Investment banking help!! (Sort of Resume)?

Question

Friends, I am a 19 year old college guy. I finished high school in June of 2007 and then attended a community college (one of the best in America, Sierra college) maybe you've heard of it. Only a year after my graduation from high school and I'm almost done with my AA degree.

I took a full load of classes during summer (Accounting 3, MacroEconomics, Stats, Oral communications and English 1B) and got a 4.0 GPA. My GPA when i get my AA degree will be 3.7

I am majoring in Finance and also will have a minor in Economics, and if all goes according to my plan and hard work, my GPA will be 3.8 for a Bachelor's degree. I will also be taking "investment banking boot camp" to get ahead of my competition and get an internship in investment banking for one year. By June 2010, I will have a Finance major degree, Econ minor degree, 1 year of internship, and an active involvement in NABE (National Association of Business Economics) and business clubs at my college (Such as Alpha Beta PSI), not to mention, with a 3.8 (or more) GPA.

Do you think I then will have a good chance of getting into investment banking and becoming an analyst with a top notch firm (Goldman Sachs is my first preference).

I have a strong interest in Financial market, i regularly watch CNBC and read Wall Street Journal, not just for the sake of it, but I really enjoy these and they give me inspiration to go forward.

My question is, Do you guys (bankers) think I have what it takes to be hired? Please tell me what other qualities do I need.

Please help, I am losing my sleep over this. I just cannot live a common life like 80% of the people. When I was taking a full load of summer classes, no one believed that I could even pass them all. Everyone laughed at me since they were enjoying and i was dug in books.

BAnkers, what do you look for in a candidate, does it matter where a person got his bachelor's degree from or does hard work, determination and commintment along with acedemic performance/ involvement in club, hunger to be successful matter. I could not go to an Ivy league school because I could not afford it, not because I couldn't get into it. Can a school thing basically ruin my career?

Answer 1

I'm no banker and you sent me an e-mail about this kind of thing.

I personally think you have what it takes, if everything goes to plan and you are a very motivated person at the core, almost too much if you're losing sleep about this.

But I hope we keep in more touch since we're both aiming at investment banking.

One thing that I can put forward is that you make sure you have back-up plan in case something fails. For example, what if you don't get an internship? What if there's a slight chance you get turned down? Instead of stressing about how you could get turned down, think of a solution or another way to get around this so you still reach your goal.

Answer 2

You have very slim chances at investment banking. GS won't look twice at a guy who went to community college, and you're seriously delluding yourself if you think that we've heard of this "one of the best [community colleges] in America".

The exception will be if you are able to transfer from your community college into a top school... and by top, I don't mean UC Santa Barbra; I'm talking about in the league of Harvard, Princeton, or, at very least, Rice, Vandy, etc. - and you're not getting into these schools with a 3.7 from community college. (you're further delluding yourself if you think that it due to cost prohibitions that prevented you from attending an Ivy - any Ivy kid would ace 4.0s throughout CC without batting an eyelash).

And you're in for a surprise if you think that these internships are so easy to get... getting a BB internship is as difficult as getting a full-time job, and random MM internships won't help your credibility in the least.