Most of us on here (I assume) studied very hard in college, went to great schools, and networked hard to land great jobs. What happens to kids at low-prestige schools that got low GPAs and neglected their studies entirely just to party all day every day? Where do they end up? Like, legitimately, what happens?
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They probably get solid jobs paying 50-60K a year in low COL areas, and generally continue to enjoy life.
Most people don't have the drive or the desire to go into a field like IB/PE where it's standard to sacrifice a great deal of time and often happiness in exchange for valuable skills and a big paycheck. Hell, most people don't go to college at all.
People on here get a very distorted frame of reference regarding where they stand. If you have a BB/MM/EB or really even mid-low tier boutique IB position, you are already in the top 5% of college grads, and college grads make up only 25% of the US to begin with.
The distinction between JPM and MS or Nomura and DB literally means nothing to the vast majority of people. They still go through their days just living their life at their own (much more common) pace.
Truth..
Although unsure of the average college grad getting a $50-60k a year job.
In fairness I did exaggerate a bit. I think average is ~38K, but that bucket includes CC/Associates degrees as opposed to the 4 year Bachelors that are common here.
The way you framed this is great, but it also makes regular people sound like retarded donkeys grazing on a field
Most people are exactly that. Go to any big-name retail store and people-watch for 30 mins, and prove me wrong lol.
...in debt.
Top Bucket high school weed dealer. Partied and smoked my way through high school. Think I graduated with a 2.9? I wasn’t dumb though. Just didn’t apply myself.
Exited to a prestigious community college and lateraled to a BB super non-target. Graduated with top tier grades and now currently work in CB after a brief painful stint in IB.
Make $75k all-in, in position to make that $82k within 3 months in a tier 3-4 city. Just hit the 3 years out of school mark. Never work more than 40 hours and my workouts are as long as my heart desires. Life’s good
You IB/PE/HF types might make more money but there’s no way you can legit tell me you’re genuinely happy working like a dog for some arrogant POS.
How do you really only work 40 hours week? What exactly is CB?
Commercial banking. I’m just quick and effective at my job. My boss gives me a ton of autonomy. I basically just underwrite bank debt deals for lower MM companies. I can easily leave early if I need to. Worst it gets is maybe having to stay an hour late to finish a deal every now and then... pretty rare
Stopped reading after “prestigious community college”.
That was obs a joke lmao
Candidly, quite a few end up in financial analyst roles doing operational work with very little analysis.
Truthfully, most people that fit this profile don’t graduate from college and end up worse off for ever attending, since they are still only a high school graduate and now have college debt.
There are kids from my school that are going to graduate, albeit with 3.0 GPAs and no internships, so like, where do they go?
If they’re personable - sales. B2B sales has insane earnings potential right out of school. I know plenty of people from my year who fit OPs description who make more than I do. Sales isn’t the lifestyle for me, but there’s money in it for someone with the personality for it.
FWIW, I also had 0 internships. Stumbled upon WSO/M&I 6 months prior to graduating. Needless to say, game changer.
Why don't you ask them, nerd?
Went to a non-target, GPA wasn't horrible but it wasn't great (between 3.0 & 3.4). Partied a fair amount. I'm doing okay....
you guys do realize It is very possible to party and live college to the fullest and still get good grades/job, right? IB/PE hours don't actually kick in until AFTER you actually get the job, FYI. Those saying you can't probably didn't get a bid.
I did not go to a great school or study very hard. However, I made it into IB anyway. My buddies from college fall into two buckets... 1) Accounting/IS majors that end up working for the Big 4 2) Econ majors that end up working in commercial real estate brokerage, sales or PR. Most of these guys are in New York or DC. There are actually jobs outside of Finance that aren’t that competitive to get...
I may be doing Big 4 accounting if I can
3.1 GPA large state school on the east coast (top 150ish range). I think cream rises to the top either way, i'm doing just fine 115k base plus bonus at 27 (top 5 consulting firm - strategy).
Obviously I would be strides better if I cared in college and did well or applied to better schools. As the first kid in my family to go to college, I didn't realize that Ivys provided such an added benefit at the time. I blame that more on my parents than anything else.
What was your internship/career path? And congratulations - I'd say your salary is excellent lol!!
Would you be okay with disclosing the school you went to? I'm from a state school in Mass and trying to find my way right now too. Curious to hear how you landed where you are.
Might get whacked with MS, but I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say you're entire thesis that, "Most of us on here (I assume) studied very hard in college, went to great schools, and networked hard to land great jobs," is wrong.
But to answer your question, they end up on WSO.
Dude I don't go anywhere NEAR H/S/W lol
Insurance sales, contractors, teachers/coaches, govt work, etc....
Sales for sure
I neglected my studies to sell drugs and play WoW drunk alone and now I got a bunch of felonies and an archery range in my yard
I think it’s important to distinguish between types of “party people”. I know the most stereotypical frat bro ever and he’s going into a top 20 law school this coming fall. He partied but got good grades and networked. I know another guy who is a real estate developer and he partied and continues to party. He’s on track to clear $750k this year and he’s only a decade out of college. Studying hard to become an analyst isn’t the only route to financial success. And both of these examples went to “low prestige” schools. Prestige doesn’t matter outside of IB areas nearly as much as you seem to think it does.
Everyone can point to anomalies. On average, the slacker party bros -- unless they had family connections -- are NOT as successful as the kids who had their sh*t together. But anytime you're dealing with wealthy kids from good families, they can always land on their feet. Strong K-12 education, family connections, and family money...you can party your face off during undergrad and come out on top.
