<p>Hi everyone, I'm currently a sophomore at the University of South Florida. I am beginning to think of what I want to eventually do career wise but am having a hard time deciding and finding "good" information.</p>
<p>So far, I am thinking about Management Consulting, Investment Banking, Stock Brokering, Investment Management. I only know about the basics of each of the careers I mentioned above, if you guys could advise or send me links that are credible so I can learn more about these careers that would be great. Also any other related careers or field I should look into?</p>
<p>I know that USF is in no way a prestigious school, but if I have near a perfect GPA 3.9, a good GMAT and extracurriculars as well as letters of recommendations from well known business people. Is that enough to get me into a top Business school? A good firm?</p>
<p>Regarding the careers I mentioned above can you guys tell me about work-life balance? Career advancement opportunity? Respect level? Compensation?</p>
<p>Also does ethnicity come into play here? I am Vietnamese so english is not my first language. I don't come from money, I actually grew up in what is pretty much regarded as below poverty. I didn't do the best in High School (I regret it now that I look back). I'm in no way a genius. The only thing I have going for me is I have a lady who used to be the Managing Director Merrill Lynch's New York sector guiding me and I do better than the average student in school. With these circumstances, do I still have a slightly good chance of making these career worlds?</p>
<p>Thats really all I can think of to say in this post for now. If you guys need anymore information in order to help me please let me know.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance to everyone.</p>
<p>You have a big problem if you are not in a targeted school. They don’t care if you have 3.9 or even 4.0. They can find those in Wharton too. If you are not in a targeted school, you don’t know anyone and you cannot network. And that’s a problem. Recruiters look at your name and your school name, then they will ask people around if anyone knows you. If not, your resume is in the garbage bin. It doesn’t matter much if you have letters of recommendation. Because the analysts look at your resumes and interview you as well. For ibanking and consulting, they don’t have the time to read it.</p>
<p>So you will have to network, network, and network. Get your name out. So I do suggest you to find an internship in NYC or do something over the winter break. You will take the time out to have coffee chats with professionals, after you have contacted them via emails, of course.</p>
<p>Banking is 100+ a week. Do you know the BAML kid who died in London? Look him up.</p>
<p>Consulting is slightly better but might be worse 'cuz you travel on weekends.</p>
<p>Your life will be so much easier as a broker or in the asset management side. But don’t expect to get a 40 hour workweek.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the response. Since this is my sophomore year, should I transfer to a different school or should I just stick it out here? The counselors at my school are pretty much all useless. How do I go about finding an internship? Do I just look up various companies and contact them?</p>
<p>For the asset management side, what is the career path like? How many hours does an average person look at? What about salary and compensation? I googled this and got a huge spectrum of data.</p>
<p>Definitely transfer to another school if you want to do banking/consulting. You have 3.9 and I don’t think it would be a problem to get into a good school. As long as you have good ECs, a good essay, etc., you will have a good chance. And you are only a sophomore, a lot of people transfer during their sophomore years.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t get into targeted schools, there are schools that have an advantage over others. For example, Fordham is located in the city and you will have a chance to network with professionals. Go on Linkedin and you will be able to find a few of them. Make sure you email them, and I think the alumni will like to help.</p>
<p>If you are not a targeted school, I think you will have to apply on the company’s website. But you are still a sophomore, so there’s nothing to worry about that part.</p>
<p>As for asset management, I’m not quite familiar with that. But companies like BlackRock will obviously be much better than other firms. So it really depends. You can’t just look at the industry as a whole, try to look for firm specific data.</p>