Investment Banking Recruiting Secrets of the Top 1%

Our client Shawn was a sophomore international student with a 3.2 GPA when he joined our program. Hear his advice on how to recruit effectively as an international student when the bar is higher due to the need of a visa sponsorship. Also hear how he was able to get not just one, but three different offers despite the odds being seemingly stacked against him. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upp...

A lot of people get confused by the concept of an LBO, or leveraged buyout. It’s basically just describing the mechanics of how a private equity firm acquires companies using debt to fund a part of the transaction, and then pays down that debt using the free cash flow generated by the business. But why are LBOs so effective? What are the different ways that a private equity firm can make money thr...

Our client Nishant is an international student from Dubai who secured his summer internship offer from a bulge bracket bank. As someone coming from a non-target school without much finance experience, hear Nishant discuss the importance of not being content with the status quo, why you can never have too much help, and how he stacked the odds in his favor to maximize his chances, and ultimately go...

These days, it’s no longer enough to have just one relevant internship on your resume if you want to be a competitive candidate. Most of the top candidates we see have at least 2 to 3. So if you just got your first internship, when is the right time for you to start thinking about your next one? How long do you need to stay at the current one, and when should you start searching for the next one?...

When you’re networking, it’s always the easiest to network with people that you already know on a personal level. The problem is, a lot of times the people you know personally are either still just summer interns, or maybe incoming analysts or analysts who just started on the job. Can these people actually help you though? Is it worth it to spend time and effort networking with them? Hear me share...

Our client Dylan recently received a bulge bracket summer internship offer despite completely missing the accelerated recruiting timeline and only having a 3.4 GPA. Hear Dylan talk about his recruiting process and how he was able to turn it around and get an amazing outcome in the end. He also gives his advice to those of you who are still recruiting. Make sure you check this interview out! Book a...

Most people focus their networking efforts on investment banking analysts because they’re the closest in age and most approachable. But does this approach work when you’re a non-target student? What changes do you need to make to your approach, if any? Hear me coach a non-target student on what she should be doing differently. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Secured an Offer:...

If you are really ambitious with your networking, you don’t have to limit your networking conversations to just phone and zoom meetings. Once you’ve built up enough networking contacts, you can actually plan a networking trip out to New York (or whatever office location you plan on applying for) to try and meet with your contacts in person. How do you go about doing something like this? And is it...

Our client Jerry was an international student with a 3.3 GPA who decided to recruit for investment banking pretty late in the recruiting process. We helped him get two offers but one got rescinded for sponsorship reasons, causing him to delay graduation to recruit again. Hear how he ultimately got an offer from one of the top middle market banks despite reduced visa sponsorships during COVID-19. B...

On the very bottom of your resume, you should have a “Skills and Interests” section. If you have any sort of certifications, that would belong here as well. How important is this section thought? How much time should you spend trying to beef this section up? What kind of skills should you be including / excluding? Hear me answer these questions for my students. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an U...

Aside from your professional experience, your leadership experience is the other really important section you have on your resume. How do you demonstrate leadership though? What kind of experiences do you need to have? And do you have to be the president of some club on campus for it to qualify as leadership? Hear me give our students advice on how to show off their leadership qualities. Book a Vi...

Our client Simarleen interned at Truist during both her sophomore and junior summer. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t receive a full-time return offer because of COVID-19. Typically, recruiting for a full-time offer is already much harder than getting a summer internship because there are a lot fewer spots. Recruiting without a return offer makes it even harder, since banks will question why you...

Forecasting the revenue of a company is one of the most important things that you need to get right when valuing a business. However, revenue forecasting is not the same for all businesses. In fact, SaaS businesses have a unique business model that makes their revenue drivers different from that of most other businesses. Given how popular SaaS companies have become in the private equity world as L...

In this session, we answer some questions Ximena had about how to ace Hirevues, which are becoming more common as the first initial screen that banks use during the interview process. She has also started studying for technical interviews, so we answer some of her questions around the three financial statements. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Secured an Offer: wallstmastermin...

Investment banking is a pretty tough job, and not everyone is cut out for it. So sometimes, bankers like to ask “what is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do” to get a sense for how you handle adversity. If you don’t have a good answer prepared for this question, you risk looking like you’re not banker material. Watch me coach a student on how to answer this question. I also give him some advic...

When you apply for a big investment bank, you’re not just applying for the bank itself. What matters just as much, if not more, is which group at the bank you get placed in. There are industry groups, and then there are also product groups. It can be confusing what the difference is, and how they split up the responsibilities or work together. Watch me explain to my student the difference between...

Our client Jack joined WSMM right before sophomore year, when he was still choosing between investment banking and consulting. Prior to joining WSMM, he already had a pretty good resume with his school, GPA, and relevant experiences. With that said, he knew that anything less than a bulge bracket or elite boutique bank would be a disappointment. Hear how he ultimately decided on investment banking...

When you network with investment bankers, you have to send out a lot of emails because not everyone will respond. This is especially true if you start late with your networking, because then you’re in a rush and have to cram even more networking emails in a short amount of time. But the problem is - if you’re sending the same email to everyone in the office, how can you avoid coming across as spam...

Non-target school students typically find it more difficult to network because they don’t have as many alumni working in investment banking. Because of this, they often wonder if it makes sense to network with professionals that work in other divisions at the investment bank, such as sales & trading or private wealth management. Another issue is that the alumni that they do speak with often don’t...

In this session, we go through Ximena's answers for all the market related questions that typically come up in investment banking interviews. For example, questions around macroeconomic or industry trends that you've been following, an investment banking deal that you find interesting, and stock pitch questions. All of these questions require you to diligently follow the markets and also come prep...

What do you do when you run into an interviewer who acts totally disinterested in what you have to say? Does that mean they actually dislike you? Or are they just stress testing you to see how you react? Hear me answer this question so that you know how to handle this type of situation the next time it comes up! Book a Virtual Coffee Chat with an Upperclassmen Who Secured an Offer: wallstmastermin...

Our client Jack joined WSMM right before sophomore year, when he was still choosing between investment banking and consulting. Prior to joining WSMM, he already had a pretty good resume with his school, GPA, and relevant experiences. With that said, he knew that anything less than a bulge bracket or elite boutique bank would be a disappointment. Hear how he ultimately decided on investment banking...

When you’re interviewing for a job, what kind of demeanor is the most effective? For example, is it better to be more serious and professional, or to be more upbeat and bubbly? This question came up recently in one of our coaching sessions, and I think it’s a good question. Hear my answer to this question so that you can maximize your chances of passing your interviews. Book a Virtual Coffee Chat...

Oftentimes when you schedule a networking call with a banker, they will have to reschedule at the last minute. This is very normal because “firedrills” come up at work all the time, and the banker is always going to prioritize their clients over your networking call. When this happens, what is the best way to respond to make sure that you can still chat with the banker at a later time? Hear me coa...

In this session, we start working on Ximena's behavioral answers by giving her feedback on what we call "the guaranteed questions". These questions include tell me about yourself, or walk me through your resume, why investment banking, and why our bank. These are usually the first and most important questions that get asked in any interview, so it's crucial to knock these questions out of the park...