Public bio:
- Extensive experience in Private Equity, PE Portfolio Companies and Corporate Development
- Currently working as Director of Finance for a middle market LBO fund’s portfolio company
- Worked for 8 years (3 years as a Vice President) in the deal teams at a middle market LBO Fund. Focus on control investments in founder owned companies in the consumer, manufacturing and services sectors. Closed 5 platforms, 3 exits, numerous add-ons and Board member experience
- Previously worked at Apollo Global Management
- Started career as a Corporate Development Analyst at a global operating company with +$4B in annual revenue
- Earned Bachelors from a target Ivy
Public bio:
- Began a career in leveraged finance banking, working with corporations and private equity firms across all industries (primarily focused on technology), assisting in term sheet / commitment letter negotiations, and corresponding directly with investor accounts to address business and diligence questions (6 years)
- Pivoted to earliest stage venture at a newly established fund in NYC, involved in all stages of high volume deal flow as well as fund operations and portfolio analysis
- Currently, working directly with early-stage companies in a strategic consulting based capacity assisting with financial modeling and forecasting, customer acquisition, marketing strategy, investor decks, fundraising
- Angel investor (current portfolio includes women's health & wellness, healthcare and differentiated tech-focused companies)
Public bio:
- Private Equity Vice President
- Wharton MBA, Berkeley Haas undergrad
- Pre-MBA experiences includes 2 years of investment banking and 2 years of technology private equity (LBO)
Public bio:
- Private Equity Associate at a mid-market Australia and NZ focused fund with $2.5bn AUM, focusing on growth capital investments and leveraged buyouts in the Healthcare, Consumer, Industrials and Technology sectors
- Previously spent over 2 years in investment banking at Goldman Sachs in the TMT Group focusing on M&A transactions; reviewed hundreds of resumes and cover letters for potential summer analysts
- Previous internship experience in China PE, VC and corporate
- Graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance
Public bio:
- Senior Associate at a $400M sector-focused VC/PE fund
- 2 years as an analyst in management consulting (MBB)
- HYP undergrad, BA in Philosophy
Public bio:
Background
- Current VP / Investment Manager at a top-decile performance mid-market PE fund focused on majority buyout and minority growth equity investing in B2B software
- Previously Senior Associate at Accel-KKR a top-decile performance mid-market PE fund also focused on majority buyout / minority growth equity investing in B2B software companies
- Prior to buy-side was an Investment Banking Analyst at Credit Suisse working on M&A transactions across a number of industries
- Based in London (UK) having worked for both European and US firms
Value-add
- Across all companies I've worked for, I've been deeply involved in all facets of recruitment from interns through to senior associates - led campus recruitment, CV screening, personal fit interviews, technical interviews, and case study assessments. I can leverage these perspectives with resume review, interview prep, mock interviews, etc. to help you eliminate the typical candidate pitfalls and put your best foot forward
- I've been consistently top-ranked every year throughout my career both within investment banking and private equity. I can share my strategies for success and provide mentorship across all experience levels (from intern through to VP)
- Having worked at several firms and with peers at other firms, I am happy to share my experience in thinking through ideal fund profiles, firm culture, work-life-balance expectations, etc.
- Happy to share experiences with working on both sides of the Atlantic (US and UK)
Public bio:
- Currently worked as an investment analyst at NYC's largest asset manager by AUM with several years of investment experience on both the buy-side and sell-side
- Invests in healthcare (public equity) across/with a variety of strategies, including long-only, long-short, generalist, value, growth, and healthcare only funds
- Previously spent 3 years in private equity as a research analyst on the research diligence and transactions team at a healthcare-specialized alternative lending/royalty fund, as well as on the sell-side in equity research covering healthcare stocks for a boutique investment bank
- Has worked in the Yale Admissions Office as well as with headhunters sourcing candidates, and has thus screened and reviewed many resumes of students, recent graduates, and young professionals who want to work in both private and public equity, as well as sell-side (equity research, sales/trading, investment banking, etc.)
Public bio:
- Currently a Vice President at a megafund focused on traditional buyouts (latest fund size of $15 billion). Was an associate at the same fund - received sponsorship for business school and Vice President return offer
- Previously worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley for two years
- Holds an MBA and a BS in computer science (non-traditional background)
Public bio:
- Currently, a Senior Associate at a middle-market private equity firm
- Previously, spent 2 years at Guggenheim in Investment Banking, primarily worked on M&A. Led on-campus recruiting initiatives and served as a mentor to summer analysts and summer associates
- Broad sector coverage experience, with specific expertise in Consumer, Industrials and Healthcare
- Graduated from top-20 university in the U.S. and networked heavily for sophomore summer bulge bracket IBD internship
Public bio:
- Current Private Equity Senior Associate at publicly-listed Private Equity Mega Fund (>$100B Firm AUM, >$20B Latest Fund AUM), covering TMT, Services, Healthcare
- Former Investment Banking Associate 2 at a top 3 publicly-listed Elite Boutique
- Investment Banking Generalist coverage of industries and products in M&A and Restructuring, with emphasis on Fintech, FIG and TMT
- Former core member of recruitment team for both targets and non-targets, including pre-interview coffee chats, resume review and interviews. Leads on-campus recruiting initiatives and serves as a mentor to summer analysts and associates
- Served in the Army. Graduated from top Ivy League and Law School. International
Frequently Asked Questions
Can’t find an answer? Please send an email to [email protected]
The WSO mentor service runs at a very slight profit (~5-10% net margin) in order to help motivate amazing professionals to provide great (free) advice in the forums (many mentors have green "mentor" buttons next to their usernames) which strengthens the entire WSO community. Luckily, there is a surprising number of elite professionals within the WSO community that love giving back to motivated candidates. We also recently automated the mentor matching with an algo that helps reduce the manual work needed on the backend should a requested mentor not be available. Prices range from as low as $57 up to $997 depending on the package you purchase and the mentor you select. Given the success of our service and the number of repeat clients we have, we know that we can afford to run on thin profit margins and serve thousands of applicants. We also know that many of you will follow the advice of our mentors and invest in additional courses and/or services from WSO.
