6. Flip shit. I don't recommend this most of the time but if you already have an exit in hand and you really want the night off, I've seen it work. A 2nd year analyst actually ran around the bullpen cursing when he was giving a deliverable Friday night which convinced the staffer to give him a...
ex cfo during the dot com period late nineties...
The single most important choice you will ever have to really make is the person you marry. She can make you or break you. Don't pay attention to the pop psychology bull. No other investment can be anywhere as significant. And you don't just...
Depends on whether you work for a Renaissance, Fortress, Citadel, or DE Shaw, or if you work for one of the more boutique funds.
The large funds tend to be running stat arb and HFT, and yes that requires some programming skill and quant background.
The smaller shops tend to involve MBAs...
I don't think those courses are necessary in the slightest. Stephen Moyer's Distressed Debt Analysis, while geared towards the investing side of distress, has a great overview of the bankruptcy system and the mechanics of debt. I'm sure having done interview prep, you all have probably read...
ContemplatingBanker – I read your post and empathized very strongly with what you wrote. I have been in a similar place myself and, in some of my lowest moments, remember reaching out to a few trusted advisors and getting literally nothing back from them. Despondent about this, I hunkered...
Are you guys seriously arguing that an NFL cornerback and former head of the NFL Players Union should be less impressive to an AdCom than Analyst #78 in Goldman Sachs Industrials, Waste Management and Utilities silo who interned at the Boys and Girls Club once a month?
This site is ridiculous.
Very sorry to hear about that man that's awful. On the flip side, this is certainly something you can recover from, as always a man is defined by what he can come back from. With that said here are some good steps.
1. Knowing you have a positive vibe with your previous employer immediately...
Let me preface this comment by stating that I detest the Ron Paul movement, mostly because the movement attempts to rigidly apply ONE 18th century governing domestic and international philosophy to 21st century America without so much as acknowledging that 1) the Declaration of Independence and...
This doesn't surprise me at all. This is going to sound like a hater post but it's not intended to -- this post is based on 7 years of experience in the industry and watching plenty of H / S / W MBAs flounder after graduation (post-Lehman).
I can only really speak about the particular niche...
Part II
So it’s month 5 and I’m sitting in a café in Bogota talking to an American who’s passing through on break from B-school (Yale SOM). This person proceeds to tell me that they did an internship in IB and were contemplating an offer to return. We exchanged stories, and they...
I'm going to speak very freely and candidly here and will probably end up disclosing more personal information than I should on an anonymous bulletin.
I am a black male with a fairly strong GPA and a 99th percentile GMAT. I am an alumnus of the SVMP program at HBS and aim to matriculate into...
Yes, exactly. Though you'll use credit docs for lots of other purposes greater than just putting together a cap table (more on this later).
The credit doc will help you populate the cap table by providing the following (and more I'm probably missing) useful info:
- Principal amount
-...
Oh please. OP, here's a list for you:
Silly shit assistant vice presidents do:
1) go on wall street oasis and write posts complaining about the silly shit their interns do.
The end.
There was a day when you were an annoying little intern shithead, too. So was I. Do the right thing...
A pretty common thing is you get a draft pitchbook full of comments faxed from your MD (yes, faxed so you can barely fucking read it), and you just re-do the whole thing. They want to change something in the model, reformat some pages, add some bullets, whatever. You do it while your associate...
Serious answer incoming.
You'll probably have a morning of presentations, meetings and introductions showing you some of the main people in the office, some of the support staff (read - the people who will do your PowerPoints while you dash home to sleep, treat them well!) and HR...
This--I can't say is very well founded. Sure I've read some papers on arguing that a higher income tax on people who pay the taxes (let's not kid ourselves) would reap the benefits of all this trickle down government economics. First off, whether that's true or not, I think Barry doesn't give a...
From a friend:
$70K base for your first 18 months (stub year plus first full year)
$80K base for your next 12 months (full second year)
$90K base for your last 6 months (Jan-June third year)
1st bonus after your first few months is flat across first years and is slightly less than...
My hobbies include making powerpoint presentations, excel models, buyers logs, and correcting my associates mistakes, so I think I have that front covered.
