Poor academic performance early on from low tier semi-target —> quant options analyst at reputable fund (story).

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of discussions regarding breaking in with a sub-par or low GPA. As someone who was once in a similar boat, I felt the need to share my story. In my middle school years, I spent most of my time playing Call of Duty and Elder Scrolls. That’s about it for grades 6-8. Throughout high school I was probably one of the smarter kids in my class, but I lacked any sort of study habit what-so-ever. By the time I graduated, I had taken 12 AP classes, tallied up a 3.5 gpa out of a 4.0 scale (4.6/5.0, if you consider how my high school accounted for honors/AP classes). My final ACT score was a 34, which was carried by 36’s in math + science. I smoked weed regularly starting junior year and didn’t stop until my Junior year of undergrad. At this point, my academic performance didn’t seem so bad. I ended up going to a low-tier target for undergrad and double majored in Applied Math and Economics, along with a minor in computer science. First semester was fine, but I got a C+ in a philosophy class that was required as part of core. At this point, I still had zero intention to study for anything and would smoke weed right after class — just about every day. Fast forward to Summer after sophomore year, I had a 2.96 cumulative GPA (Econ Major: 3.4, Math: 1.9). I attribute the extremely low math gpa to taking upper-level classes early on and not accepting that “take the professor, not the course” applies in most settings. Fall of Junior year, I was eager to get an internship, and applied to many programs at top banks/funds. Of course, I got rejected from every one of them at some point in the process. I applied to around 50 early on in the semester and was offered a hirevue interview at 5. I did one of the Hirevue’s and got rejected, so I didn’t even attempt the other 4 because of how much I hated the recorded interview system. I tried my best this semester to raise my GPA, which was hard because I was in 20 credits and multiple advanced math classes, but I managed to get it up to a 3.08 once the semester had ended. Still, no internship experience under my belt and I was extremely stressed out. Once Spring semester had started, I had essentially given up on applying to BB’s and took my chances at boutiques + startups, which was probably the best decision I could’ve made. I sent out an online application with no cover letter to a smaller logistics firm based in NYC, and was offered an over-the-phone first round interview. The call was basically just small talk, and they liked me enough to invite me in for an interview (my UG was in the city so I was able to attend). I went, got asked a few questions about myself, and was offered an internship spot for the following summer then and there. Most of my work there involved writing relatively basic Python code to minimize shipping travel distances given warehouse locations + destination. I finished the internship on a very good note and went on to school for my senior year. I still had some very difficult courses left to complete, but I tried my best and graduated with a 2.63 math gpa, 3.6 Econ, and 3.17 cumulative. I worked on some coding relevant coding projects to list on my CV and carried on with school. I was given an offer to return full time to the logistics company, but I figured I’d try elsewhere now that I had experience. I found a small quant-focused fund in the city that an alumni was employed at, and shot him a message. He got back to me, and we chatted for about a week. He ended up referring me, which got me past screening and I had landed an interview. It was a smaller company, so they didn’t really ask me any technicals, but I do recall being asked to give a confidence interval for what I thought the square root of 273,000,000 was, given around 30 seconds. I did well on the interview, and was given an offer at the end of it. I ended up working there for a little over a year, at which point I sent out an application to a large quant-based fund. I passed screening and nailed the interviews. I’m currently in my 3rd year here, making triple the amount of money I ever thought I would at this age, working at most 70 hours a week. I’m remote until 2022 because of COVid, and am unbelievably grateful to be in my current position. I don’t quite know what the future holds, but if I stay here for another 20 years I won’t complain at all. Don’t let a number on your transcript discourage you from trying any longer — most of my colleagues graduated Cum Laude with degrees in Math/Physics/CS from top 10 schools, yet here I am doing the same work as them every day. If you want to break in to finance, you will. Put the controller and the bong down and start now. Open to PM’s for anyone that has questions. 
- D