Career advice is appreciated

So I graduated from a target school, economics major, as an international student with a really low GPA, no internships. Apparently I was uncomfortable with life in the US; I couldn’t be barefoot and the malls were too far away, but I was too frugal to get a rug, and I'm not from a very wealthy family so I couldn't afford cars or summer housing etc. I do have a GRE of 166/165/5,5, and a GMAT of 730/6/8.

So I got a job back home and five years on, I'm making 80,000 USD a year on a 9-5 job...which I think is close to making U$120,000(average US city) to U$160,000(Manhattan, Silicon Valley) in the US. It guarantees a job until retirement so I'm not keen on ditching it but then I'd love to make six figures for a very long time if I have the opportunity. In terms of making it back to those industries (and maybe back to the US) I

  • got an offer from JP Morgan, but as an economist, not in equity, M&A or other more lucrative areas, My current job is as a government economist.
  • got two interviews as an McKinsey associate, and as a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group (the last one was the only opportunity to make ~U$ 200,000, which is a whole lot of money here)

I have no graduate degree (I only attended a top 30 in the world masters' program for a while), so I'm doing something right in terms of developing my resume, despite my GPA (which is sub 3.0), but anyways...

In the last interview the interviewer gave me not just his business card, but also serious advice to pursue engineering or data science instead of consulting or other client-facing jobs.

Should I take his advice and make a u-turn? Is he just shooing me away?

 

Animi eveniet mollitia quis cum qui. Quo ut libero est accusantium voluptatem incidunt autem.

Veniam impedit et et temporibus. Iure est quae voluptatem non ex amet. Ducimus vero odio in sed cupiditate. Et voluptatem dolores similique qui ullam eos. Aut est dolore reprehenderit iusto repudiandae sit eos aut. Rerum officiis in ut nam amet. Recusandae cum facilis est ut incidunt labore.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Lazard Freres No 98.9%
  • Harris Williams & Co. 25 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 04 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.9%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 04 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.9%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (21) $373
  • Associates (91) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (68) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (147) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”