I'd say most of the people who "had their shit together" are doing worse. They followed mommy and daddy's rules/guidance about skipping the parties to study, so now they are lacking networking skills and thinking for themselves. Most ended up in pretty safe, middle class roles where they suck mgmt's dick. I cannot think of one person who has made it big that did not branch out and party hard for a bit in college.
Being raised well will definitely give you a lot of wiggle room in the future though, I agree 100% with you on that.
Greek Life at top-ranked Playboy party school back in the day.
Here's how my pledge class (30 individuals) shaked-out:
As you can see, there's a heavy skew to sales and when you think about it, why wouldn't there be? When you spend four years in that environment, your raw social skills / social awareness / self-awareness / influence skills will torch anyone's.
Zero individuals landed the jobs that are coveted on WSO. I remember one guy who made Tier-2 Management Consulting, but that was one guy in four years. Most of the guys in the house didn't worry much about career. A lot of them came from upper-middle / affluent families who could connect them with jobs when the party was over anyway.
Everyone these days is doing quite fine in there own regard.
This website blew my mind at the beginning of sophomore year when I learned about high finance, prestige and pedigree. It's a far more localized phenomenon (especially Northeast & Northern California) than WSO paints it out to be.
What kind of sales? That's a pretty broad term, lol. Like, used-car sales, commercial product sales, real-estate sales?
I think we went to the same school
I ended with a sub 3.0 gpa after partying, running start-ups, getting into the international house/techno music scene (part of that was making money and funding raves and warehouse/penthouse parties, so I guess that doesn't necessarily count as partying and more of business pleasure, w/e). Greek life was too mild and I decided to exit from it. Both colleges low on prestige (high prestige in their niches/regions).
To be fair, I had to pay my way through school and 80% of the time I was takingforce-fed politically correct dogma classes (thank you california). My major/biz/finance classes I aced. Ended up taking an investment management job in tier 2-3 city (think santa monica or newport beach, california), work my ass off, sometimes surf after work or head to DTLA and organize a music event, and look at the ocean when I am not running reports.
Hours range 45-60 depending on quarter/time of month. Pay is great (probably 10k-15k or more than Big 4 accounting entrants and a little under management consulting/IB entrants) and I get to mingle with HFs, PE's, and various cool money managers and learn from the outside looking in without breaking my back on financial models for 70 hours a week.
I am an exception though and I had to network and leverage my running-n-gunning work history to break in. That being said, I really do dislike the nose-turning Ivy-kids and international daddy's-money people who think they have found their God-given right to success because they had the luxury to be in an environment where they could study and pull 3.8+ GPAs (often delegating their work to others for $). Some of it is entitlement, the other is a warped sense of what more than 80% considers success versus what the top 5% considers success.
"they have found their God-given right to success because they had the luxury to be in an environment where they could study and pull 3.8+ GPAs (often delegating their work to others for $). "
I think you're seriously discounting how difficult it is a) to get into an ivy league school and b) get a 3.8+ GPA while there.
Not sure I follow your last comment on what is considered success, but overall it sounds like you have some issues with your peers who are doing better than you. Might want to check that, those guys worked just as hard if not harder than you.
Nah, everyone who is more successful than me got there because they were given everything for being rich or some AA shit helped them out. All the people I'm more successful than are lazy mofos who never worked as hard as me a day in their lives.
Also realize that a decent size majority of students shouldn't really be at college, or aren't going to get a job in their major. Most just go because they were told to/it's an extensive of high school.
For example, I played golf in college, and there were guys on my team literally just there to play golf, and then became PGA Professionals at a country club. Wasted a lot of money on things they won't really need.
Also, remember, the old saying, "some work to live, others live to work." A lot of people don't like to work, and are just fine paying their bills and funding their hobby.
Another example, I live in New Jersey, and a good chunk of people who live here "work" for the state. And by "work" I mean in a way, it's like adult school. Show up at this time, do this, do that, go home because the clock says 5.
I mean, this isn't because they work for government. This is what the majority of jobs look like. Honestly, why bother? If you're on the lower rungs of corporate America, why should you work harder? Its not likely that it results in real material gain, in the sense of a promotion or raise. And if you have a family that maybe you want to see every so often, that's one more reason. If you live comfortably, don't have a ton of bad debt, and are reasonable about your savings... nothing wrong with doing what your paid to do and not more.
If you read what I wrote in the sentence above what I quoted, I believe I said the same thing you said.
I agree with you, not everyone needs to be in love with there job, and not everyone's job needs to define them. Most people really are just working for the paycheck, and that's fine.
Also, I would add this is just my experience. I worked for the state of NJ for a short time and left because literally I did nothing all day, and that wasn't for me. There were people there who loved it, but I chose to be in a more stimulating working environment. There is nothing wrong with that (outside of why do we need to pay for those jobs as taxpayers, but that's a separate argument.) I've also worked other places, and I will say, working for the state definitely had more a "school" vibe than anything else. By school, I mean, no innovation, no understanding of whats really going on in the world, just doing things to do. (And I don't mean to bash the government, again its just my experience. Go look at the inter-workings of any state government or state job or the people who work there.)
Sales.
this post reeks of insecurity coming from being rejected by these bros in college.
like. be yourself. do what makes you happy. dont take shit too seriously.
oh. theaccountmajor wrote this. makes sense now
:)
They end up with a perfectly fine job, a better looking wife, and more friends than you.
where do they end up? PWM
A friend of mine went to sauna frequently with one of the top scandinavinans PE manager and he landed him in a job. 300k USD salary after taxes and no finished higher degree. That's life I guess
LOL fuck you guy I'm doing just fine
Right? I feel personally attacked.
Northwestern Mutual
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