Wall-St Training Program
(Monkey, 38
Points)
on 11/19/10 at 12:25am
Have any of you ever heard of a company called "Wall-St Training"? They approached a group on my campus, (top liberal arts school), trying to get them to bring their program to campus. Basically its two weekend sessions where you learn financial modeling and then get a certificate of completion or whatever. All sounded very sketchy. They apparently are present on other campuses but I am not sure. They say they lose money on university/college programs but do it and act as a headhunter for top performers in the weekend sessions. I am naturally skeptical, especially of things like this, but anyone have any experience with this program?
I used it on my campus! Here
I used it on my campus! Here is my review of it:
1) The people doing it are pretty experienced bankers (at least in my case) and some firms on the street hire them.
2) Mixed feelings about the weekend training. It is really fast, so if you know nothing it is hard to grasp things. You learn excel, but when it comes to understanding the model in financial terms it might be difficult because you might be struggling just to keep up. It could be a good experience however, if you get a good thoughtful guy. My instructor was on crack, digressing more than half of the time, talking shit about ppl and finishing the course by 2pm when it was supposed to be 9am to 5pm ( saying he did us a favor). I got to see what a semi successful banker looks like.
3) Don't believe about losing money crap. They are former bankers and no way in hell they decided to be charitable all of a sudden. They make quite a lot if they get 30 to 40 ppl to participate. Also, they are trying to capture market share among universities because it is hard to compete with more professional firms that are hired by big banks.
4)They do talk about connecting you, but they don't. You get their contact info and that's about it. Unless somehow the instructor likes because you really stand out with something, otherwise they don't do anything for you in that regard. You could pay them and they say they will help to find a job, but I never went that route and i there plenty free headhunters to do it.
5) I did it for the experience, which wasn't great in terms of learning but was ok to understand some basics and some perspectives. They offered a deal which wasn't too expensive so I took it, but this year they came back and the price was higher, so you can see their marketing strategy.
If you got extra money and never seen a financial model or ever used excel for finance go for it. Expect to fall behind though if you do not know excel.
Hope it helps.
Do what you want not what you can!
You do not need modeling
You do not need modeling training before starting at any BB bank. There is no need to debate this at all.
If you need to learn the technicals before an interview, buy the WSO and Vault guides.
I, too, had Wall St. Training
I, too, had Wall St. Training come to my campus, but had a different experience altogether.
I’d agree that the bankers are most definitely experienced… the guy who taught our seminar was something like a vice president in his field, and he really knew his stuff. He was very engaging and kept the class interested (he actually stayed for almost an hour after the 9-5 seminar to speak with us about his field).
Also, I’m sure that they probably do lose money on offering these classes to students; it’s relatively cheap for the students (I got a 90% discount on the normal price), and I bet those investment bankers want quite a bit of money to spend their weekends teaching, considering how much they get paid during the week.
In terms of speed, the seminar was really well paced. I didn’t know anything about accounting or finance (was taking pre-med, but not any more), but was able to keep up quite easily. Plus, the excel shortcuts and macros they provided were key in staying on top of what was going on.
I have no idea what the guy above me was talking about regarding “not connecting you”–the instructor at my seminar took a lot of extra time and gave us his contact info. I still check in with him now (it’s almost 2 months later), and he even met me for coffee when I was in New York and gave me lots of advice on how to nail my summer internship interview later that day (which I did!)
Overall, I’d say I had an awesome experience with Wall St. Training. I guess everyone experiences the seminar their own way, but if you learn the model well and keep in contact with the instructors, you’ll be able to ace your interviews. Not everybody can achieve this, but investment banking isn’t cut out for everyone.
I’m definitely attending their mergers and acquisitions course in the spring–the one that I completed 2 months ago was the financial modeling one, and I would totally recommend it.