I've hit a lot on the "real reasons" why someone might choose MM over Large Cap / Megafunds. Some of these also make for good answers (responsibility), while others make for poor answers (less hours). I'll try to take a different approach here.
You're currently at a BB. Try to think of all...
no hate, but family income in the region of 150k makes you very well off even if it is precisely the range that gets fucked by financial aid.
that's more than anyone i knew growing up, so id say you're a bit of a whiny fag.
Oh is that what you'd say?
Not that I assume you know anything...
I swear if I hadn't met you Brady I would also think you were trolling here...you really need to get the B School obsession out of your head. An MBA from a top school will not save your life or automatically make you don juan. I swear, you are like a broken record with this b school shit. If...
Preempting all the other responses here:
-First couple posts will ask what city these offers are for.
-Several people will call into question whether or not BAML and JPM are generalist, as those guys normally place SAs into groups.
-Nobody will tell you to pick BAML. One asshole will tell...
Out of curiosity, how competitive is JPM Private Banking or even Private Banking in general, relative to IBD?
Within PB, I would say JPM is the most competitive, with Goldman a close second and CS coming in third.
As far as relative to IBD, no, it is not as competitive as IBD. But it is...
MBAs have really turned into cash cows for schools.
If you can graduate HBS as a Baker Scholar, an MBA is probably worth it. But even HBS has only about a 90-95% placement rate. And the new industries (tech, medicine) really aren't big on MBAs. So I would only go for an MBA if an employer...
Dream girl and it's not even close.
I can't believe the kids on here saying dream job. If you think it's your dream job, then you are absolutely delusional. It is dream girl 100% of the time and you can't even entertain the scenario of it being dream job if you have any semblance of...
I have a coffee pot on a timer on the night stand and when I smell fresh coffee in the morning I take the pot off and pour it on my face. You will never hop out of bed quicker than 3rd degree burns.
Flesh, you are spot on. It's refreshing to hear this kind of attitude on WSO. I haven't posted on here in a while, because I've become bored with hearing from college kids that are still, albeit unknowingly, wearing their blinders. All they see is "prestige" (I wish this word would die a long...
SA recruiting -- you could say that interviewers won't expect as much because you're younger and because it's just a 10 week deal and if they don't like you, they can find someone else to take your spot. FT recruiting tends to be more serious and has a lot fewer spots. Disclaimer: As mentioned...
That's an excellent question, and one I gave a lot of thought to last night.
Wall Street has always had boom times and then doldrums, so in that sense it's mostly normal. For example, the 1980 threw off a lot of dough because of the rise of junk bond and LBOs. There was lots of business and...
Congratulations on the job. Here are the items I would carefully diligence, particularly in today's market:
1. Capital Availability - How much dry powder do they have to make acquisitions? Where are they in the fundraising cycle? A lot of the pension funds and endowments that represent the...
Here's the answer. VC terminology sounds more complicated that it really is.
Preferred shares are senior to common and usually have an annual dividend (although most times the dividend just accrues and gets paid on exit). In an exit scenario preferred shares receive their initial investment +...
Here's how I do it:
Interviewer: "Tell me a little about yourself."
Me: "In college, I majored in Economics, the 'science' of making choices in a constrained environment to help me figure out what motivates people. I minored in Philosophy to hone my art of bullshitting. Combining these...
Once you understand the big picture and can make reasonable assumptions, doing an LBO in your head becomes incredibly easy. Essentially, just estimate cash flow generated over the course of five years (generally EBITDA less debt/interest payments less taxes), use that to calculate debt at exit....
This kind of perspective makes me laugh and is fairly reflective of how prestige-driven and myopic students/junior bankers tend to be. There are two main reasons why there is a bid for HF jobs from ex-PE guys.
First is that PE tends to be a 2 year gig, after which you go to b-school, and...
When I first started full-time, I would enthusiastically respond to every recruiting email I got from undergrads, knowing that I was in their shoes not long ago and wished someone paid some attention to me.
As time goes by, my response rate has dropped significantly while the barrage of...
The theoretical basis is that QE will lower interest rates on government securities, which forces investors to move out the risk curve. QE occurs because short-term interest rates are already at the zero bound and the Fed must move out the curve to have something to work with. To illustrate it...
