Am I the only one who finds it funny (but sad) when...
A lot of people on this site are like, "I only made it into a second-tier state school (or worse), but which target should I transfer to next year out of HYPWS??"
Or, "I partied waaay too much and bombed freshman year--GPA is less than 3.0, what BBs can I still get into?"
"MM Ops Assistant--->HBS/Stanford? What are my chances??" (there have been some other particularly funny posts, but I can't remember them)
Look, I'm all for people busting their tail and overcoming rough circumstances, but I think it's so presumptuous/arrogant/moronic for those whose posts clearly (a majority of the time) indicate a lack of discipline and hard work and an inability to delay gratification. If you can't focus now and put in the level of effort required to get even a mediocre GPA, for instance, what makes you think you DESERVE to be at a strong bank or a top B-school? (I'm not necessarily defending those who don't put in much effort and still break in, I just can't stand when people don't put forth a modicum of work and then expect that they can make up the difference--it's been my experience that most people don't change their behaviors/habits).
And if you can't muster up the sociability, intelligence, and strength of experience to get into a decent position job-wise, why in the world would Harvard Business School want you?? (Last time I checked, they weren't trying to churn out back office, mid-level managers)
As I said, I have no beef with those who try their best and still wind up struggling, but for those who think that they can be mediocre and expect to wind up at the best schools, at the best banks, and with the highest salaries--don't waste your time asking a bunch of random people online if your lack of effort will still allow you to make it into BBs, top B-schools, or PE/HF firms.
End of rant.
You've got a great point- it's part of the experienced posters' jobs to tell folks how plausible their goals are but also to remind folks that time and hard work can do a lot to shift outcomes.
Well said but my explanation is very simple...human nature. We all have dreams and we ignore the flaws hoping for changes in the future. We don't systematically approach problems, so we end up not correcting them and then are surprised to see no changes. In the end, we still come up with excuses for failure but now it becomes someone's fault.
For those who don't apply themselves, I recommend hard work. For those beset by unfortunate circumstances, it's understandable. However, the bottom line is about either: 1. Correcting mistakes of the past, having learned from them 2. Accepting the mediocre jobs/schools resulting from poor work ethic
You're going to be working / in school anyway, you might as well do a good job.
I strongly disagree with you on the third point. The general consensus people seem to have here on make constitutes a great position and what constitutes a shitty one at least to me seems very out of touch with reality.
Is a business school really going to take someone with average grades, average test scores and average interview skills who managed to luck into a front office position over someone with a stellar gpa, gmat ... that for whatever reason chose to work in a back office position?
From what I have seen work performance and position after undergrad is by far the most important aspect considered by top business schools. Undergrad grades, GMAT, and interviewing skills are important but pale in comparison to what you do between undergrad graduation and B school application. If you have someone who performs well in a back office role and some who performs at an equal level in a front office role the front office candidate is going to be heavily favored. While not always the case, the front office tends to be far more competitive, involves more responsibility, and there are simply fewer candidates there than in the back office. There are plenty of back office people that get into top schools but there is already a well established pipeline to the top schools from the front offices of the big firms that you can't ignore.
How exactly does one "luck into a position?'
My only worry is that the poor decisions in the past completely closed the doors to future plans (MBA/Mfin from a top school in 2 -3 years). I'm currently making amendments (3.9 GPA last year of of school, bunch of awards/scholarships, CFA), but its gonna suck if it was too late.
Ha, do you really need to ask? I lucked into the front office. No internships, no network, non-target. Just applied online. Sure, I did really well in the interviews and writing exercises, but I consider my placement 90% luck.
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