Hi there Guys,I have officially blown it. I got an offer to start at Deloitte Consulting after christmas and have just found out that I got a 2.2. I stuffed up 2 of my exams, and am pretty gutted. Does anyone have any ideas about where I should go next, ie how should I tackle the innevitable begging tactics...Has anyone been through this before and been successful? Are there any hints out there about how I should go about pleading my case. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.CheersJim

Jim,If they specified a 2:1 then your outa luck, however like everything if you have a plausable story behind why you were not at your best then by all means tell them. You got through the interview.I also graduated with a desmond many years ago, but I was working, paying a mortgage and had two children under 5 and a wife to provide for.Made no difference, they liked my ethic, how hard I worked to keep everything together and the fact that if i was not having to work 40 hours a week and on a uni course I would have easily made a 2:1.Life is a box of chocolates, that should be the consultants motto :)

Welcome to the high road.Ok, so you stuffed it up partying and blew your exams. Gutting but not the end of the world.Get onto a good quality blue chip management scheme in a sector that interests you. Work your booty off for 5 years and get hired as a sector 'expert' on an experienced hire basis.You'll miss out on some consulting experience but you'll gain valuable tools such as management and leadership which are ignored in consulting until manager level but vital in so many ways.This is my story, I made this move and know several close friends who have done the same.My earnings are top quartile for my age in my firm (big firm) but my real world experience allows clients the security that I am not just some snotty consultograd straight off the conveyor belt.I am God.

Chin up Jim,Although I do not have the specifics behind your result (caner/family tragedy/lacking in financial backing etc. etc…), there are opportunities out there. Without wishing to sound overly monotheistic (!), you should listen to God – his advice is sound. There are a *lot* of snotty, spoon-fed, moulded grads out there. Pumped-up, buffed and polished, armed with their top grades - they will always land at the top of the pile.However, and it is a jumbo-sized "however", top grades do not necessarily translate into the material needed for a top performer. Differentiate yourself by working hard and applying lateral thinking – sounds obvious but it is staggering how many “top” grads fall down here. I hire on a regular basis and my top performers are typically those who have faced significant setbacks in life, and overcome them.

Cheers guys,I will probably hear back soon and it will probably be the innevitable rejection. But thanks for the advice on alternative routes into the profession. J

How did it go?

Jim - I wouldn't worry mate. I also got a desmond (no excuses on my part, just I was super lazy at uni), went to a run of the mill red-brick and crappy comp. However, it has never held me back in anyway. I now work at strategy consultancy and pull 55k . I'm 24. It's all about how you interview and how commercial you are once you hit the ground. A trait often lost on all those 'top grads' from oxbridge I've seen get pushed out / resign since I joined.

Do you have to tell them....?

I noticed your comment from months ago, and I'm just curious how did you manage to get to the interview process at all? I feel like with poor academics my CV would be tossed out before they get to the end of the page.

So what if you did't get into Deloitte. Not the end of your career now is it? You may have dossed, doped, danced and even got drunk, but a desmond isn't something you should be annoyed. Thankful you got it, can't go back, so the only way is to consider what next? what can you do to develop and better yourself?I graduated with a 2:2 and couldn't get into consulting (rejected many times). I was more business savvy than the other snotty nosed toffs, but got rejected because "I didn't fit the profile". I got the 2:2 because I was running a business, gf dropped a mini-me and couldn't afford the fees because of priorities....After 10 years, in industry (aerospace, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, finance, and now IT), I feel compelled at how much depth and breadth I have developed. Been to a few interviews with Consultancies that rejected me at the time and now they are dying for someone with my calibre. It is what you want to make of it. So don't feel bad, everything works out, eventually :)

As someone living outside UK (Scandinavia), reading the above discussion makes be curious about the rationale behind this extreme focus on grades that seems to be case in UK. Although grades are important here as well (at least as far as consulting is concerned), I would never dream of being reject (after an offer) purely on the basis of performing poorly on my last exams.What are Deloitte’s motives behind the rejection?Is it a matter of branding and image? (i.e. “we only recruit grads with 2:1, no exceptions”)After all, they must have realized that you would end up slightly above the 2:1 “limit” or slightly under it when they gave you the offer. What’s the difference for Deloitte? (in terms of your competence)For me, it just doesn’t make sense…

Hi Outsider,Great question - it must look odd from some international perspectives (although the US has a similar attitude with their GPA requirements).Although adherence to grade criteria is sometimes seen as unfair, I see it as a consequence of fairness (the traditional British sense of fair play perhaps :-)In one part, it is about the company being honest and open with their selection criteria, so that when a standard is set (e.g. a 2:1 degree) it is adhered to so as not to be unfair to other candidates who also got a 2:2 but did not get the job.It is also influenced by large firms in the UK being (relatively) observant about avoiding discrimination so that standards are applied equally to every individual.Another form of fairness which drives the approach is the openness of the labour market - there is a large supply of candidates offering 2:1 (and international equivalent) degrees along with the necessary skills, attitude and personality for the job. The UK is very attractive and open to graduate talent. Therefore, it is rare to find a case and candidate special enough at this relatively junior level to justify varying the rules.Aside from fairness arguments, the 2:1 hurdle is partly chosen because companies don't have enough confidence in the quality and consistency of the education system to pick a lower hurdle. Admittedly, even then there is wide variation between university standards, but the idea is that achieving a 2:1 at any university represents some kind of constant base measure.A third (subjective) factor is that it is one of the more valid and broadly accessible standards. Because the UK only uses broad degree bands rather than scores to a one-percent accuracy or decimal point GPA, I would argue that the 2:1 is a broad enough standard to be realistically achieveable by most people and is not over-selective.

Looks like jim lost interest in this site ages ago. probably in recruitment by now....

I'm back!I was shocked and touched to see that my thread bounce back into the limelight!Joking aside, I did get rejected after being d*cked about all summer, trying to get an answer - but matter not thinks lucky jim. I moved to Landan, and have not looked back - have started work in a small consultancy, and the place is amazing - I didn't focus on the academics, but said that I could be on a probation period - and if we felt that things didn't work out, there would be no hard feelings if I was let go.Luckily eveything worked out, and I've got my job.CheersJim