Thanks guys, this board has been infinitely more helpful / fun / insightful than I would have expected and I owe everyone on it a thank you for that. I came here initially as a lurker in college, came back to consider an internship program and thought it would only be like a 2 week thing... but...
Well, you're probably the first person to ever pick Barclays over Laz, so at least your mother isn't wrong when she says you're a unique, special little flower.
Really it depends what you want to do. If you want to do M&A advisory/corporate finance work, yeah that was fucking retarded. I...
What exactly do you do on the job?
Big picture? I am tasked with finding compelling longs and shorts (primarily equities, but can use credit, derivatives, etc--whatever is best for the situation) and then try to convince senior analysts or portfolio managers to put on positions.
In more...
OP probably didn't get into the pre-crisis UBS and now works at a place that he considers better than the post-crisis UBS. If you're so good, how come you didn't get into UBS during the 06-07 period and instead went to the now bankrupt Bear Stearns? Because you weren't good enough.
And...
1a. ER is front office. It is a client facing role. Any other suggestion is ludicrous. ER analysts don't simply sit behind a computer and type all day. They talk to C-level execs and portfolio managers for the largest asset managers (i.e. mutual funds, hedge funds) in the world. I'm not sure...
First of all: "fitnessmodel" = douchiest tag ever.
Secondly: don't you have some lame blog you can post tripe like this on?
Finally, to address the "substance" of your post: not tipping at the end of the meal makes you what economists would call a freerider. The waiter probably gets...
Things that make you a man, generally speaking:
1) You provide
2) Your word means something
3) You're collected and reliable when something goes wrong
4) You define yourself
5) You take responsibility for you and your dependents
Contrary to popular belief, 50% of the world's population...
So the process varies deal to deal, but generally you have a process like the following (this is for a broad auction process)
1. Company decides to pursue "strategic alternative" as bankers like to call it, and hires advisors to run process (bankers, lawyers, consultants, etc.)
2. Bankers...
wat a dum questin, nooooooooooooooooo no no NO. u r a invetment banker, ur job is to be most prestigus as possible at all times, and new york ciety is way more prestigus than california. more prestigus = more world power = ilumenati = models bottels
do U think bankers in california get...
Stand back kids, I got this.
5%... at best. Most people getting these upper-level jobs are really qualified candidates academically, ergo pretty fuckin' nerdy. It's hard to get someone to convert when mommy and daddy have been teaching them 'all the right things' from an early age. Most...
Haircut - once a month by a Japanese stylist, http://www.hairmates-ny.com/newyork/location.html
Eyebrow threading - twice a month
Face - used to do facial once a month but cut it off, just used toner, moisturizer and sun screen. Face cleaner -...
Hello Monkeys,
I am sure some of you are curious as to my recent developments, and there have been a few. So let's begin:
When I originally posted my question, I was very new to the concept of walking in, as I'm sure some of you can relate to. I received great feedback and advice which not...
My apologies for the length of this… it’s simply a fluid thought that may or may not make any damn sense…
TLDR: About to turn 27, live in the bedroom I grew up in, unemployed for almost a year, completely lost
About a year ago I was let go from my job at a startup tech/energy...
Put together a resume and a nice pitch as to your investment process and find a headhunter who knows funds like Millennium, drawbridge, and other big multi-manager shops. If you have experience and can actually talk about the trades you claim would have had you up 15% this year then you should...
OK, I think there is some confusion about this. First thing you have to understand is that Paper LBO Cases in Interviews only cover so much as the people just want to know that you understand the mechanics and can make reasonable assumptions.
For any Paper LBO they will either provide you...
The top 5 idea is laughable, it ignores so many schools that are excellent. I'm hard pressed to say Haas or Tuck or Fuqua wouldn't be worth it. If you're looking to get from an F500 role to MM IB, you could probably do that easily enough out of a top 25/30 school. The value of the MBA depends on...
got finals for db, then didn't get the offer. Thanks for the advice, good to hear of people struggling out there.
As long as you're being honest w/ yourself about where you are (solid technicals, normal sounding, etc.), the best advice I think I can give is to continue 'playing hands' until...
A system that rewards you if you're poor or a minority, but punishes you for being successful. Only in America.
You have mentioned this many times that there is an advantage to being poor or a minority. What makes you think that? It's clearly not true.
