<p>Thanks for the replies. In response to the questions:</p>
<p>Top 5 undergrad business school, according to US News, 2009. Here’s a link to the list.
[Best</a> Undergraduate Business Programs - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-business]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-business)</p>
<p>GPA of 3.5+, graduated with honors. Marketing GPA of 3.75.</p>
<p>I’ve had interviewers who were surprised that someone from my school with decent grades couldn’t get a job, not even as someone’s assistant. But they still wouldn’t hire me because they were looking for someone with 1-2 years of full-time work experience. Most marketing majors from my school that managed to get good jobs seemed to go the online marketing route. Other than online marketing and photo/video editing, a marketing major more or less carries the weight of a communications major.</p>
<p>My friends/classmates who majored in finance with below 3.5 GPAs were able to land positions at top investment banks (including in IBD), and the Big4 firms. None of them were even summer interns at these firms. A few of these friends didn’t even have ANY internships the summer of their junior year.</p>
<p>I did make some mistakes along the way, but I don’t think it discounts the fact that I’m still unemployed a year after graduation. So yeah, it’s pretty much hopeless now. I did manage to get an internship and a temp position at two large investment banks over the past year, but employers still weren’t interested. Now I’m currently doing another internship.</p>
<p>Taking the advice of relatives and family friends, I also attended graduate school for civil engineering / construction management for the past semester (3.9 GPA, but it was mostly luck). However, I’m not interested in construction at all and would ideally like to go back to something business-related. Plus, the construction sector isn’t doing well so I might still be unemployed after completing that degree. Oh, and I’m a girl (my relatives suggested I could possibly be a diversity hire in construction).</p>