“Greetings Dealbreaker,
I am a senior in college in need of some advice. I’m hoping your readership can help me out.”
“I attend an average state school and have a fairly low GPA. This coming May I will be graduating with a degree in Business. I’m confident I will do well in finance and working with risk management (I put myself through school playing poker) but expect to have some trouble getting my foot in the door and landing a job due to my weak credentials. At this point I think I’m just looking for an opportunity that will get me my Series 7 and then proceed from there. I could include more details about my ambitions if you’re interested. If you post this I ask that you please remove my name from the email though (yes, even my first name) because I have a fairly high profile within the poker community and many of those same people read financial blogs such as this one.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!”
Paying your way through ZooMass with poker winnings is the NKI.
Send your resume to JT Marlin
I thought AJKHoosier1 graduated.
less time perusing 2+2, more time hitting the books.. state schools should be a breeze even while multi-tabling on 12 monitors
Series 7 > CFA
First Investors is hiring and will sponsor you for your Series 6.
http://www.firstinvestors.com/content/careers.php
I had a penny for every douche who told me he had “put himself through school playing poker” I’d have a whole lot of pennies.
-Business Major with a low GPA from a state school
Are you a good looking girl with a solid sales pitch? If “yes,” I would try cap intro, aka hedge fund sales.
begging for a job on DB the new killing it?
I like how “poker player” has become the new euphemism for fat, drunk and stupid. As someone who was fat, drunk and stupid in college, I quickly realized that my only hope was to find someone similarly inclined, but with a lot of money. Fortune smiled on me and now I work for an underperforming investment manager. This too, will be the path you take, young grasshopper.
see and raise
Not smart enough to create a fake email address? Not hired.
Move up where they respect your raises.
I want to anonymously beg for a job…please, please, please don’t give out any details in case someone recognizes me as I pretend not to be begging for a job in real life.
When can you start?
Kid, I have a question – Why is it important that your fellow poker players not learn of your career aspirations?
Also, a suggestion: when you write that you are looking for an opportunity to “get me my Series 7″ you sound like Gasparino. If you sound like him, no respectable firm will hire you.
Become Chazzy G’s towel boy at the Equinox steam room and become privy to the deepest scoops in all of the land.
Someone with your qualifications would have no trouble finding a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries.
Ask STAR.
One word: Ameriprise.
Would a good looking girl with a solid sales pitch really be reduced to begging for jobs anonymously on Dealbreaker??
Word of advice, anonymous poker-playing low-GPA with no shot at a real job; the casual-encounters section on craigslist (which has not been censored) is the new job forum of excellence
I have a job for this guy in real estate. Mowing my fucking front lawn.
Anyone have exciting plans for rosh tonight?
May I biggie size that order sir
3 words John Thomas Financial
Lemme show this to my boss
Step 1: Fold your diploma into a trapezoid
Step 2: Place on your head
Step 3: In front of mirror practice saying:”May I take your order?”
Step 4: Kill yourself
What about your fucking back lawn?
Trader?
Average state school, low GPA, degree in business. Sounds like Jaffray material to me.
You can be my bitch and work at the trading desk making espressos and sandwiches for me. I won’t pay you but I promise to not let the gay guy who sits three desks over from me fuck you in the ass.
I just read that Obama hired an Asian Carp Czar. Maybe there will be openings in the Great Lakes region. If you are willing to relocate and are highly motivated to control the spread of asian carp, it might be worth looking into.
Total shoe-in for risk management; I’m pretty sure GARP has a poker seminar in NYC and London last month.
we all know that’s a promise you can’t keep…
I’d recommend doing a stint at Harvard Extension School.
Is that Steve Williams?
Run for congress even though you are overqualified.
If you are fairly highly regarded in the poker community, why wouldn’t you give your name?
Bluff city.
A serious answer:
Susquehanna International Group.
Check them out. They will love you.