You have also written that your...
i have a lot of family friends in gas station and car wash business
the margins are razor thin for gas station (you make a few cents PER gallon sold). the majority to most of the profit really always comes from the convenience stores inside beacuse of the markup that they charge on drinks,...
LMAO at all the dumbasses on this thread who think
1) he sucks because he didn't come from BB/MBB + >700 + >3.8GPA
2) he's targeting the buyside after HBS
wallstreetoasis fosters some of the most ignorant, close-minded idiots around....and continues to get polluted every day by...
@Asia_i_banker kudos to you for your drive to get your idea started, and the creative thinking in controlling the pricing database via Excel.
But having been in the startup space for a few years after banking, I can point out that there are better approaches to test your idea with FAR less...
I wanted to be a billionaire growing up too from owning a pizza shop, being a secret agent ala James Bond, playing in the NFL, and being an action packed paleontologist like in Jurassic Park. I also rocked out with Pokemon in my spare time.
Then I turned 8 or something and grew up.
I had...
Are you sure it doesn't make any sense to leave banking for business school and then come right back to banking... Why isn't that a thing people typically want to do?
AsianMonky, I really want to help you out here, and because I care I want to try to explain this more fully than I did above....
1. What about candidates who are not from top BB (aka not MS / GS / JPM)?
I always thought that PE firms care much more about pedigree, while HF put more emphasis on the actual experience (books read, personal trading, etc.)
Unfortunately, pedigree absolutely matters and coming from a...
TAKE IT BACK!
Porn and Video Games are the only thing in this world that are right...Every day I look forward to going home and punishing my dick and then punishing noobs..they're the only things that keep me from offing myself
I have a lot of friends that went to ivy schools and kinds regret taking on the debt only to get a job they could've got at a nice public school...
There's a difference between Harvard Undergrad and Harvard Business School, but either way this doesn't really add up.
The best public schools...
I have been successful in the hedge fund world and i didnt ever work in banking. Im just saying because I see alot of people here who have no experience in the business telling you to go work in banking...if you want to work at a hedge fund go get a job at a hedge fund dont go work in a...
All your responses to bankerella's post so clearly illustrate the point she's making. I'd like to put a finer point on it though - it's the transition from the "high class elitist douche" of the boomer years, ensconced in a life of luxury and oblivious to everything else, to today "low class...
SIFMA and other lobbying groups have been ineffective in engaging the public. The average American still doesn't understand investment banking, nor do they understand the causes of the crisis.
The banks did cause the crisis. Not because they are staffed by evil and morally corrupt...
First thing you need to get out of your head is that your school matters. It does not. Not in the least bit.
That's what it really means to be a non-target. When people see your resume and see a school that isn't a "target," they immediately don't care what the school is. They just check to...
Sure can share my tactics..but they aren't anything new..
Make two lists of people:
1. Foot soldiers: analysts and 1/2 yr associates. they can tell you about culture, inside news about industry, hiring, maybe can connect to people higher up
2. Emperors: These are the decision makers...
#3 annoys me the most. We all get a thousand emails a day already, we don't need to see "thank you" from a VP to an analyst that the analyst printed the PIBS. STFU and let me work.
how about these:
"please take me off this list."
"take me off as well."
"ditto."
...
You are writing like a reporter instead of an analyst. First off your rating should always go first. What it should sound like is:
"We are initiating coverage on Stericycle with a buy rating. We believe that the companies strong predicted FCF generation of XX% and recent acquisition of...
Really people? I would expect the answer to be obvious. It's not about a singular number, it's about cash flow! Cultivating a reliable source of cash flow every month rather then having this childish notion of a "magic" number is how you break out of indentured servitude. You could quit this...
Great list - I had a near death experience going into my senior year of college and life has never been the same. Went from stressing about all facets about my life to just enjoying it. Asked a girl out at a bus stop on my way to work and 4 years later, we're getting married this Fall.
I have a funny feeling you don't practice what you preach
^^ This... The fact that you mentioned "plow bitches" so many times leads me to conclude that you're a virgin, sexually frustrated or both... Real men don't need to bring it up so much. It's understood.
I think he is referring to male...
*EDIT: I just realized how ridiculously long this is, but I think it should be a semi-decent read if you are interested in this stuff.
