Hey guys,
I would appreciate your brutally honest opinions on a topic. I graduated with a BA in Finance from a well known but not top school. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA in 2009. Unfortunately, I had no one to guide me in the right direction and I had to learn many things the hard way. Some of these things have just come to my attention recently. I am 26 years old right now. You could say that although my grades were pretty good I did not position myself to land one of the more desirable finance jobs. When I graduated there was not much available and it was about 9 months until I landed my first job as a mortgage banker. This was a good paying job and would have provided good experience. I have also been a retail credit analyst and a financial analyst. However, do not let the final two job titles throw you off as I was basically sold and the positions were basically glorified sales representative positions with a little analytical work mixed in. They did not pay the greatest at least taking into account my situation. They paid roughly $40,000 a year which would have been fine with me had I not been loaded with debt. The experience I would have recieved at these companies would still have been pretty good overall to pad my resume. Still, let me tell you that these positions were not the type of analytical work you and I are thinking of. You could say that I had high expectations coming out of college and that I basically came out and ran into a brick wall as I faced reality. In the 3.5-4 years since I have graduated I have about 22-24 months of experience at three different jobs that I left by choice all in less than a year. I had student loans approaching $100,000 as I first saved up my money to buy a very economical new car cash as my credit was trashed and my mom was getting sick of me driving her car. The student loans caused so much stress as with the money I was making I just did not see a way of ever getting out. In addition, my positions at the company were always in jeopardy due to my credit and I believe if I stayed at any of these position I would have lost my job soon after I left. I basically lost all confidence and motivation and even began to have physical pains you would not understand unless you experienced them yourself. I was then worried for my health. I kept thinking of other ideas that would allow me to escape my situation and lost my focus on the positions I had and started to no longer care about the consequences on my career although I knew what they were. Do you feel that at 26 years old it is too late given my situation to turn my life around and become successful in the field of finance? I plan to immediately seek employment and get whatever experience I am able regardless of the sacrifices I have to make. Even if I have to intern or work for free I will do it. Also, I plan to begin studying for the CFA and/or an MS in accounting along with the CPA to strenghten my analytical abilities and to open up more doors than are currently available to me. I know that I will probably never become an investment banking analyst on Wall Street. (Are these opportunities closed to me?) However, I would like to one day make $100000+ a year later on in life although I know it will not happen immediately. I would be fine with many of the better positions in corporate finance, a CPA at an accounting firm, and other positions in finance that are not currently available to me. Would it ever be possible given my situation and age to work my way into prive equity, investment management, or trading? I greatly appreciate any advice you will offer me. Be brutally honest with me. Am I wasting my time and should I just start focusing on computer science or some other field?
I would appreciate your brutally honest opinions on a topic. I graduated with a BA in Finance from a well known but not top school. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA in 2009. Unfortunately, I had no one to guide me in the right direction and I had to learn many things the hard way. Some of these things have just come to my attention recently. I am 26 years old right now. You could say that although my grades were pretty good I did not position myself to land one of the more desirable finance jobs. When I graduated there was not much available and it was about 9 months until I landed my first job as a mortgage banker. This was a good paying job and would have provided good experience. I have also been a retail credit analyst and a financial analyst. However, do not let the final two job titles throw you off as I was basically sold and the positions were basically glorified sales representative positions with a little analytical work mixed in. They did not pay the greatest at least taking into account my situation. They paid roughly $40,000 a year which would have been fine with me had I not been loaded with debt. The experience I would have recieved at these companies would still have been pretty good overall to pad my resume. Still, let me tell you that these positions were not the type of analytical work you and I are thinking of. You could say that I had high expectations coming out of college and that I basically came out and ran into a brick wall as I faced reality. In the 3.5-4 years since I have graduated I have about 22-24 months of experience at three different jobs that I left by choice all in less than a year. I had student loans approaching $100,000 as I first saved up my money to buy a very economical new car cash as my credit was trashed and my mom was getting sick of me driving her car. The student loans caused so much stress as with the money I was making I just did not see a way of ever getting out. In addition, my positions at the company were always in jeopardy due to my credit and I believe if I stayed at any of these position I would have lost my job soon after I left. I basically lost all confidence and motivation and even began to have physical pains you would not understand unless you experienced them yourself. I was then worried for my health. I kept thinking of other ideas that would allow me to escape my situation and lost my focus on the positions I had and started to no longer care about the consequences on my career although I knew what they were. Do you feel that at 26 years old it is too late given my situation to turn my life around and become successful in the field of finance? I plan to immediately seek employment and get whatever experience I am able regardless of the sacrifices I have to make. Even if I have to intern or work for free I will do it. Also, I plan to begin studying for the CFA and/or an MS in accounting along with the CPA to strenghten my analytical abilities and to open up more doors than are currently available to me. I know that I will probably never become an investment banking analyst on Wall Street. (Are these opportunities closed to me?) However, I would like to one day make $100000+ a year later on in life although I know it will not happen immediately. I would be fine with many of the better positions in corporate finance, a CPA at an accounting firm, and other positions in finance that are not currently available to me. Would it ever be possible given my situation and age to work my way into prive equity, investment management, or trading? I greatly appreciate any advice you will offer me. Be brutally honest with me. Am I wasting my time and should I just start focusing on computer science or some other field?