Chances at internship with a low gpa?

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hello everyone, I'm an economics major with a specialization in financial economics. I go to a well rated public university in new york. However my situation looks very bleak I'm currently a junior and my regular gpa is a 1.7. I transferred into the school after doing my freshman year at a community college. I failed every class my first semester, and ended up on academic probation. My major requires 16 classes, of which I will have completed 6 by the end of this summer. I plan on staying an extra semester to finished everything up. My major gpa is a 3.3</p>

<p>I am currently enrolled in 3 courses for the summer, and I'm doing well in all of them. I still have a lot of credits to complete, so there is time for bring my gpa up before I graduate.</p>

<p>However I want some sort of work experience/internship opportunities now, but this is a huge obstacle because of my lack of involvement in extracurricular activities and my very little work experience at a job totally unrelated to my major. To be honest, I really don't even know where to start. I feel so out of the loop, I'm hearing about people with 3.5's and above not being able to find jobs or work experience. </p>

<p>What do you guys suggest for me to do?</p>

2

<p>1.7 GPA?</p>

<p>Good lord.</p>

<p>I hate to say it, but you have ZERO chance of getting an internship.</p>

<p>It is what it is.</p>

3

<p>thats not my major gpa, and like i said i’m not finished so i still have time to improve my gpa.</p>

4

<p>You should think about getting a real job.</p>

<p>Try temp or part time work. Try small companies. You’ll need to use your network. </p>

<p>Aim for bookkeeping, accounts receivables, or mortgage loan officer. You may want to consider getting a real estate license, you can work in a management company. That will put you back into the running for commercial real estate after you graduate. Even real estate private equity.</p>

<p>Forget about IB or anything like that. You will have to plan a long route to success. here’s a start [Finance</a> Jobs Guide from Careers-in-Finance.Com](<a href=“http://www.careers-in-finance.com/]Finance”>http://www.careers-in-finance.com/)</p>

<p>Your future is only limited by your imagination and dedication. Real work experience will negate your grades over time. If you’re smarter than your grades you may still come out on top.</p>

5

<p>what do you mean by getting a real job?</p>

<p>i feel like my gpa at the moment doesn’t make me competitive enough for a real job, right out of college. won’t they ask for internship experience?</p>

6

<p>No they won’t. Read the post I said go to small companies and work your network. Small companies care less about grades and more about intelligence and integrity. It’s like an internship but it’s a real job doing real work.</p>

<p>I’m not talking about right out of college I’m talking about right now. Go get a job.</p>

7

<p>I’m really not trying to be a smart ass by asking all of these questions, but I really don’t know much about the whole process. are local temp agencies good places to look for these type of jobs?</p>

8

<p>Doesn’t your college have a career center? Local companies will likely advertise for positions there. Also, you say that you don’t have extracurricular experience, so why not build that up? Join the finance club, join the economics club, volunteer wherever you want by perhaps helping an organization with bookkeeping. Get a basic job at a bank (i.e., teller) and work your way up.</p>

9

<p>But how do I apply for these basic jobs? I mean everyone says its very simply, but I’m sure there is more to the process.</p>

<p>And I’m going to make an attempt to join a few clubs and organizations on campus.</p>

10

<p>manofsteel, I know how you feel. I am in that particular situation in getting an internship.</p>

<p>Instead of worrying about getting an internship, trying going to places that really don’t require you to have a GPA. I didn’t get an internship yet, but I’m training to become a financial planner at financial company and that’s what I plan to do for the whole summer. If you want the name of the place, I’ll give it to you via PM. Also, I’m still looking for internships. I have a 2.96 GPA, and you have a MAJOR GPA of 3.3. You could list your major GPA on your resume if you like. </p>

<p>In the job hunting process, I believe it’s all about persistence. You got to keep applying to jobs/internships that are available. And consider leaving the 1.7 gpa off your resume. I’ve applied to over 100 job applications. Not much luck, but you know what I’m STILL TRYING even though getting an internship in the summer is almost over. You gotta have hope!</p>

11

<p>^ Finally someone I can respect. Keep at it axiom.</p>

12

<p>Thanks for the kind words tortfeasor! :)</p>

<p>Also, one more thing manofsteel. Let me give you some tips on how I find internships. It may not be the best way but I believe I optimized my job search this way. Also, If your in Finance, but you see a Marketing job available. Still apply for it. Sometimes jobs don’t require you to have that much knowledge in the field, that’s why they will train you. </p>

