Non-Target with <3.0 GPA Lands MM Summer Analyst

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to thank everyone who contributes to WSO. I learned so much just by reading and really learned A LOT from the technical and behavioral interview guides. These things are dead on and really made me stand out during my interviews.

Here's my story;

I go to a non target school yet we have a top 15 undergraduate business school. I spent all of December and January networking my butt off with first alumni and then cold calling people at places we did not have alumni.

I spent more time on my job search than I did with school during January and February. While it felt like nothing was going to emerge I stay persistent and kept my head up.

I landed my offer through friending an alumni on LinkedIn and was able to see his email address and sent him an email explaining my story and what I was looking for. It took him 2 weeks to get back as he was a Director but I was able to schedule an informal phone call and that turned into an hour long conversation. We really hit it off and he was more than happy to forward my resume along to HR. About 2 weeks later I found out I was selected for a super day up in New York. I crushed my 3 interviews and found out a week later that I received an offer.

I think this really shows that anyone can do it. I come from a non-target, have a low GPA because I fucked things up freshman year and did not have the luxury of having a ton of alumni working there nor was I able to do a resume drop. This was old school networking and making the most of my 1 chance I had to impress the director.

All in all, it was a ridiculously busy last few months but I can look back and say that all the sweat equity was well worth it.

Thanks Again!

 

Congratulations now its friday night go get fucked up.

The answer to your question is 1) network 2) get involved 3) beef up your resume 4) repeat -happypantsmcgee WSO is not your personal search function.
 

Congrats, man! I love inspirational stories in any size, shape, or form. Funny thing is, I'm probably older than the OP (and many on this forum) and yet, I'm constantly being inspired by a lot of your guys' stories.

 
Dubsfan7:
Was the Ninja Networking kit useful? Did you use tips from that?

I did not use the ninja networking kit. I am really driven and ambitious person and I think my competitive nature (College baseball) really helped. I talked to the current seniors and see what they did as well as reading through posts on here. I also talked to alumni and they gave me some good feedback as well.

 
NjNets123:
howd you manage to explain your low gpa?

People did ask and I said that unfortunately my GPA was low during my first year at school. I had a hard time in the new college environment and being away from my family and friends. I did not give up though, I have since become more involved on campus; as president of XXX as well as XXX. I made the necessary adjustments and now my more recent work is reflective of my ability.

 
Best Response
noke2012:
Honestly, Richmond is not a non target. They also have a great alumni base with a ton of people in investment banking (especially Harris Williams).

Recently, we have had a lot of success with getting alumni up on wall street. I know of 10 at Barclays, 10 at Goldman, 7 at JP Morgan, and more at other bulge brackets.

It's still a non-target when compared to Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, UVA etc.

It's also a challenge when you do not want to work in Richmond since we still only bring down a few bulge brackets for first round interviews

 

Only bringing down 'a few BBs' for on campus interviews doesn't make you a non target dude. It makes you a semi-target at least. Be real.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

Congrats, way to market yourself and stick it out. Richmond is not a non-target by any means though, you're a semi-target and not a weak one at that. Don't listen to the prestige whores everywhere, there's more to recruiting than HYPSW and Ross/HaaS/Stern/McIntire.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

Good job man, always good to hear a story like yours. I'm in a very similar situation, going to a non-target, GPA won't be perfect when I graduate. I'm starting the process of just cold calling and emailing recruiters, as we have no alumni that I'm aware of that are really at any banks in NY or Chicago currently. How was the cold-caling for you? Did you have much success?

"When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead."
 

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