Investment Banking Recruiting Secrets of the Top 1%

Our client Zeb attends NYU, but in the College of Arts and Sciences, which is a non-target, unlike Stern. Prior to joining Wall Street Mastermind, he had applied to ~20 firms and gotten zero interviews. After working with us, he got interviews from 7 different firms, before eventually accepting an offer from his top middle-market bank. Hear him talk about what enabled him to make such a huge turna...

Talking about a weakness is a behavioral question that many people mess up on. You don’t want to give them a real weakness that would hurt your interview, or just give them a strength and try to dress it up as a weakness (i.e. “I’m too much of a perfectionist sometimes”). So how should you handle it? Hear me give advice to this student on how to properly answer this question to use your weakness i...

Have you ever had a great networking conversation with a banker, where they even agreed to give you a referral at the end of the chat? Only problem is, because you started networking early (like you should), applications aren’t open until at least months away? In these instances, what should you do to keep those networking connections you’ve made warm? How do you make sure that the bankers won’t f...

Our client Dean was able to secure a summer analyst offer despite going to a non-target school and not having any relevant finance experience. What's even more impressive is that he learned all of his technicals in just one week (yes, with our help). Hear Dean talk about how he was able to "bankify" his story and shorten his preparation time to still be successful despite the accelerated recruitin...

There are times when you might be interviewing with a bank or group that covers a specific industry. This could either happen if you’re interviewing for a regional office outside of New York (i.e. SF = tech, Houston = oil & gas, Chicago = industrials, etc.), or if you’re interviewing with a smaller bank that specializes in a certain vertical (i.e. FTPartners = fintech). Even if you interview for t...

One of the most basic questions you might get asked during an investment banking interview is to walk through an M&A deal you’ve been following. Finding a deal to talk about is the easy part, they’re a dime a dozen… But actually demonstrating an understanding of the strategic rationale behind the deal and having an opinion on whether it was a good deal - THAT’s the hard part. Do you know what talk...

Our client Megan is an international student who didn't start learning English until 9th grade. Attending a small non-target liberal arts school, she had very few alumni on Wall Street to reach out to, and little to no relevant resources on campus. Despite all of these obstacles, hear her talk about how she was able to land superdays with both Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, before ultimately acceptin...

Are you sending a lot of cold emails to bankers but getting little to no response? What are you doing wrong? How can you get more bankers to be willing to connect with you? One of my students had the same problem. Listen to this clip where I work with him to figure out what went wrong. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Secured an Offer: wallstmastermind.com/apply?utm_source=podc...

You will almost certainly get asked to value a company during your investment banking interview. When it comes to valuation, there are a few different ways to go about it. In this video, a student is asked to value a cannabis company specifically. Hear me give advice to him on how to answer this question in the most effective and concise way. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Se...

Our client Nathan realized during sophomore summer that he needed more recruiting help. Originally, he thought he could just DIY, which led him to not join any business clubs on campus. After a lot of time surfing Google and WSO, he realized he couldn't find everything he needed and that recruiting felt like a black box. Hear how having a one-stop-shop with WSMM helped him secure an elite boutique...

Aside from a recent trend, you may also get asked to talk about a deal you’ve been following during your investment banking interview. To do this effectively, you not only need to choose the right deal to talk about, but you also need to research the deal inside and out. What are the different components of a great answer when talking about investment banking deals? Hear me give feedback to one of...

One of the most important technical concepts for you to learn is valuation. Because everything you do in investment banking revolves around it. Asking about the pros and cons of the different valuation methodologies is one of the most common questions for interviewers to test someone on their understanding of valuation. Hear how I explained these pros and cons to one of our students recently. Book...

Our client David just finished sophomore year and recently accepted an offer at a $2Bn growth equity firm for his junior summer. He dropped out of processes with top banks like Goldman TMT, MS Tech, Moelis LA, Qatalyst, and PWP, just to name a few... Despite having some resources already, hear him talk about why he still wanted my help, and how this allowed him to get an outcome that most people c...

One thing you might be asked during an interview is to talk about a recent trend you have been following. To do this effectively, you first need to do a lot of research in order to sound intelligent about your chosen topic. Furthermore, the topic you choose cannot be too broad or obvious. In this video, one of our students talked about a cannabis trend that he has been following. Hear me give feed...

Oftentimes students want to apply to a specific bank but can’t find any alumni to contact. This is especially prevalent for non-target school students and sometimes even for semi-target school students. What do you do in this case? Listen to see my advice about how to go about the networking process when you don’t have any connections. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Secured a...

“Tell me about your greatest weakness” is a behavioral question that many people mess up on. On the one hand, you don’t want to give them a weakness that will cause them to not want to hire you. On the other hand, you can’t just give them a strength and try to dress it up as a weakness (i.e. “I’m too much of a perfectionist sometimes”). So how should you handle it? Hear me give advice to this stud...

Our client Kyle started school at a community college, but then transferred to UC Berkeley junior year. He thought his life was set, until senior year when he realized he wanted to become an investment banker. Now only was he extremely late to the game, most of his competition had been preparing since freshman year. Hear how he beat the odds with WSMM’s help, despite his extremely late start in th...

I get this question a lot, especially from students who go to semi target schools that primarily place into regional offices (think SF Bay Area, Chicago, Houston, etc.)... Because many students would rather work in NYC if they can. Is it worth trying for NYC even if it’s harder to break into though? Listen as I give this student my advice on making his career location decision. Book a Virtual Coff...

Are you majoring in something other than business or finance but want to get into investment banking? You may be wondering if it is even possible. How are you supposed to compete with a finance major during the technical interview? Watch here as I show a student how to best prepare for investment banking as a non business/finance major. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Secured...

Our client Justin is a rising senior who did well during his summer internship but unfortunately wasn't given a return offer due to COVID-19. Knowing how much more difficult the full-time recruiting process is, he decided to work with WSMM to maximize his chances. Hear him talk about how he was able to secure a full-time offer without having a return offer, and despite the depressed job market dur...

Many of you might be realizing that you want to get into banking as early as freshman year. Given the accelerated investment banking recruiting timeline these days, it’s not even really “early” to start preparing as a freshman anymore! But what are some things you can do during your freshman year to start preparing yourself for recruiting? Watch this to see what my advice is to a freshman who aske...

The most qualified investment banking applicants start building up their resume by doing relevant finance internships during freshman and sophomore year. An additional benefit to doing these internships is on the networking side, because the people you work for will most likely know other Wall Street professionals that they can introduce you to. But that’s obvious. A freshman from a non-target sch...

Our client Pedro is an international student at Wharton. During freshman year, he applied to many bulge bracket diversity programs, but failed 5-6 first round interviews in a row. He quickly realized that getting interviews wasn’t a problem for him, but none of it mattered if he couldn’t ace the interviews. Hear how he joined WSMM junior year, completely transformed his interviewing skills, and la...

Our client Saksham had two big disadvantages when it came to recruiting, being both a non-target student and an international student. Despite these obstacles, he became one of just two students in the last 3-4 years who got into investment banking from his school without being a part of the investment banking club on campus. He was also the only student from his school to get an offer from the Ne...

The DCF is one of the most commonly tested topics during an investment banking interview. Recently a student of ours talked about doing a DCF for a pre-revenue business during a mock interview. This sounded like the exact type of thing an interviewer would ask about, so we tested him on it. Hear this podcast to see how to answer this somewhat tricky question! Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upp...