How WSO Changed My Life and Helped Get Me A Job

Hey everyone,

Recently changed my username. I am quite ecstatic about my recent offer in Equity Research and decided to add my experience/story to the knowledge pool. Mainly because WSO was instrumental in helping me decide which b-schools to apply to, how to form a story and network.

A quick recap of my journey without revealing too much.

Engineer from a no-name university. Internships in engineering, not remotely applicable to finance. Didn't really enjoy working in engineering, decided I needed a change, so I thought about b-school. This is where WSO came in.

By reaching out to users and reading the forums, I had figured out what programs I was suited for (MSF) and which schools would be best (Vandy, Villanova, WUSTL etc..). I even met my future classmates through WSO.

Coming from a non-traditional background, WSO was critical in forming my story and how to approach networking/interviewing. Not to mention what type of finance I would actually want to do. Through tons of practice cold emailing and calling, I formed some great relationships and eventually perfected my story. It got to the point where it was effortless and genuine at the same time.

After networking and interviewing, I got an offer to do what I wanted, which is ER.

Keeping it short, this site provides a near invaluable source of knowledge for those looking to get into finance. And without WSO, I'm almost certain I would not be in finance today.

Also kudos to those who "get" my username.

 

That's awesome man, congratulations! It's a tough business, just make sure you kill it.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Congrats, man. All the best. Which MSF program did you choose?

The difference between successful people and others is largely a habit - a controlled habit of doing every task better, faster and more efficiently.
 
Best Response

I'll shed a little more light on my story. Most of it is not too unique when you ask other former engineers why they switched to finance. So I won't go into that, but I had an intense process of networking, which ultimately got me a job. Here it goes,

Fall OCR had a nice list of companies, but ultimately at the end of it I had plenty of interviews under my belt and nothing to show for it. So I tried a different tack.

Through Linkedin and the schools' Alumni database, I corralled a list of people who I really wanted to talk to.

From there, I would follow through with calling etc.. If they were in town I took them to coffee, even if it was just to hear their story and they had nothing to offer in terms of employment at their firm. I just absorbed as much info as I could and kept in touch with them afterwards. I managed to hit it off with a few alums who really went to bat for me. The process went kind of like this "Someone who knew a guy at this firm, knows a guy here/there.. and they're looking for someone. I'll make sure you get a call/email from them"

A few prospects obviously didn't turn out, in any case I wrote (in pen) on nice paper and in cursive a thank you letter to them. Stating that I was very thankful and that we should keep in touch.

Well after a few rounds of that, I had been sitting around for a couple of weeks with limited prospects. Then I get a call for one of the alums I wrote to. He loved the old school thank you letter, "I didn't think your generation still wrote" (he enjoyed joking) , and put in a word with another friend who indicated they need someone. My future boss in the interview told me,"Just based off of So & so Alum's recommendation of you, BatManuel, I'll only need one interview out of you. And you'll get a yes or no at the end of the call"

And here I am.

So TL;DR - School brand and OCR is nice, but if you can connect with people and do something that stands out, they remember you and want to see you succeed.

"You're only as good as your last envelope"
 

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