<p>School: UC Berkeley
Majors: (double) Math and Economics
GPA: 3.9</p>
<p>Where would someone of that caliber end up working? Wall Street?</p>
<p>Would they have any advancement into foreign areas? What are the requisites for getting a job in, say, Switzerland as an investment banker?</p>
<p>If your GPA is on the low end of 3.9, then you are probably stuck with aiming for Goldman, McKinsey, Barclays, etc. You will usually need to know German to work in Switzerland.</p>
<p>If your GPA is on the high end of 3.9, then you can try to aim for elite buyside firms such as Blackstone, Bain Cap, Citadel, Bridgewater, etc.</p>
<p>“Stuck” with Goldman.
Poor thing =_=</p>
<p>Ignore IvyPBear, GPA doesn’t mean anything once you have an interview. The only thing that matters is your ability to interview and getting the person who’s interviewing you to think “yea I’d like to hangout with this guy he seems cool”. I promise you an outgoing and personable kid with a 3.3 will beat out an asian nerd with a 4.0 every time. The point is, once you get over a 3.5 GPA everyone is on a level playing field.</p>
<p>Wow, Josh, that’s a really kind comment. asian nerd with a 4.0.</p>
<p>Yea why does the nerd have to be asian</p>
<p>The asians-don’t-have-social-skills-and-only-know-how-to-crunch-numbers stereotype.</p>
<p>sorry didn’t mean to offend anyone</p>
<p>apology accepted-asian nerd</p>
<p>“Ignore IvyPBear, GPA doesn’t mean anything once you have an interview. The only thing that matters is your ability to interview and getting the person who’s interviewing you to think “yea I’d like to hangout with this guy he seems cool”. I promise you an outgoing and personable kid with a 3.3 will beat out an asian nerd with a 4.0 every time. The point is, once you get over a 3.5 GPA everyone is on a level playing field.”</p>
<p>First, you need the interview. I really like to see you try to get into Goldman with 3.3, let a lone Citadel. GPA matters much less ones you get your interview, but it still matters. Contrary to what you believe, top firms usually take three types of students: 1. super smart ones (GPA 3.9+, whether they are asian nerds, jewish nerds, white nerds, whatever…) 2. sociable 3.7-3.8’s who’s willing to share views and thoughts 3. athletes with 3.5-3.7.</p>
<p>You won’t get anywhere with your 3.3 (you won’t even beat every an asian nerd with a 3.7, let alone top asian nerds), not even if you are a star football player at an Ivy. And, it really sounds like you have been beaten by “asian nerds” before; nothing else would justify such a outrageously prejudiced statement.</p>
<p>probably in a ditch</p>
<p>Do well in your interview and you’ll be fine wherever you want to work for.</p>
<p>All doors are open. You should be able to land an interview anywhere if you polish your resume & cover letter.</p>
<p>Why Switzerland though? You need to be able to speak German for most banks, and even then Swiss German is a completely different dialect.</p>
<p>@IvyPBear - Why are college athletes considered an asset in this type of work? Is it the ability to work on a team or something?</p>
<p>^^ ability to manage a mix of a rigorous academic program with a strenuous athletic program shows that you are able to juggle many things at once and have the discipline to do so, people are attracted to athletes, so the thinking is clients will be attracted to athletes etc.</p>
<p>black America would love to switch stereotypes with you asians. Im sure of it lol</p>
<p>“First, you need the interview. I really like to see you try to get into Goldman with 3.3, let a lone Citadel. GPA matters much less ones you get your interview, but it still matters. Contrary to what you believe, top firms usually take three types of students: 1. super smart ones (GPA 3.9+, whether they are asian nerds, jewish nerds, white nerds, whatever…) 2. sociable 3.7-3.8’s who’s willing to share views and thoughts 3. athletes with 3.5-3.7.”</p>
<p>You always seem pretty knowledgeable and I do not mean to question you, but with all due respect, I completely disagree. It’s more about the experience than the GPA. When I was going through SA recruiting, I had interviews with DE Shaw, Citadel, every BB and every prop shop. The only banks that declined my interviews were RBS, RBC and SocGen (wth?!?)
I had a 3.6 in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research at the time. I am not in your group 1 (way below 3.9), not in your group 2 (I never did any networking) and I am not in your group 3 (not an athlete). I can tell you exactly why I had interviews everywhere and that’s because of a freshman boutique internship and a sophomore BB internship.
I strongly believe that internship experience trumps GPA any day of the week, and that does not end in the resume selection phase. I can tell you why you will never package certain ELNs and Accumulators even though your textbook formulas tells you it’s mathematically possible. I can tell you what type of securities you would want to put in your rainbow option to actually get investors to buy them . I can tell you how barrier options are actually priced in the real market and how much overhedge you should charge in various scenarios despite the fact that your textbook would probably tell you some stupid shyt like due to no arbitrage principle, your option should be priced to the expected value. These are things that show in interviews. I dont care if someone has a 3.999999 gpa, but unless you sat on a desk (for me a structuring desk) you would only be able to spit out textbook knowledge in interviews.</p>