Blue-Collar to High Finance
If any monkeys have made the move from a blue-collar upbringing to high finance I would really like to hear your story(ies).
I didn't have a lot of money growing up, worked road construction after high school to pay for school, saved enough to pay for JUCO after 2 years, and got a good scholarship to a good non-target (going into senior year there).
I have a hard time relating to decision-makers that I meet and it's holding me back. I have the technical skills and work ethic, but I need to learn to speak their language better.
I knew a guy who made it with a case similar to yours, but he was an athlete. Relevant experience would probably help you the most. Try starting out in Private Wealth Management or Sales & Trading, then transition over to banking or whatever you want to do. If you have the skills you say you do this shouldn't be a problem as the former two don't really require academic pedigree. If not, start reading up using free resources online. Network hard and it'll pay off. Best of luck!
I have a very high GPA and my resume jumps out well on my RE institute's resume book (RE finance major). Keeping my foot in the door once I get it in is the hard part for me.
I don't have the Ivy league polish that seems to be a requisite for the positions I'm looking at. Based on my resume I was invited to a private recruiting event at an international HF's CMBS group this week. The guys who worked there were all Penn/Columbia guys and I stuck out like a sore thumb.
I need to learn how to interview/network w/ the polish of an Ivey Leaguer and I have no idea how to learn that.
Some things here.
First, consider going into real estate with a focus to either scale those ranks or leverage into a real estate development career and have a shot at possibly some true high finance real estate career paths. Worst case you still have an amazing life, experience and make bank.
Second, you have to practice and train. Communication, especially business or "high class" talk is learnable. Study business communication textbooks, read up on social psychology and how people of affluent social classes interact. That's the high level stuff.
Next you need to surround yourself with the people you want to be like. Don't get me some several of the experiences at first might suck but as you experience you learn more and more. That could be getting a membership and playing golf at the local Players club or frequenting high level conferences and networking events.
Lastly, learn the actual techniques there are several gr at books like How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Influence The Science of Persuaduon. Mix that with watching youtube videos of charismatic people, people that are influencers or talk show on Bloomberg and business news sites.
If you study and immerse yourself, you can learn it. I grew up poor and rural and have had tremendous business success by using these techniques to be on a "higher plane".
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