What WAM should I aim for?

[Michelle94]

I'm a good student but I'm not exceptional and I want to know peoples opinions of the wam or GPS I should be aiming for?
I'm doing business thinking of majoring in banking and finance or accounting
What wam is needed for the top jobs in those fields??
I don't have many non curricular activities :S

So far my wam is 75.33

[Michelle94]

GPA not GPS autocorrect

[Furbob]

dont take my word for this but I "think" you need 70+ to be competitive

you will probably need extracurricular activities such as work experience, internships, uni club involvement or volunteering to show that you do things other than study and that you can work well in a team

work experience is probably more important on your resume than your WAM imo - my brother managed to get a job through employers looking at his work experience over his (might I say not-so-great) uni results and now has people with masters and *probably* higher uni results now working under him

[Yeezus]

All the information you can get from this forum on jobs is unsubstantiated and comes from people who have never held a in that respective profession.

You're best off e-mailing the company you're interested in directly and asking questions such as:

"Hi, I'm in uni, and I really want to work for your company when I graduate. How do I do this?"

They'll reply and give you far more meaningful info.

[Furbob]

All the information you can get from this forum on jobs is unsubstantiated and comes from people who have never held a in that respective profession.

I wouldn't go as far as saying my (and everyone's) advice is "unsubstantiated" on this forum - what I said is actually relevant and I used a valid example to illustrate my point

sorry for trying to be helpful

[Fyrefly]

You're best off e-mailing the company you're interested in directly and asking questions such as:

"Hi, I'm in uni, and I really want to work for your company when I graduate. How do I do this?"

They'll reply and give you far more meaningful info.

No they won't. You won't get a number out of them. Most companies intentionally avoid publishing a number, and if you press them for one, they always insist that they assess a candidate's application as a whole.

[Fyrefly]

All the information you can get from this forum on jobs is unsubstantiated and comes from people who have never held a in that respective profession.

Actually, many of the older members on here do have experience in these professions, including me.
I have worked at a Big4 accounting firm, and at the biggest investment bank in Australia.

I'm at work at the moment actually, but I'm more than happy to answer questions regarding the banking/finance/accounting industries later after work.

[Yeezus]

No they won't. You won't get a number out of them. Most companies intentionally avoid publishing a number, and if you press them for one, they always insist that they assess a candidate's application as a whole.

Have e-mailed Rio Tinto, BAE systems and Qantas and all told me what grades I should aim for, what extra-curriculars they care about and what they look for in graduates. Maybe you're not asking the right  people.
 

[brenden]

You forgot to say "sorry, I retract my massive generalisation, as I am clearly somewhat wrong, as Fyrefly has actually held positions in [those] respective professions" .

[Planck's constant]

Actually, many of the older members on here do have experience in these professions, including me.
I have worked at a Big4 accounting firm, and at the biggest investment bank in Australia.

I'm at work at the moment actually, but I'm more than happy to answer questions regarding the banking/finance/accounting industries later after work.

Agreed.

I have observed that you definitely need a good GPA to make to to the starting line for those prestigeous, difficult to get internships and grad jobs. By this, I mean making it to the interview stage.

Beyond that point, the 'other stuff' comes into play. But you have to make the cut first before you can show off your 'other stuff'.

Hence, good GPA = necessary.

[Yeezus]

Agreed.

I have observed that you definitely need a good GPA to make to to the starting line for those prestigeous, difficult to get internships and grad jobs. By this, I mean making it to the interview stage.

Beyond that point, the 'other stuff' comes into play. But you have to make the cut first before you can show off your 'other stuff'.

Hence, good GPA = necessary.

And where did you observe this from?

I know one person who has worked got a job at google, which is ostensibly the most difficult job in the world to get. Just one, and he didn't have amazing grades, he definitely failed 2 units that I know of.

http://www.google.com.au/about/jobs/lifeatgoogle/hiringprocess/

There's a commerce professor on the forum who re-inforced what ^ says.

Brendren, I retract nothing, the very next post after yours displays exactly what I said. Another unsubstantiated claim. Just because one or two people break the rule doesn't invalidate my sentiment. Atarnotes is full of people who get great scores academically and work very hard for it, everyone wants to be rewarded for this. It's not going to be a popular school of thought around here for people that their hard-work doesn't necessarily give them a competitive edge in every professional entry position.

Good grades for the sake of getting to the top are a chump's way of going about a career.

I'll show you  how I went about trying to get into a job that I was interested in.

I wanted to work for BAE systems. I went on linkedin and found graduates working there. I found the ones that went to my university and searched them on facebook. A few of them had mutual friends with me on facebook. I picked the one who had a mutual friend who I was good friends with and asked my friend to introduce us and to organise something so it looks like we met perchance. Started talking to him and eventually we talked about BAE, told him I really wanted to work there, added him on facebook and started e-mailing me.

He then told me that BAE rarely hires Unimelb graduates, they usuaully take RMIT graduates. He told me to join a club called formula SAE, get high up in that, get a ~70 average and then to apply for some summer vac work, impress the right people and get the chance to stay on, explicitly giving me the name of the guy I should talk to about vac work. A year later or so, I had been with formula SAE club for a while, e-mailed the bloke and got the vac position for the up-coming summer.

If I had just gone about getting 80+ H1's, I probably wouldn't have got in, because BAE openly tell you they prefer RMIT graduates.

[Planck's constant]

To cut a long story short.
Nobody will ever refuse True Tears an interview.
Ever.

[Yeezus]

To cut a long story short.
Nobody will ever refuse True Tears an interview.
Ever.

That's really helpful info for the 99.9999% of us who do not have a 99 average.

[Furbob]

Brendren, I retract nothing, the very next post after yours displays exactly what I said. Another unsubstantiated claim. Just because one or two people break the rule doesn't invalidate my sentiment. Atarnotes is full of people who get great scores academically and work very hard for it, everyone wants to be rewarded for this. It's not going to be a popular school of thought around here for people that their hard-work doesn't necessarily give them a competitive edge in every professional entry position.

why do you have to be so arrogant.

am I allowed to use your generalization against you and go "hey you're not in a respective profession therefore what you just said is unsubstantiated"

and dont go off and say that you're in a "respective profession" since Fyrefly's experience + fact that she's actually working right now doesn't count to you either

I already mentioned that grades aren't everything at the very start and next thing you say is to not listen to anyone since our advice is "unsubstantiated"

[brenden]

and comes from people who have never held a in that respective profession.

I have worked at a Big4 accounting firm, and at the biggest investment bank in Australia.

One or two people breaking the rule perfectly invalidates your sentiment.

But I guess Yeezus answered OP for us - ~70 WAM among other things