After checking out, your request will immediately be sent to the mentor you selected. You will be expected to fill our some basic information (location, industry preference, etc) along with upload a Word version of your resume in order to help the mentor decide if they feel like they are a great match. As soon as they accept (usually within ~9-12 hours), an email will be sent making an introduction. Your mentor will introduce him/herself and then proceed to review your current resume and/or offer times when you can connect for a mentor session. Over the following days, you will schedule a time that is mutually convenient for you initial phone call to go over what you need help with (mock interview, career consultation and/or both). If you would like to continue with this mentor, you can schedule more hours anywhere from 1 hour to 3+ hours with him/her over the following weeks & months.
Typically the match happens within 12hrs. If your preferred mentor has not responded within 9 hours or they indicate they can't take you on as a mentor, we will notify other top mentors that have the most in common with the mentor you selected (based on our matching algo). These backup mentors will indicate to you if they are available and you have the choice to move forward with one of them, get a refund or wait longer for your preferred mentor. If for whatever reason we cannot match you in time and/or there are no mentors that are available that you'd like to work with, we will refund your purchase in full, no questions asked.
We have an incredible team of 1,000+ dedicated mentors across top firms all around the world. Our #1 goal is to make sure you are placed in the hands of the most competent and detail-oriented professional in your specific target industry. This coupled with our strict process ensures a smooth and thorough experience. Why do we use actual professionals? The answer is simple: they are the ones ACTUALLY SCREENING APPLICATIONS for their own firms! They know what it takes to make it out of the trash pile and into the interview pile. On top of this, since we have been doing mentor sessions for over a decade across THOUSANDS of clients, we are able to immediately identify a top mentor and feed them more clients to ensure happy customers like you (due to our strict screening process). Our team includes investment bankers at all the top bulge brackets and elite boutique banks as well as private equity, hedge fund and VC professionals at the most prestigious funds. We also have reviewers at the top management consulting firms in the world, elite prop trading firms, top corporate finance roles as well as other related finance careers.
Usually these are all self-limiting beliefs, but if you're unsure if we are a good match for you, please send us a quick email to [email protected] and we can send over some bios if we think there might be a potential good match for you.
Too Young / Too Inexperienced: We do NOT recommend our mentor service until you at least have at least some relevant WORK experience that we can leverage. For the young clients out there, this means an internship, ideally in your target or related industry. If you are still in high school, it is unlikely that you have this experience. The earliest we'd recommend doing a mentor session is early freshman or early sophomore year as you prepare for summer internship recruiting. If you have no relevant experience then it probably doesn't make sense to sign up for the service. Our mentors are amazing, but they aren't magicians. If you tell us you really want to be in Investment Banking or Private Equity (for example) and everything in your background points to law or medicine, it's going to be an uphill battle. On the other hand, if you have unrelated experience but you have started the transition process by taking relevant classes and joining relevant clubs and associations, we'd love to work with you. You may not be the most competitive candidate, but we will highlight the most relevant education and functions at your current job that would translate well across industries.
Too Old / Too Experienced: We DO recommend our mentor service for more experienced professionals that are looking to make a transition or have an interview coming up. We have several very senior mentors that can answer the tough questions and make sure you are up to date on the latest trends in your target industry. However, before you move forward, we encourage you to give yourself an honest assessment. If you are looking to make the transition and have not made any steps outside of considering this mentor program, you probably aren't ready. If you've taken steps (education, new degrees, courses, etc) and feel like you're ready, we're on board and eager to help!
Yes, but if you have a negative attitude you are unlikely to have success. If you think a mentor session is an automatic referral, please don't bother to hire us.
Yes, our mentors often do refer our clients for open positions at their firms (over 20%), however, this should not be asked of our mentors to avoid a conflict of interest and it should not be expected as part of the service. It is up to you to impress the mentor if this is your goal, however, we believe you can gain much more out of the experience by being honest about your weaknesses and concerns with the mentor so there can be an open dialogue on how to improve your chances.
The only discounts are for larger packages and more hours purchased at once. This is an incredibly labor intensive 1-on-1 service using finance professionals that typically make well over $200/hr and are doing this primarily to give back.
This is a personal question and the answer is naturally subjective. If you are serious about landing a job in investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, trading, asset management, management consulting or any other competitive industry, it's more than likely that the answer to that question is a resounding "YES".
Career services advisers at your school are not screening applications for interviews...neither are your classmates. If you do happen to have a friend in the industry, are they going to take the hours necessary to give you a realistic mock interview? Odds are that their time is limited outside the office and if they do give you some guidance, it won't be as thorough as our expert mentors. If you look at the competitive nature of recruiting nowadays, why would leave your application up to chance when many of these jobs pay well over $100,000?
Join the 1,000+ candidates just like you who have already used the WSO Mentor Service
If you’re reading this, you’re here for a reason: because you want to be one of the very few who gets an an elite job and because you need help doing it. The choice really is yours. And your opportunity really is limited.
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