No problem... I used to work in PWM and find this topic somewhat interesting.
Another scenario regarding fee-based accounts is discretionary vs....
For those of you about to embark on the grueling MBA admissions cycle, here are some videos to get you guys PUMPED UP, so you can go on BEAST MODE.
I hope all of you guys get into your top choices, and live the DREAM for two years.
Good luck, fellow monkeys....
So yeah, let's talk about the typical scrub, and why I can't handle being around him.
Insert long-ass rant I'm not going to quote because it's a pain to scroll through
Digusting. Please tell me you aren't serious; I'd just like to think you have an unhealthy addiction for fanning the flames....
You having this problem and asking on the WSO board is equivalent to a normal American family asking an Ethiopian child for advice on the best bottled mineral water.
you guys missed the worst bathroom situation possible...maybe its because you dont drink enuff. The worst thing is if you have been out all night boozing and you have to puke, but you dont want to go into the regular bathroom because you could run into your boss or other people you know. Let's...
I got this message right around the time I made that first post about the research process at my firm:
Greetings BlackHat,
My name is , and I am a sophmore at interested in beginning my journey to success and happiness at hedge fund like yours. I have chosen you to become my elder mentor...
you got some balls dropping the gloves at canadians like that. of all the different groups trying to get visas, youre gunna chirp canadians? word to the wise if i wanted to keep my nose clean and i met someone with 6 lumberjack brothers i would probably shut up. dont ever again let me catch you...
Funny post.
Do the PowerPoint presentations ever get used in actual client meetings or are they just 'leave-behinds'? That would probably irritate me beyond belief. If I was an analyst spending 80 hours a week updating a presentation that nobody even looked at.
Once, early in my tenure...
Considering how much the anointed one blames Bush for everything, you'd think he would have learned what not to do. You help overthrow a country and then act surprised when chaos ensues. This is horrible and sad, but a further reminder that we should mind our own business.
And while I...
LOL.
Decent post, but a few points of contention.
1) Plenty of students get into those programs you listed with lower GPA's or lower GMAT's. If you have internships or work experience you can stand out. If your GPA shows progression, you have a reason for a low GPA, you had a hard...
To the finance crowd, this article justifies a young man locking himself in an office from age 22-29, with the hopes that life will be oh-so-much better afterward. It should be required reading for the new Goldman analyst "program."
Confucius say, not all caterpillars become butterflies
I'm blown away by the amount of people that want to work at Greenlight or Pershing Square because Ackman and Einhorn are in the media all the time and have charismatic personalities. Whats even more absurd is that people automatically link value investing and those two funds. They are...
This is a pretty good post, +1 for you sir.
#1 I don't agree with however. You don't need to know everything about the stock, you just need to know why others are wrong and the current price is not an accurate reflection of future performance, and then identify the (hopefully large) delta...
I'll tell you why you deserve it, man.
You see, you (and all of us), are something of a probabilistic miracle. Out of the millions of billions of sperm that could have taken your place back at conception, you won out. Against all odds, you won, and you were created. You have already won the...
After a rough experience in one of my posts, I foresee shit coming my way once again but I don't care.
I fully and wholeheartedly endorse the idea that achieving colossal wealth is ONLY a matter of making more, not of spending less. The "save every penny" mentality is useless, if not...
Deloitte has been trying to make a push into higher-end consulting for quite some time now. It's dilutive to their rate card to be perceived solely as a body shop, so this acquisition makes some sense from that perspective. And while it's true that Chapter 11 allows the deal to go through...
WSJ, Dealbook, Dealbreaker, Financial Times, and WSO. Also, watch CNBC and Bloomberg TV simultaneously.
Also, it might not be a good idea to show your age and school in your signature. Not only is it douchey, but people will find out who you are, and it could hurt your career.
All good...
Read important emails out loud to yourself before you send - to networking prospects, to clients, etc. - works almost every time. Also to be on the safe side delete any addresses in the 'To' or 'cc' boxes until your message is perfect. No one is rushing you to send an email - take your time,...
Years ago had the police come to break up the holiday party because it was late and the party was deemed too noisy. An analyst got arrested for telling the cops offs. HR bailed him out of jail the next morning. He was given a 3rd year offer and a top tier bonus just a few weeks later.
