What should I do? Job? Grad school??? *HELP!!!*

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hi everybody!</p>

<p>I'd like to first thank you for taking your time to read my post.</p>

<p>My situation is, I am 20 years old, currently an undergrad senior majoring in business management & Chinese, with a GPA of 3.84; I will be gratuating in May 2007. </p>

<p>My parents are first generation immigrants and are dead set on me going to grad school, because that's what undergrads do in China if they want a good job. I don't mind going to grad school, but through my research, I learned that the majority of top b-schools do not like accepting recent college graduates. I am extremely proud of my GPA, and I really do not want to waste it by going to a mediocre b-school because I lack work experience. I haven't taken the official GMAT yet, but my estimated score on a practice exam was ~600. I'm certain I can do better on the actual exam.</p>

<p>If I do get a job right after college, it seems as if all the entry level jobs for management BBA's offer salaries that I just do not want to take (< $40,000), and are mostly admin. assistants in nature. I may have too high of an expectation, but again, it's mainly due to my GPA. And I really would hate to have to work a job I do not like just to gather up enough job experience and apply for grad school in two years.</p>

<p>I'm sorry if I seemed difficult in my post, or if it sounded like I am being too conceited/proud/whatever. I am here only because I'm seriously lost and I really need some ideas from others whom have a much better understanding of the real world outside of college than myself.</p>

<p>Please feel to criticize, and please be honest. Any opinions and/or comments are greatly appreciated and are more than welcome.</p>

<p>If you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask.</p>

<p>Thanks so much again for your time!</p>

<p>Eva</p>

2

<p>Can you say management consulting?</p>

<p>Look into these:
<a href="http://www.bcg.com/careers/careers_splash.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bcg.com/careers/careers_splash.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/aboutus/careers/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mckinsey.com/aboutus/careers/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://careers.deloitte.com/studentgrad.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://careers.deloitte.com/studentgrad.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Management consultants will usually be paid around $50k plus small bonus which can total up to 60k to even 80k first year, which is really good.</p>

3

<p>Getting into management consulting is pretty difficult... even with a high GPA, you are rarely going to get a management consulting job right out of undergrad, unless you have other things going for you such as starting your own successful small business, a lot of community/school involvement that shows/requires proven leadership, and down those lines.</p>

<p>I am a full-time employee, full-time student with a 3.829 GPA as a senior in accounting...I'm pretty proud of my GPA (especially since I've earned it while juggling school and work for the past 3 years), and I hope it helps me get a promotion/better paid position upon graduating in June 2007, but I don't even have as high of expectations as you... I am willing to take the **** jobs if it means I get to pad my resume and learn more skills that will increase my specialization/value to the corporate world. Basically if you have no work experience, you are going to have to accept something you may not like for a while, but keep in mind that it's temporary and keep your vision on your goals (if they are to go to a highly regarded MBA school, then just keep it in mind as you go to work doing stuff you don't like)...I think all this media being focused on the few college grads who got $60K+ jobs right out of college with absolutely no work experience, no internships, and just studied hard and had a good GPA is awfully misleading... the reality is most of the stuff required to do your job (and in turn become valuable to your employer) you learn while working the job--not in college. Most companies don't want to hire someone, pay them massive salaries, and give them lots of responsibility right out of the gate if they have no work experience. That's just the facts.</p>