Any Advice for my future?

Hi. I'm a Sophomore from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. My majors are not a traditional "banking" major, which are Statistics and Agricultural Economics. Currently, I have secured a corporate development intern at a marketing company (about $1.8 B in revenue).

The problem is, because I'm Korean American, I still have a military duty, so I will have to stop my school for next 2 years, then come back. Also, I will end up with around 3.4 - 3.5 GPA after my Sophomore year.

In order to earn little more time to increase my GPA, I postponed my graduation by a semester, so that I can have another chance for the recruitment.

Lastly, I will have a chance to work part-time during school semester at sell side regional firm (Agriculture industry) near my college once I'm back from the military.

Any advice for my situation please? I am targeting to work in Chicago after graduation. Thanks!

 

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I'm not sure what advice you're looking for, but here goes:

If you think you have the time management skills to both work part time and keep your GPA in the ~3.5 range, you'll be positioned well. Stats and Ag Econ might not be a target major for corporate development/IB/Transaction Advisory, but having the work experience definitely makes up for that. I don't think any company would ding you for taking two years off of school for military service.

Would try to get an internship between your junior and senior year if possible, or take summer classes and keep working part time. Coming out of UIUC with those two majors, a good GPA, and solid work experience will provide you pretty good job prospects. If you're able to line up your graduation with the normal campus recruiting cycle, that's even better.

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