This was actually at my ex gf's firm's christmas party that she took me along too.
Everyone had these little place holders with their names on it around the table and on each one there was some little bullshit question that was supposed to help create conversation or something, I don't know....
I'm going to chime in with my personal experience;
I completed the entire CFA program by age 23,
Worked in a pension fund (which funds PE shops FYI if you don’t know how the business works) and work in PE
As a side note I’m also applying to 5 top MBAs in exactly 20 days I have all my...
Take heart. Remember that perception is half the battle, which seems to be exemplified with the majority of the development feedback you said you received.
Always looking tired -- people view this as defeatist. No one wants to be surrounded by people who bring their own energy level lower. Be...
OP,
I've been there. I came back from the Gulf War with a head full of snakes and thought about suicide all the time. It might not be something you ever get over; I still find the thought appealing from time to time. Shortly after I got back I got hired as a stockbroker (when that still meant...
You're forgetting one of the main reasons why people go into finance is that it's one of the few industries where unexceptional people can get an exceptional paycheck.
Just as an update.
I started on lexapro today. So we'll see how that works. I did end up not drinking last wednesday through friday but i drank pretty heavily on saturday. My ex actually came and stayed with me and we hung out for the weekend mostly drinking and in bed. It's probably not a...
However, my point remains that there are tons of other options out there to achieve (ridiculous levels of) success, and that finance may not be worth it if you're not 100% into it.
I hope you realize that you can say the exact same thing about every single profession. Most people become...
People on this site get waay too caught up in paths and moulds you have to fit. No, you do not need to be a finance student to succeed in finance. And no, being a liberal student doesnt all of a sudden make you have a "unique" perspective on stuff.
At the end of the day, its all about whether...
Oh, and shut the fuck up about exit ops. If you don't have a job, WHO THE FUCK CARES. Get a job first and then worry about that shit. I know, first hand, that it doesn't matter what group you're in or bank you work at, you can still get into PE or a HF. And this doesn't matter because most of...
Congrats BlackHat!
I really have enjoyed this site because it reminds me of how I used to think when I was younger and it's cool to see the optimism and challenges that people are facing as they are entering/starting out in the workforce. I had no idea this world of finance existed when I...
Day in a life :) ?
Also, what's your interaction with Sales and Structuring like and what's your take on your job and their's (like it / hate it etc)?
Interaction varies a lot depending on what you trade exactly and how your firm is structured. In rates for example, Govies people have way...
You make some good points. Limiting time with loved ones can make every time you are together special. I am in a long distance relationship and see my GF every other weekend. Time with her is a scare resource, so I cherish the few days a month I see her.
You also highlight the...
How can you expect to be successful when the thing you take most seriously is drilling into your head the primitive concepts a bunch of failed businessmen/economists teach you in business school, along with everyone else? Use academia to get where you have to get, but anyone who goes overboard...
It hasn't really impacted my personality to be honest. I am annoyed by people not problem solving (friends texting me to ask where cross streets are to a bar when we both have smartphones with Google Maps and could both find the answer just as easily), but it's never a big enough deal for me to...
Thanks for your answer.
I'm afraid I'm one of those people who have no fucking clue.
What does "Rebooking Trades" mean?
Figuring this out on your own entails a technically involved 3-stage process, so I'll give you a break. But allow me to illustrate the process, so you learn for next...
1. Keep your head up; 2 years is actually a short period of time, although the finish line looks very far away to you right now.
2. Take some small breaks here and there to just get out of the office and take a walk - it will actually make you more efficient and help clear your head.
3....
I once wore my gf's skirt suit to work after a rough night out and still-tipsy morning. It was pretty embarrassing, but I have good legs so I nearly pulled it off. Basically you just sit at your desk and keep your legs together. Was a bitch trying to use the urinal though . . .
thanks for the information mrb87, but I thought that restructuring in a way is even more technical/analytical than M&A? and rx bankers have told me that they still do m&a modeling... clarification is much appreciated.
I think that mrb87 is correct in the sense that restructuring, by not...
I could obviously write about all the stuff I did and it would take 90 pages, but that would be a waste...
No, man, it wouldn't. It would be fucking gold.
