Sophomore with 3.2, what's my outlook?
I'm a Sophomore finance major at Notre Dame with a 3.2 GPA. I'm interested in working for a HF or VC, but I'm willing to start off in investment banking if need be. I'm also interested in Asset Management as a possibility. I'm looking for something with a somewhat decent work-life balance but pays well. But I'm wondering...what are my chances of breaking into each of these fields at this point? What internships should I be going for next year? Also, where might I be able to get an internship this summer to give me a leg up on next year's internship search?
You have a tremendous amount of research to do before you will get anywhere. It's great that you have such lofty goals, but you list four very, very different things as interests. IBD will give you exit opportunities into HF/VC, but AM is different altogether.
And way to be completely idealistic with your laundry-list of criteria . . . this isn't shopping, unfortunately life doesn't always work out to give us exactly what we want just how we want it. If you enter IBD, you won't have work-life balance. It's just a fact. Year later if you've made it through, gone through b-school, made it to the buy-side, yes, you'll notice a reduction in hours and a better balance, but out of school it just won't be that way.
As for your particular situation, a 3.2 is low. Many people have successfully broken in with a sub-3.5, but it almost universally requires a tremendous amount of networking and a strong commitment on your part. The fact that you are only a sophomore will also work against you, because firms recruit juniors so that they can fill their FT class from that summer analyst pool. If you are looking for related experience now, consider PWM. Many freshmen and sophomores get gigs there because they don't require vast technical knowledge and many firms are willing to bring on free/cheap labor. Unfortunately, this may be a bit harder for you because you don't exactly attend a target, but I'm sure there must be Notre Dame alumni in finance that you may be able to leverage.
Is a research analyst at a long/short hedge fund really that much different from a research analyst at an Asset Management firm? They're not exactly polar opposite careers and it is not that outrageous for someone to be interested in both.
What are some good options that are more achievable?
"I'm interested in working for a HF or VC, but I'm willing to start off in investment banking if need be. " The overwhelming majority of HF employees started in banking. VC is a little different but my understanding is it's either banking or a tech background.
"I'm looking for something with a somewhat decent work-life balance but pays well" Then look elsewhere. The hours in the fields you've mentioned eventually become manageable but work-life balance is a myth at a junior level for nearly any job worth having (law, accounting, engineering, etc) and that goes doubly for finance.
"What are my chances of breaking into each of these fields at this point?" Moderate, you go to a school that does get recruiters but your GPA is low (especially relative to your cohort at Mendoza), but you're still a sophomore so you have time. To put in context, a 3.2 at Mendoza is going to make it tough to get jobs at Big 4 accounting/consulting firms, let alone banking jobs.
"What internships should I be going for next year? Also, where might I be able to get an internship this summer to give me a leg up on next year's internship search?"
As a sophomore, anything related to finance. A lot of places do mini-internships/workshops for sophomores but they focus on top-tier students and many have already finished recruiting. Go to the career center and ask them these questions.
"What are some good options that are more achievable?" Number one thing is improve your GPA. Number two is beg, borrow or steal some relevant experience this summer.
The Finance student organization at Notre Dame is not a bad group of people for you to befriend to learn more about this. There are some pretty cool guys there who would be willing to talk with you if you were to ask and will be able to give you more personalized advice than an anonymous forum.
Network network network. Are you part of any student groups on campus? Athletics? I had a 3.2 as a sophomore (albeit in a hard science at a top target) but I reached out to alums of my particular student group in banking and was able to get a couple internship interviews out of that. On top of that, I just plain pounded the pavement and cold emailed just about anyone with an email address in finance. In the end, I got a pretty good internship that turned into a return offer and a FT offer after that.
Your outlook is shitty because you can't use the search function. And get your GPA up it's not that hard.
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