Where do I go from here? - Graduated in June with an economics degree

Hi everyone, this is my first time here. I really wish I would've found this site a few years ago, since it feels like I'm way behind in the game now.

I graduated in June with an economics degree from a non-target school (UC Santa Cruz). I feel like I've wasted a lot of time during my years there. I wasn't part of any clubs or organizations and didn't do any internships related to my major. On top of that, my overall GPA is pretty poor - 3.16.

My first area of concern is my GPA. A 3.16 seems painfully low. I have a major GPA of 3.61 but my parents pushed me to try to double major in engineering, where I got nothing but C's before I decided I had enough of engineering. I had always planned to do economics from the start, after taking AP economics in high school, but coming from a home where both my parents are computer engineers, they weren't very supportive of me wanting to major in economics. As such, I've taken loads of useless classes, such as Chemistry, years of math, physics and electrical engineering. I've done pretty well in most of my economics classes, getting mostly A's and A-'s (I got a C in one, and that's no one's fault but my own, and a B in another because our entire grade was based on how we did on a computer simulation which I found confusing), but I think potential employers and recruiters just stop reading after they see my overall GPA. Is there anything I can do about this?

My second area of concern is my lack of job experience. Thoughout college, the only jobs I had were at the dining hall and as a calculus grader, and both don't help me at all. I had one "internship" as an IT tech at a software company but that also is outside the field I want to get into. At this point, I'm not sure if I should be applying to jobs or internships. Right now I'm working at a tiny investment advisement company. While I love it and I am learning a lot (through reading), the only thing I do is answer phones and sort through mail. As such, this isn't a long term solution and I need a job that will actually give me responsibilities and help me move up in the field I want.

The area I really want to get into is risk analysis. I think I'd be an ideal fit because I'm fairly good with numbers, but my problem is all the job listings I've found need either a ton of related experience and/or many qualifications. I'm also applying for MSF programs and have already taken the GRE, but I think my GPA, not-so-great school and lack of experience will ultimately keep me out of grad school, as well.

I'm not quite sure where to start. I've tried cold-calling and cold-emailing companies, but haven't gotten any responses. Networking is also tough because my parents are in unrelated fields, and my school doesn't exactly have recruiters knocking at the door. The only firms that showed up for the career day were insurance sales firms.

Any advice would be great. Thanks

 

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