about internships until January of my junior year. The non-target I am graduating from is worth 15K max. It is a private, catholic, liberal arts college.
A little bit of luck...
I got lucky that I met one kid who had his mind set on IB since his freshman year and he was nice enough to "Show me the water." He could visually see I was thirsty as we are probably the two most driven kids at our school (he is a junior with current 3.98 cum GPA). Then I got even more lucky when over the summer I discovered WSO. Don't know where I would be without the two and wanted to give a shout out and thank WSO.
Interview preparation:
I came across the Wall Street Oasis interview guide and it was definitely instrumental in my success. By practicing these questions, I was well prepared going into my interview and was able to land the gig I had been hoping for. My passion for the markets made it clear to me I wanted to do sales & trading. I would highly recommend using this guide to practice if you are going to be interviewing on the street:
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/investment-banking-interview-prep-…
Stay hungry non-targets and eat your soup with a fork!
So all of this and I got extremely lucky to land a SA sales and trading gig at a boutique that will turn into full-time once I prove my worth. I think I am literally the first student from my non-target that has ever gone straight from undergrad to an IBank. I worked very hard for my GPA and through the recruiting process. Again, I wanted to thank WSO for help keeping me informed on high finance. Just stay hungry non-targets and eat your soup with a fork! I strongly believe that with faith, persistence, motivation and dedication anything can be accomplished. =)
May 2018 update
I stayed in equities S&T for a little over a yr before I moved. Currently corporate treasury analyst at a big international bank.
Mod Note (Andy) - Throwback Thursday - this was originally posted May 2014
Also, don't want to make it seem like I am ripping my college. I have only nice things to say about them and the professors were great in being helpful and understanding. I just stated the facts in the above post.
One thing I will note though is that the overall motivation and work ethic of the other finance students I am graduating with was an absolute joke and piss poor. I am looking forward to going back to school for an MBA 3-4 years down the road and being surrounded with hungry students, as there was literally only one other kid that was as hungry as me (he is a junior). Have nothing bad to say about the faculty and school as a whole though (except one tenured professor who screwed me over but I won't get into that) and when talking about my school in person to anybody only say things that are positive.
Just needed somewhere to kind of vent and show other non-targets no matter how bad it is at given university, it is on the individual to make the best of the situation, persevere and know that anything is possible with the right attitude (always stay positive) and work ethic.
this was a really bad paragraph. I'm actually keeping this here to remind myself to never go back to having an ego like that again. I was angry that I got screwed my last semester by a tenured professor... that's all I can say
If it wasn't for her I would have graduated with like a 3.93. yes I was obsessed with my GPA and probably a bit too much.
but 3.85 will help me if I decide to go to B-school in the next 3-5 yrs
Ahh
First of all, congrats!
I can definitely identify with you here, but college, education and of course GPA is so so SO important. They like the fact that you invested in yourself to learn, and the prestige of your degree regardless of whatever it is, is undeniable when most can care less about education.
I am also a nontarget but due to my stellar internships overall (I was pre-med before switching to IB), my passion for finance (moreso economic theory), and of course passing the atrocious 8 step interview process, I was awarded a position!! In other words, we're proof that it's been tried and true, but regardless like most career paths, I'm lucky to have found myself early on.
Like medicine, finance is very hard to break into in your later years as most firms want to train new, young, blood to do things and fit in with their culture; most of the people I met that switched later on were highly accomplished and a repertoire of decades of experience in finance. They're also searching for people with a drive and passion. How else are you supposed to live and enjoy clients and those 80-100 hour work weeks, right?
I liked medicine, I'm sure if you work hard you can make big bucks in research but I couldn't muster the passion for it with my anathema of blood. . .
I'm not sure where to go from here as in portfolio management like getting my CFA or applying to a boutique firm for P/E but yeah the foot in the door at a large IB pretty much has you set to go wherever you wish to go!!
I'm so excited! I have no idea why WSO created a new account of me due to my FB but it sucks they don't delete accounts.
Why don't you say the name of the school?! It's weird bashing a school without giving a name.
This
I initially thought Villanova but then again it is a semi-target and the likes of Vanguard do recruit there. And some students def land IBD / FO / Big 4 consulting roles. Given the early AM post of the OP it must be a East coast school, and probably a Boston one considering the Eaton Vance, Putnum and Fidelity references. I'll guess BOSTON COLLEGE.
Boston College looks like Harvard compared to my school. I am located in the northeast, but don't want to name it.
even though BC graduated today thats not even close to what we got for recruiting. we're sending ~18 to BBs and another 10 to MM or boutiques this summer for ibd
anyways, I hope you crush it this summer man
Lol my nontarget had better employment prospects with like 12k tuition a year
Jesus christ why is tuition so brutal in the US?
Even the top universities in Canada have tuitions around 8k a year, if that.
Lol tell that to Ivey where they pay like 40k a year...
Awesome! How did your SA opportunity come about?
.
NIce work!
I'll update this: I stayed in equities S&T for a little over a yr before I moved. Currently corporate treasury analyst at a big international bank.
Interesting to look back at myself 4 yrs ago...
I can still say I wouldn't be where I am today without WSO. And the S&T guide was a great piece of information for interview prep.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/investment-banking-interview-prep-…
Hofstra?
..
good shit buddy
I thought summa cum laude meant 4.0+??
summa is 3.75+
.
Nice job! Curious as to why you left Equities S&T.
dying business. unless you can do it at a BB, imo. or unless you want to do ER. I thought I wanted to do sales...
plan on taking CFA level I in dec
was gonna guess Fordham except its way more than 40k
You seem like an unpleasant person
married with 2 kids. if by unpleasant you mean never afraid to speak the truth, then yes.
I can say looking back 4 yrs ago, I think I still had some ego issues. That has passed.
i say pitt
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