Don't Know Where to Go From Here
Hello all,
I'm in a bit of a bind regarding my possible career options and have no idea how to salvage my situation.
A bit of background:
Although I'm American, I've spent my entire life abroad and graduated high school in the Middle East with a 2200 SAT score. For personal reasons I had to go to university near my parents so I enrolled at an American university near the city I live in.
At the time I was dealing with depression and some other personal problems, and neglected to go to class or participate in university life. I could still manage to pass my classes, but multiple Cs do a number on one's GPA. After working through my issues and deciding to turn my life around, I started taking university more seriously and tried to resuscitate my almost dead GPA. I'm about to graduate university with a major in Finance in Spring 2019, with a ~3.1 GPA and a slightly less crappy major GPA of 3.5.
As far as internships go, the culmination of a low GPA and a non-target school from a foreign country has effectively killed any chances of getting in anywhere. I applied to numerous places, and heard almost nothing back, but I honestly expected that.
At this point, a career in IB/PE/HF is looking more and more like a distant dream than a possible reality. I'll be on exchange in Boston in the fall, and thought I could try to network my way into an internship/job there, but it seems unlikely.
I've spoken to numerous professors for advice regarding my situation, and they've generally told me the following:
-
Do an MFin at a prestigious university in the US or UK to be more attractive to employers.
Pros: I can do it right out of undergrad, costs less than an MBA, more specialized degree, less time involved
Cons: Although I'm fairly confident in my ability to get a 750+ GMAT score, my GPA and lack of extracurriculars make getting accepted a significant challenge. From what I've researched, this is also more applicable to Quants than for traditional finance. -
Work ~3 years at some no-name firm, then apply to a top MBA program.
Pros: GPA has less of an impact, have time to boost extracurriculars, can show results from work.
Cons: Expensive (although depending on the firm, the employer could foot the bill), don't know if I can even get a job somewhere, 5 years to make associate at an IB. -
Go for broke and keep applying anywhere and everywhere until I eventually break in.
Pros: Don't have to continue my education for the time being, can work in finance right away, I'll be in Boston for the Fall semester so OCR and networking opportunities may be available.
Cons: Very risky, can end up losing more time if unsuccessful than if I had just done the other two options right away.
I plan to take the GMAT soon regardless of which option I pick, but I don't know where to go from there. Any advice would be welcome, even if it doesn't align with the main three strategies I've set out for myself.
Thanks for reading.
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