<p>I’d really like to land a job at one of the big consulting firms (BCG or Bain in particular). I’m also interested in trading though, so I may also apply to some smaller i-banks (not sure how much of a shot I’d have at goldman or lazard, etc.)</p>
<p>I’m now a sophomore in in college and want to do all I can by this time next year to make sure I look as polished as possible to the firms I interview with. My biggest concern is my GPA: 3.4 Econ major at UCLA. The average is about a 2.8, but I’m not sure how many firms know this. I have several years work experience with the Army doing business related work. I have also been teaching for Kaplan for about 6 months. Maybe not the best work experience, but at least its something. I think my strongest chance is to leave a significant impression at the interview, which I believe I am very capable of. I am a very social person and have always been good at thinking quickly and speaking in front of people.</p>
<p>My game plan is to take a class this summer at LSE, and I should be on pace to graduate by winter break of my senior year. I also want to take this summer to just read as much as possible about finance, banking, and business in general. I notice that a lot of my friends that interview for some of these jobs don’t really know much about any of these. Although some have been hired by decent firms, I think it would make a much better impression to be able to talk intelligently about the business even before you have been apart of it. I also plan to start attending career fairs and seminars over summer at both UCLA and USC.</p>
<p>Anyway my question is should I be focusing this much of my energy on the actual interview and networking? Or should I be worrying more about trying to get my GPA up? I’ve heard from people that 3.4 at UCLA should be good enough to get me an interview at most firms, but what do you guys think?</p>
<p>your gpa is good, don’t worry about what others say. 3.4 is good overall especially if your at UCLA.</p>
<p>focus on getting an internship next year and taking on leadership roles. it’s great that you teach at kaplan because not many people have the qualities and attributes to teach others.</p>
<p>Your GPA isn’t going to get you any dropped jaws, but it’s respectable. The rest is up to your networking skills. CONTACT ALUMNI. Seriously, tap into UCLA’s alumni base and talk about your experience in the Army. Show them who you are and get your name out there.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies guys. I will hopefully keep my GPA in the 3.4-3.5 range which will hopefully at least make me competitive. I’ve been trying to do a bit of networking, but I’m going to try to improve that starting now. I have a few connections in NYC where I’m from, but I need to do a better job getting connections in LA. BCG just started recruiting at UCLA, so interning at BCG or Bain is my goal for junior year summer. I’ll hopefully highlight the presentation skills and people skills I have from my job at Kaplan, and my analytical skills from my job with the Army.</p>
Elaborate on this, because experience is always more important than everything else. If this is good, it doesn’t matter if your GPA is 3.4 or 2.8 or 4.0. If you have multiple years of experience in the field or a related field doing good work you’re not a step ahead of the rest of your graduating class, you’re in another league entirely.</p>
<p>is also 6 months work experience in accounting firm useful?(of course doing accounting related work) How do the US employers recognize the companies outside of US where int. students gained their work experience?</p>
<p>i dont want to discourage you, but i dont know anybody who got hired by mckinsey, bcg, bain or any other strategy consulting firm with a GPA lower than 3.5 or with out internship experience. for USC or ucla. </p>
<p>that GPA is good enough for getting an interview at an operations consulting firm, like delliote, PwC, and anderson.</p>
<p>and you can pretty much foregt about trading. their arent any trading operations in the west coast, and those jobs are pretty much strictly IVY league.</p>
This is completely inaccurate. There are boutiques and prop shops all over the place, and my dog could get a job as a stockbroker. It’s not hard to get into trading at all. IB isn’t all there is to “trading.”</p>
First off, it’s unlikely that someone straight out of college is going to get work at a boutique or a proprietary trading firm. If you’re talking about larger institutions, there’s no point to me listing them all because every major bank has something on the West Coast, whether it be asset management or anything else. Just google name of bank + San Francisco, or San Diego.</p>
<p>“Trading” can mean anything, and when I said my dog could get a job trading I was only half-joking. If you start from the bottom you’ll work on commission only and you’ll probably end up burning out, but you can do that almost anywhere. The Northeast is the best place to be, but it’s not the only place–and saying you can “forget about trading” with a 3.4 in econ at UCLA and work experience is stupid, stupid, STUPID.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be opposed at all to working in the Northeast. I’m actually from NJ and I have a few connections in NYC. I know BCG and Bain both recruit at UCLA and I have a friend who just got a full time job at Bain. My work experience is 4 summers interning in different offices for the Army. I did mostly odds and ends but worked on a few projects comparing prices of communications equipment. I’m sure I could find a way to play it up. Especially since most of the people interviewing me will know little to nothing about how the Army operates.</p>