<p>^^that…a hundred times over…great, great post…</p>
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<p>You mean Barclays?
As of March, Barcap no longer exists.</p>
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<p>I’m class of '11, and this was 2 years ago. So no, I meant Barcap. But nice try nitpicking at something utterly irrelevant?</p>
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<p>word</p>
<p>On a side note, the market was arguably much better in 2010 than it is today. What may have cleared the bar then may not hold true today.</p>
<p>Mm true to an extent, class of 2010 probably had it rougher than my 2011 overall though. Lately there seems to be more of a wild west feel to recruiting in finance, with GS retaining none of their Stern class of 2012 summer analysts last year, for example. I imagine it’s similar though probably not as volatile in other fields too (unless you’re a competent CS major).</p>
<p>My advice to the OP is what I’ve been saying - keep plugging at it and do the best he possibly can from hereon out. Attend networking events, pound out the grades, tone up the resume/cover letter and practice for interviews. The worst thing that can happen is a no, and no matter what your qualifications are you’ll get plenty of those.</p>
<p>fa-la-la-lena: just wanted to note that we’ve been harping on GPA because OP said in first post that he wanted to go into MBB/IB and then into a M7 Bschool … unrealistic</p>
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<p>? I brought up IB in the context of pointing out that even in such an elite recruitment process people with subpar GPAs make it to great firms. The OP wants to go into marketing at a F500, unless mine eyes doth deceive me.</p>
<p>Have any tips on networking Collectiv?</p>
<p>Depends how much time you have to work with. If it’s short, you’ll have to be more aggressive, but the main pointers are:</p>
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<li>Go to corporate events and job fairs. It doesn’t matter whether they’re not exactly in what you want to do, but focus on the ones that are. Skip class to do so if you have to. My strategy was to stick with each person for at least 20-30 min, get to know them better (remember ANYTHING that would make good chitchat or questions to ask). Make sure to get their cards, and send them a follow-up e-mail the following day (or night if the event was during the day).</li>
<li>Keep it casual, and don’t worry if you don’t get a reply or lukewarm replies. You only need to succeed at building real rapport with 1 in 5, or even 1 in 10 times. Here’s where your ability to make yourself seem interesting comes in. Talking about a mutual hobby (or a hobby they enjoy which you spent the night researching…) speeds this up very quickly. It can be about anything. Heck, I got friendly with the HR for my current job because we both come from medical families. The list of “hooks” (to put it in CC lingo) I’ve used were completely random: Having bought stock in a company the analyst covered, distance running, football strategies and formations, having both played WoW, etc. Just try not to make yourself seem to tacky.</li>
<li>Talk to friends and family. If you’re like most people, this won’t be a huge help. But it does sow the seeds for helping later - you never know who your friends or family will run into that might be able to help you down the road, if not now.</li>
<li>I’ve heard of people using LinkedIn. I personally haven’t for job hunting, so I can’t comment. But I guess if you didn’t get someone’s e-mail but remember their name this can help. Or if you just need to find a recruiter at X company, it can be a good idea.</li>
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<p>Start going to these as early as possible. People ALWAYS remember that smart Freshman who was at events for juniors and seniors. Especially if you follow up and drop an e-mail once every half a year or so. But don’t despair if you’re late to the party, it just means you have to be a little more frequent. Ie, e-mailing a month after meeting with some recruiting questions. They can be something innocuous like whether submitting an application earlier is better, etc etc. Just make sure they’re NOT something you can find on their site.</p>
<p>Don’t take any of this as gospel. The key to all of this is to make you (or more precisely, your name) memorable, and if you feel like there’s a better way to tailor this for yourself, go for it.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of great advice on this thread already, but I’ll add my two cents anyways.</p>
<p>You have a 3.1 GPA for the first two years of college. First of all, that’s not terrible. But more importantly, don’t worry about the past. Just try to do your best in the future. If you earn a good GPA for the last two years of college, then when you apply for jobs after graduation, point out what your GPA was for the last two years. I would imagine that’s probably what they care about most anyways. Why would they care about you getting a 3.1 3 years ago if you got a great GPA in the most recent years?</p>
<p>Secondly, you are doing a dual major. I’d assume that’s a lot more difficult than a single major. If you can’t handle a dual major, then don’t do it. I don’t know if your’e aloud to at this point, but I’d consider dropping a major. I think it would be much easier to get a better GPA that way.</p>
<p>Thirdly, you’re attitude is setting yourself up for failure. You want to land a TOP internship next summer, you want a FANTASTIC job at a FANTASTIC company upon graduation, you want a TOP MBA program, you want a job at google, microsoft, nielsen, proctor and gamble, amazon, or apple… I mean, seriously, “top” and “fantastic” are relative words. There are thousands of successful businesses in the country, and I doubt that if you spend summer at google you are going to learn so much more than if you interned at a less known business. I’m not familiar with the field, so don’t trust me, but I would imagine that it would be even better experience for you to work at a smaller company than apple. Seriously, if you’re a twenty year old college kid spending a summer at apple, do you really think you’re going to have any hands-on experience doing anything important? Again, I’m not familiar with this kind of a thing, but this is my guess.</p>
<p>Other posters already pointed this out, but business isn’t about grades. It’s about your skillsets as a person, and it sounds like you’ve got that. Plenty of very successful business people weren’t book smart, but they were people smart, so they succeeded. You don’t need school to succeed in business, although it helps. So don’t worry- wherever you apply for a job will know that it’s not all about the grades. If they’re impressed with you as a person, they’ll take you anyway. I mean, you’ve got leadership position in 5 clubs!!??! That says a lot about you as a person.</p>
<p>Lastly, don’t worry so much about the MBA programs. My father’s best friends with the dean of a top 5 MBA program (according to US News), and my father asked him what they look for in future students. He said that it’s not so much about the undergrad grades, but it’s about your business experience. What have you accomplished when working. (GMAT’s/GRE’s are also important, but they are not necessarily looking for the “smartest” stuents, but for good businessmen.)</p>
<p>I hope this helps.</p>