Hey guys,
I've been having trouble getting IB SA Interviews. 3.5 from target with experience at 2 hedge funds (one in NY and one in LA) and 1 real estate pe shop. Good extracurricular. Non-business major. What is wrong with me?
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wow. 3.5 from target with 3 internships and no interviews...
Do you have a terrorist sounding name?
Post resume, probably some simple mistakes. Black out school and such to make it private.
How can I post in here?
Razume.
Are they hedge funds people have heard of?
No. One is 200mm AUM and other is 125
ur resume is probably formatted poorly. 3 internships as a rising junior is like driving an aston to school - very few people do that.
that or they think ur a nerd or something. NERD.
Hahaha, great analogy!
GPA is the biggest concern; people say 3.5 is the cutoff but you need to be spectacular (varsity captain, editor in chief, president of student body) to overcome a 3.5 even from a target.
I'm from a target as well with the same GPA and it's been a struggle to get interviews, almost every interview I've gotten is from speaking with an alum so I would suggest do that
in addition at least at my school the people with interviews weren't the people with finance experience; they were people with the highest GPAs and very cool extracurriculars like teaching soccer in Africa, varsity athlete, etc
Here it is.
Thanks guys.
http://www.razume.com/documents/13800
"GPA is the biggest concern; people say 3.5 is the cutoff but you need to be spectacular (varsity captain, editor in chief, president of student body) to overcome a 3.5 even from a target."
seriously? I am only at a semi-target, 3.5 cumulative (3.7 in engineering). I am certainly not varsity captain, editor in chief or president of anything, not even close. And I get interviews for 100% of the on campus resume drops for BB and MMs. I think people on WSO are really over inflating the difficulty in scoring interviews.
"GPA is the biggest concern; people say 3.5 is the cutoff but you need to be spectacular (varsity captain, editor in chief, president of student body) to overcome a 3.5 even from a target."
seriously? I am only at a semi-target, 3.5 cumulative (3.7 in engineering). I am certainly not varsity captain, editor in chief or president of anything, not even close. And I get interviews for 100% of the on campus resume drops for BB and MMs. I think people on WSO are really over inflating the difficulty in scoring interviews.
Not really @PiperJaffrayChiang. I honestly think it is formatted perfectly. Check for urself.
Is USC a target? I thought targets were like Harvard, Wharton, etc.
We get JPM, WF, GS, CS, BC, MS, Citi and others. I think that stands for a target?
USC is not a target, just like 3.43 is not a 3.5
lol sirbankalot we typed the exact same thing less than a minute apart.
It's actually a 3.5. I can't say 3.5 because my professor hasn't changed one of my grades. She inputted a B+ instead of an A- for the class. It is going through degree progress, I just don't want to lie. So yes @sirbankalot, It is a 3.51 to be exact.
but you submitted a resume with a 3.4. Decisions are made under the assumption that you have a 3.4 in a soft major. It is irrelevant that it is actually a 3.5 because they wont know.
It's the 4th best RE major in the country?
USC is not a target for NYC. Maybe for LA. You need to stress school activities more.
Good luck. your football team sucks.
3.4 at usc does hurt you.
internship descriptions also need to be way more descriptive. what do you mean you "analysed the s&p"? what do you mean you "achieved 19% return"? and so on.
your resume also seems really real estate focused, which might make them question your commitment to ib. a lot of that you can't really change (concentration, internship at repe), but take off random stuff like trojan real estate society, which adds nothing to the resume except demonstrating an interest in a field you aren't applying to
Well this sucks.
hellogoodbye -- I meant 3.5 GPA is a big hurdle in a major that's not engineering/physics/math; obviously they know those are harder so a 3.5 in engineering is like a 3.7 which is a much better grade to have; congrats on the interviews though
and a 3.4 is a dealbreaker without networking/something spectacular on resume. the kids at my Ivy who got even lower BB IB jobs had a 3.8-3.9s and those with 3.6-7s were captain of varsity sports, fraternity presidents, nationally ranked in something, or president of the class
key: apply to more MMs and boutiques, Network
isn't USC a school for rich kids, doesn't that mean they have a good wallstreet presence?
Experience is too scattered and broad. You have very little information about too many experiences...focus on one or two and make it more project/deal focused, describing results in a systematic progression. If you can't be analytical and logical in your resume, then why would they think you could fit in a very analytical profession? Good luck man.
Might be just me, but seeing Investment Banking institute (or wall street prep, or any other modeling / IBD prep course) would be a big turn off, especially if you had to pay money for that. Sure, you want to do the job, but it seems a little over-zealous. Did you not have anything else to do in your free time? It certainly signals that you have a strong interest in IBD, but, quite frankly, it seems like something that would be ridiculed when we review resumes.
Your GPA is fine, especially with all of your relevant experience.
Also, it doesn't look like you did too much financial modeling or valuation work in your prior experience...with the exception of your first summer, you never wrote key words ie. comparable company analysis, precedent transactions, DCF etc
So without some networking, its going to be pretty tough to get interviews coming from a semi-target with just a decent gpa, and strong but not overly relevent work experience (since your prior experience was more markets related versus deal oriented)...
@baloogafish the program is only 4 weeks, saturdays and sundays for 4 hours per day (28 hours). I thought it would be a good way to distinguish myself from the other B-school dudes.
Thanks everyone for the responses btw.
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