<p>1st,
Go to google and search,
“Your City” summer internships 2010, google should come up with at least the 3 popular job boards. JuJu, SimplyHired, Indeed. There should be a good amount of jobs available. Unless you live in a area that doesn’t have much companies.</p>

<p>2nd,
Go to google and search,
“Your City” Biggest Companies,
If possible, it will give you a website with alot of links to other companies. And through those companies you try to find internships through those. A lot of those companies might not have an internship program. </p>

<p>3rd,
You can do your city jobs. For example, I live in the city of chicago. The City of Chicago website has many opportunities for students in the summer. I wasn’t aware of this opportunity until I found out that the city hires students as well :/.</p>

<p>4th,
Craigslist has a job section and under the search you can tick the internship and they will probably give you a list of internships. Although, sometimes those internships look like they’re BS. </p>

<p>5th,
Go to your local agency that helps people find jobs. I went there and applied but no luck yet. I have some friends who were contacted. One of my friend works for a law firm now. Not to bad even though it isn’t related to their major. I forgot what those places are called, but they provide food to retirement people, help people find jobs, and has all sorts of activities there.</p>

<p>6th,
Your school’s career center should let you know if there are opportunities available. The school I go to has a online job board for us. </p>

<p>**Mainly, this has been my process in job hunting, and if you know more ways to find internships, feel free to help me too :). </p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

13

<p>wow axiom, you really did bring my hopes up with your posts lol</p>

<p>it seems hopeless, but many people tell me the same thing. just keep trying. and i have got in contact with the career center, a person there is helping me create my first resume. and i am going to apply for local internships through the career center. i’m also getting in contact with the city i live in, turns out they have summer internships as well, just don’t know how many openings there are. I still have about 2 years left, until then I’m going to improve my gpas, so atleast I have a high gpa to show, even if my work experience is lacking. But I’ve heard that work experience really sets you apart from other people.</p>

14

<p>Yes, work experience does seperate you from other people.</p>

<p>Imagine working at a restaurant for let’s just say 10 hours.<- That’s the amount of hours I used to work at a restaurant.</p>

<p>If you happen to get a chance to speak with someone about your job experience. Then you can start BS’ing. </p>

<p>From my experience of working at a restaurant, it is not that easy at all.
The overwhelming customers you have to service.
The long amount of hours with no break, AND You have to stand up all the time.
Make sure every customer is taken care of.
The hard work just to earn a minimum wage + ****ty tips. </p>

<p>Although, this was the case, I learned alot.
It is not that easy to earn money.
Certainly this work isn’t the best, but it helped me develop myself to become a … “list your characteristics”.
Overall, you say it is a great experience, because you got to interact with different people and that it teaches you to pursue your dreams because “your already working so hard, why not get a reward from it”<---- I don’t know how to really explain it. But, I’m trying to say that people work hard for a reason, and one of those reasons you work hard, so that you could gain valuable knowledge that we are in bad economy. It’s like the pursuit of happyness movie.</p>

15

<p>oh sry, wrong thing</p>

16

<p>Network like crazy.</p>

17

Create a LinkedIn. It’ll play to your advantage when applying for a job.

18

Are you just looking for an internship to put on your resume or do you want real experience? A lot of internships that just make you do grunt work i.e. filing, answering phones, do not even care what school you go to and will take anyone as they just want unpaid labor. It’s not the type of internship where you get to learn much, but it is beneficial to be in a professional office environment and you will learn secondhand just by listening to the people around you.
Look on craigslist and you can find mid-size offices to intern for that will ask for nothing but a resume in which you will put you are pursuing a bachelor’s degree at x school and do not list your GPA obviously. Once you build up your resume with internships like this, you can get into bigger well known companies as you will seem dedicated and driven with great work experience.
I as well would suggest getting a part time job anywhere even if it is in retail as having a job always looks good and you can always play it up i.e. a retail job means people skills, customer service, marketing the products you sell. A simple administrative job such as a file clerk will look great on your resume as well as this will get you in touch with computer skills and adjusted to a professional environment. You’re not going to be able to jump write into an econ/financial related job right away without building up just any sort of work experience to prove that you can be dedicated and hold a job.
Financial services, does this mean a bank? Try applying to be a bank teller. Find financial services companies in your area and see if they are hiring administrative assistants/secretaries/file clerks. See if insurance companies are hiring someone to be at the front desk.
I strongly suggest you spend like a few hours a week applying to as many jobs as you can through craigslist, monster.com, indeed, etc. Make sure to write out a sincere and concise cover letter.