Sorry that your experience at Harvard has not worked out yet. I say “yet”, because you are just starting out. I would highly recommend that you use the famous Harvard network and reach out to alumni who may have a similar background to yours. There are many successful first-generation Harvard grads who can help. Also, I suggest you read this book:
Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691169276/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_KZ1AJKYJF4J6HRSE4S4K
Thanks! I will say, my grades were by far the worst part of my profile since I had good work experience/undergrad/journal/etc. But as far as actual interviewing goes---I found this book extremely insightful and thought it tracked with my experience in OCI as well as recruiting for jobs during undergrad. Would recommend a read for anyone before they go through OCI!
Read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Pedigree-How-Elite-Students-Jobs/dp/0691169276
Your major doesn't matter as much as you think. What matters are your extra-curriculars, awards and achievements, and most importantly, your ability to network.
Finance firms look for “culture fits”; in other words, students with high levels of cultural capital who would be able to work “on brand” with the firm. The goal is not to recruit talent based upon merit, but to recruit employees who can maintain a reputable, luxurious, and elite picture of the firm that they represent.
Lauren Rivera has written a number of papers[1][2] (and a book [3]) about social status and how "elite" consulting firms (not necessarily McKinsey, but typically the next lower tier in size) recruit new candidates. Basically, they look for "people just like themselves" and look for high status extra-curricular activities like lacrosse, sailing and polo. Since those "white shoe" consulting firms tend to prey on companies run by "old school money" they want candidates that are as similar to those owners & executives as possible.
Notes:
1. Hiring as cultural matching: The case of elite professional service firms, LA Rivera - American sociological review, 2012.
2. Ivies, extracurriculars, and exclusion: Elite employers’ use of educational credentials, LA Rivera - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2011.
3. Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs, 2016.
One of the authors goes into further depth with her book. I highly recommend it!
You should read this
https://www.amazon.com/Pedigree-How-Elite-Students-Jobs/dp/0691169276
>Despite the recent harvard scandal of wealthy people paying for their children to have access to Harvard, you still believe "The best way to get into [Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc.] is to write about having progressive values and being either a victim or a savior of victims."
You did not read and comprehend what I wrote.
I believe better education can help people who systematically fail and who are prone to affirming their own biases and prejudices.
Go read a guide like this: https://crunchprep.com/gre-reading-comprehension-guide
Tips like that helped me outdo 99% of people, many of whom had better opportunities and more resources.
I have faith that you can improve your reading comprehension skills. You sound smart, so surely it's just a matter of ignorance.
I'm still going to say, AMONG CAUCASIANS(with the wrong last name - the grand-children of literal Nazis who settled in Argentina and took on Spanish last names could conceivably go in the backdoor through DEI initiatives) WHO ARE NOT AMONG THE UPPER ECHELONS by virtue of birth, the best strategy is to take advantage of the abbreviated roadmap I described. Do better than 95+% of people wrt academics/test scores, appeal to the biases and prejudices of progressives. Both are effectively necessary. Those in the bottom 80% of the population or so don't entirely know what the right things to say are.
If you want a good read, go check out Pedigree by Rivera, a professor at Northwestern/Kellogg https://www.amazon.com/Pedigree-How-Elite-Students-Jobs/dp/0691169276
I'll admit that I am assuming that education is a relatively 0-sum process that acts more as a filter than an enhancer. I say this as someone who learned more while working at Goldman/Google/Amazon than I did during undergrad + grad school and who was bright enough (not necessarily mature enough) to do most of the things (with a few educational videos) when I was 15. I sincerely believe I should've been able to have taken an IQ test and skipped my university education which strikes me as being a finishing school that instills culture moreso than an actual learning institution.
Even if you go to a top school, you pretty much need to be from a wealthy background to get a consulting/finance gig at a tier 1 company. They hire exclusively for culture fit--you don't know shit, you're an undergrad--but if you fit the image of luxury and sophistication the firm is offering to clients, you're in. This generally means you have certain cultural and social signifiers that you only get from an upper class background.
This book is a great read and covers the subject in detail
Which is why I prefaced my first comment with "some industries".
This is a real phenomenon. There's a book on it showing active discrimination in investment banking, consulting and law against people who don't appear "well bred".
I don't agree with all of the author's conclusions but a good chunk hold weight.
https://www.amazon.com/Pedigree-How-Elite-Students-Jobs/dp/0691169276