So I went to an NY event for highly GPA selective firm. I mostly went because it sounded like a cool event/to practice schmoozing.
Then I hit it off with everyone there, including the partner responsible for my school, and he got a recruiter and told me to pass them my info to get an interview.
First, I assume by info he meant resume and transcript (he specifically mentioned transcript and no cover letter).
So I guess I should go for it. I'm a 3.2x at a T14. The lowest GPA that got callbacks at this firm was 3.4 and the average was way closer to 4.0 than to my grades.
So how do I go about this? Just an email with minimal docs and cc partner?
For what it's worth, I had a decent GPA my fall semester then it crashed my spring semester because of a serious illness - easily treatable once diagnosed but took months of specialists to get to that stage. Should I bring this up in a sentence or two?
I realize it won't be responded with a "oh well let's just pretend spring never happened!" but maybe if they're open to considering me, having a brief sentence in there to the effect of it was a problem, it got resolved, won't affect the future will have them give be the benefit of the doubt a little more.
Thoughts?
Approaching recruitment at grade-selective firm with bad GPA Forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432424
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
-
collegewriter
- Posts: 95
- Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:01 pm
Re: Approaching recruitment at grade-selective firm with bad GPA
OP, you definitely have to provide a transcript and you should not mention the illness or anything else related to grades in the cover letter. Why draw attention to something they may not be concerned about?
The partner likes you enough to bring you in for an interview. Sending your info is just a formality (most likely). IMO, the GPA requirement is gatekeeping and the reason they hired mostly people with those GPAs is because they only interviewed people with good GPAs. It sounds like you likely have the interview on lock and don’t need to worry about the GPA issue.
That being said, follow up with the partner once you apply and note that it was nice to meet them and that you submitted your application and you hope to see them/their colleagues soon for the interview.
The partner likes you enough to bring you in for an interview. Sending your info is just a formality (most likely). IMO, the GPA requirement is gatekeeping and the reason they hired mostly people with those GPAs is because they only interviewed people with good GPAs. It sounds like you likely have the interview on lock and don’t need to worry about the GPA issue.
That being said, follow up with the partner once you apply and note that it was nice to meet them and that you submitted your application and you hope to see them/their colleagues soon for the interview.