Why is getting a series 7 a big deal? The prestige some afford that test is absurd.
you do what everyone who has a low gpa / no credentials but wants to get into finance and can’t get into a decent business school does: get a CFA
Let’s see how good of a job he does on the front.
good point you are correct on this. they have a whole gambling room to train people and lots of folks have left making space for newbies
Those credentials sound like every a hole that works on a fixed-income trading desk. This guy’s got as good a shot as any…
Serious answer here – You interview for some mind-numbingly sucky back-office/ops position and grind it out for a few years. With hard work and luck, you may be able to make it into a more lucrative career. But given your background, there is no easy path, get ready to put in the work that you didn’t commit to when you were in college
A couple of thoughts:
Whiteboard marker and estrogen pills.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/news/story?id=535
Contrary to popular belief no on gives a shit about your poker playing in finance. You should have worked your ass off in school (or in state school showed up for class more than once a semester) and gotten all A’s.
Dick Fuld always liked those non-Ivy underdog types…and maybe he’ll come back into the game! Go ask him.
Mutual Fund Inside sales, they will hire anyone recommended by anyone who works at the firm. Given how dumb your email is, that is about where you top out. If not, you work at a mutual fund company; for college poker stars, NKI.
Also, hint, the Series 7 is meaningless. All the secretaries at just about every retail office have it. And insurance license is more a meaningful credential.
one word: Chartered Financial Analyst.
I knew an analyst at Citadel who only played poker with people as an interview. He was very highly regarded – warranted or no.
Read What color is your parachute. Be prepared to face a ton of rejection and be willing to work hard. I learned in an IO psych course that GPA only matters for the first 5 years, after that noone gives a hoot. Once you get your foot in the door and prove yourself noone will care about it. You’ll need to work your @ss off at your first job though, get there early, leave late and read/research on the side.
Susquehanna International Group would take you under BIll Chen’s wings. to qualify u need to have atleast triple chin, and nappy hair. Or try Barcap…since they shafted most of state grads with low GPAs, now they are hiring faily low GPA grads from state school/community college
Greetings Dealbreaker,
I am a hedge fund analyst in need of some advice. I’m hoping your readership can help me out. I’ve spent a dozen years of busting my ass, working 100+ hour weeks at bulge bracket firms, paying off the bills from my Ivy MBA, doing the CFA thing at night, and generally denying myself all earthly pleasures in order to succeed in this racket. Now, Obama is going to raise the marginal tax rate in NYC to 57%. At this point, I’m going to say “screw it”, and I am more interested in staying up late nights playing poker with friends, drinking beer, screwing coeds, and generally avoiding what little responsibility life has in store for me. In short, I’d like to be a C- student at an average-at-best state school.
Please let me know if any of your readers would like to trade places with me. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
ps – Please don’t use my name. My PM reads this blog too.
AmericanBandersnatch @ 7:18 with the Ghostbusters reference made my day
that is three words
sorry I went to a state school and spent my time trading options with my student loan money instead of studying or learning to count.
100% true. And be prepared to take a worse job at a firm with a better name– you’re going to be better off in the long run with 3yrs in the Ops department at GS on your res than 3yrs in some junior analyst position at a 3rd tier firm nobody’s ever heard of.
Series 7, is that the BMW Lindsay drives?
Why would you try him out with your front lawn where if he blows it everyone will see?
- guy with forsight
Or PJ Moran
ballers ride bentleys
Wow, everyone seems to be pretty mean on this one.
Here’s some advice: look online for bulge-bracket, middle market, and boutique firms for entry-level positions for Junior Brokers, Financial Advisors, or Sales Assistant/Associates.
Make an argument about how you enjoy working with people. Do NOT mention poker in an interview. Poker, although fun, has nothing but seedy, non-focused cannotations.
Good luck.
I’ll see your offer and raise you one Midwest-based, middle-market IB job with a high potential upside (as likely as this kid getting into a good shop).
DIE. MOTHERF*CKER.
You are so embarrassing.