I was a trouble maker in high school, hung out with a bad crowd and ended up (barely) graduating with a 2.010 GPA from an average, but nice, suburban high school. Didn't know what I wanted to do after high school and had terrible grades with few options to pursue, so I went to a community college for a year before transferring to a state school. Finally, I was able to explore and learn about things I was interested in and much more motivated once away at the state school and ultimately decided upon finance after making friends with a few older people through friends of friends who were already in investment banking. Fast forward to graduation, was able to graduate with a decent 3.4 GPA in finance (worked full-time while in college) and was able to network aggressively and through a few decent (unpaid) internships into an analyst role at a respectful middle market IB. Main reason for this post was curiosity to see if there were other people out there like me, or give a chance to undergrads / students to Q&A. I've been in investment banking for 2.5 years now.
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what did your internships look like? Like first year PWM, 2nd year small boutique, etc? Or did you get lucky your first time and land something at a PE firm or something
My first 2 internships - all semi unrelated to banking, but none the less experience. First one was in brand marketing, the second was an accounting role at a manufacturing company.
Believe it or not, through pure luck (no networking, just submitted an app) and a little ambition, I got an internship at a PE firm that was unpaid, at a 5+ bil AUM fund. This really opened up doors for me, which led me to my last internship my senior year of college, which was unpaid again, at a small regional boutique where I went to school at. Worked part time 2-3 days a week while taking classes and working another job.
After the PE firm and this boutique, I became much more credible even though I wasn’t listing my high school credentials or boasting a really impressive college or college GPA.
In my own opinion, GPA and where you grew up / went to college play a significant role in finance - but some of the kids I interned with at the PE firm who went to Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth ended up not even going into banking or consulting.
Work ethic and desire is everything.
I don't get it, how did you get 2 internships while at community college, with no experience, and a low GPA? Did you have family connections or something? There's people on this forum at HYP who ask how to get internships in their earlier years, just curious how you managed to from "hard work, grit, perserverance."
Edit: Nevermind just read your post above, "pure luck." Thanks.
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