College junior with poor college transcripts, looking for advice
I'm a Math & Econ double major, with a poor gpa and an academic dismissal, and I'm aiming at IB post-MBA
Basically I did very poorly at a state school in the Midwest, was majoring in history, flunked out, and now I'm back and doing very well. My overall GPA will be poor no matter how well I do from here till graduation, and I never landed an internship of any kind, so of course I have zero shot at an analyst job.
My plan is to get a good job in finance, get some work experience relevant to investment banking, then go to the best MBA program I can get into. From there I'll try really hard to get one of those summer internships and then a bulge bracket job.
Will companies and MBA schools forgive me for making such poor grades and getting an academic dismissal? I do have a massive upward trajectory and I've made great grades in math and economics.
What kind of job will I be looking at coming out of college? What should I be aiming for? Keep in mind, no internship or relevant work experience and the first half of my college transcript is horrible.
Also, I'm willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to make this work. It's my absolute number one priority.
I did poor my freshman year in 2003. Just didnt seem to see the big picture. I did not fail, but my 2.7 was only that high because of the mighty withdrawal I utilized for a couple classes of the year. I joined the Marines, went away, did some college, now I am at a mid target with a 3.97 (damn A- in philosphy) and will be interning as SA at BB. Obviously you just have to have a good explanation for what went wrong. You ultimately have to tell yourself that a B is failing and A is the only grade. Have a good personality and be able to communicate. At a BB superday, there was a brilliant kid there, but he was the most awkward human I have ever seen. It is going to be hard to just get into investment banking though. I bet you could track down a PWM internship if you got a hold of the right person who understood your story
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I don't have any of the better reasons. The only explanation is that I was immature, didn't appreciate what a college education meant, and didn't have any longterm goals. And that I've learned an awful lot sense then.
Yes, this is my attitude now. All of my work must be perfect, and anything less than perfect is unacceptable. It works wonders!
How do I work on this? I suck at small talk, and I'm a pretty boring person.
I don't know. I'll be a senior in the fall, so isn't it far too late for that? If anyone looked at my transcripts for an internship app, wouldn't they just laugh at me?
What I was planning on doing between now and graduation is networking with school alumni. (We have a decent undergrad business school) I'm not sure what they will think of a math major asking for them tips and advice, but I'm definitely going to do that aggressively.
[quote=Crassus]
I don't have any of the better reasons. The only explanation is that I was immature, didn't appreciate what a college education meant, and didn't have any longterm goals. And that I've learned an awful lot sense then.
Concentrate on how you have changed, how you have grown and become more mature and the "awful lot" you've learned since then.
Yes, this is my attitude now. All of my work must be perfect, and anything less than perfect is unacceptable. It works wonders!
That's the spirit :D
How do I work on this? I suck at small talk, and I'm a pretty boring person.
Don't really know how you could improve on this. Practice maybe?
I don't know. I'll be a senior in the fall, so isn't it far too late for that? If anyone looked at my transcripts for an internship app, wouldn't they just laugh at me?
You have to start somewhere, better late than never. Try and see if you can get something.
ARGH I don't know how to quote :/
Welp, feeling pretty terrible right now. Arranged a meeting with the Investment Banking professor here at my school to talk to him about what I can do to break into IB. (He basically acts as mentor/adviser to all the investment banking wannabes at my school) I went in and told him my story and what plans I was considering following. He basically laughed at me, acted like I didn't have a chance at anything. And when I told him about trying to make the move to associate post-MBA, he acted like I was out of my mind.
Then he told me, he said, be realistic, you can't really become an investment banker. Sucks because this guy has legitimate knowledge of the industry (he's not a PhD, he's an experienced investment banker himself) And I was really hoping he'd give me some advice
Crassus - the way I look at it is simple. You have an awful GPA and your resume is probably awful too. You have practically no chance of becoming an investment banker anytime soon. It sucks, I know - but in life, sometimes you screw things up and you can never go back and fix them.
This professor knows what he's talking about. You said he's an experienced investment banker and mentors all the smart IB wannabes at your school. All day long he sits there and talks to the smartest kids at your school - your classmates - people with awesome GPAs and great undergraduate accomplishments. He probably sees a lot of kids come and go - some with great credentials don't get good jobs, others with just-decent credentials get great jobs. Here you come, with your awful GPA and story, and think about it. Of course he's going to laugh at you. Of course he sees you as having no hope. Because right now, you really don't have anything going for you. Sure you may have had this nice revelation about hard work and what you need to do to succeed, but how will any I-banker ever trust you?
All that being said, you have two options. You can quit. Give up, go home. Take some crappy job wherever you can get it and live your life in mediocrity. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that's what most people do. Nobody will poke fun at you or laugh at you and call you a failure - besides yourself, maybe.
Or, if you want it bad enough, you can make it. Think about your future. Think about IB. Is this what you really want? Is this what you find exciting? Could you see yourself going to work every day and busting your ass surrounded by a bunch of other IB professionals? Because if you want it badly enough, you can still do it. You can teach yourself Finance - plenty of people do it every day. You can get amazing at this stuff at home, no problem. You can invest your own money. You can start at a small firm and work your way up. You can reach out and network with others and convince somebody, by the grace of God or whoever, to hire you. If you want it badly enough you can do it.
What I'm trying to say is that you have fallen off your horse and hurt yourself badly. You can sit down on the ground and nobody will blame you, or you can get the hell back up and fight your way in. If you want it badly enough, you can do anything. Don't be afraid to look into other interests though.
First comment ever.
Hey guys, I really value your input and your comments in this thread. I need all the help I can get.
I knew it was possible that I’d get a reaction from him like this. Because he’s right, I’m in a real bad spot right now. There’s no way I can get straight into IB from college. However, I was really hoping that he’d still help me and give me some tips on how to get to IB from where I’m at. Since that’s something he’s really good at. It’s something he knows about and has a lot of experience doing.
But oh well, he gave me a half hour of his time and told me what he thought, which was really cool of him. However, he probably doesn’t have much experience helping students like me, does he? He might not even be able to give me very sound advice, given the situation that I’m in. At least, that’s what I’m inclined to think right now.
Either way, I’m not sure how to approach networking. I find it very hard to present my story in a truly positive way. I mean, how do alums react when they’re contacted by a fellow alum who has a really poor resumé?
I wouldn't pay that kook any mind.... I mean he's working at a university--most likely as a program director making 100k if he is lucky. So now instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment and getting off by thinking about his salary/title as an ibanker...he now makes fun of 20 something year old kids to feel that same sense of self worth.
Is IB incredibly competitive? Of course. Does it set you up for a pretty solid career path? Of course it does, but so does a lot of other things. Will reading this forum pervert your ideas of prestige and career path? You better believe it.
I like what dei-V said, find yourself and find specifically what you want to do. Investment banking is great experience and you make a ton of money out of college, but can you name more than 5 CEOs that have an investment banking background? Does it seem funny to you that ivy league kids with debt up to their eyelids gravitate toward ibanking which generally pays 110-140k starting? I know this is a lame example, but do any of the Sharks on Shark Tank have investment banking experience?
tl;dr that professor is a kook, investment banking is great, but a bit exxagerated at times on this forum, not many CEOs or millionaire VC people are from ibanking. not even microsofts new CEO http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-05/new-microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-almost-became-gasp-an-investment-banker
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