I suggest none of the people, with the exception of Patrick and Trade, get married. If you are calculating debt load, potential income, etc when it comes to a relationship that is *supposed* to last a life time you are better off not doing it all together.
People lose their jobs, get...
Strip clubs make a mint. You can't even get a license for one anymore in most counties, which means there will be no new competition... and titties never go out of style. If you know the business, you can buy a strip club at like 3x EBITDA using seller financing, and then improve EBITDA through...
You should come drink if you're in NYC. We can see who the beta male is then.
If y'all decide to get hammered and hit on chicks, do feel free to invite me, even if strictly in a viewing capacity lol
Invite me too. Because duh, who doesn't want to look at hot chicks.
Ended up dancing on...
President of the NFLPA is obviously on some level impressive, but the mere fact of him being a NFL player to me is not, at least not in terms of consideration for HBS.
It's just unfortunate that you hold this opinion, and that's the nicest way I can put it. Do you know how many people work...
Hey, thank you so much for this. I gave you my last SB, it was well worth it. But If you have time, could you break down by industries what would be important in the 10-K?
Like banking:
Oil&Gas:
Retail:
Technology:
And so forth..
Dude that's a lot to ask. He just laid out a great...
Regardless of what following comments say, props to OP for taking the other side of a heavily shorted idea that was laid out publicly on this site and endorsed by lead members. I've done it before and understand that it takes balls to do so because everyone in the world can find at least 3...
It's hard to say. There are some very elitist people in this business. You can read this forum for 5 minutes and figure that out. So it's a toss up, it could either be viewed very positively as demonstrating a bootstrapping mentality (which earns a lot of points with the right kind of...
Hi everybody.
Which MBA program (Harvard or Stanford) would be a better choice for someone interested in the entertainment industry afterward? In particular I'm interested in movie production.
I know both have alums high-up in the media world but certainly one must have a bit of an edge...
WARNING: Somewhat NSFW if monitor easily seen by peers.
So there's this bartender chick that I have an in with, long story short it's overtly indicative she want's String's D (actually verified, because we hooked up the first evening we hung out without hardly any badgering from me, which is...
First, I'm a little surprised the recruiters didn't weed you out of the Ops interviews. They usually look to avoid the kids that think they are too good for the job. You have a great opportunity here and you go at it like a brat. I can almost imagine your post this time next year complaining...
Oh look - how sweet.
Not all of us are obsessed with having relationships, wives, girlfiends etc. you know. Some of us have other more important interests (which aren't finance!).
I think that's precisely the point of the post. That the majority of those on WSO are obsessed with things like...
I just can't understand why so many Americans are obsessed with this idea of getting married. I mean - why do you actually need to marry in this day and age? Marriage is a contract, after all - and many people lose alot of money through divorce (especially in the United States). From what I hear...
Bad policy regarding the student loan debt bubble? Shocking, truly shocking. I am so shocked right now. I am about to take a selfie on my iphone and post it on this site just so you can see how shocked I look.
I have said this literally on every student loan related thread on this...
AQM:
I remember my first internship on Wall Street was in ER at a small boutique in midtown. My MD told me the most important thing was to make sure that I got everyone's Starbucks order correct.
End.Of.Story.
Is there a second Wall Street in Midtown that I am unaware of?..
"Wall...
Personally I couldn't give less of a fuck, I'm just doing something I like and getting paid money (which I also like) to do it. Who cares about anything else?
The best quote ever: "What Other People Think of Me is None of My...
Re: typical day -- no day is typical -- hah. but you know that.
Get into the office around 9 or so, depending if you have stuff left to do from the previous night or someone on your team needs you to do something new.
Make Powerpoint presentations, do research, work in excel on models,...
Argh I'd written this whole thing and then realized I wasn't signed in - WSO please fix so I don't lose my work again!!!
I'll re-write:
At the risk of de-railing your career before it gets off the ground:
tube8
redtube
hardsextube
When I was your age we had to wait 48 hours for...
These are two seperate issues:
1) On the family side....unfortunately you cant change your family. When this happens to me (and it does) I just laugh it off..who cares what aunt tilley thinks? Just change the subject and move on its not worth figting about.
2) Being in finance has...
I'd add some other tips.
1) Your CV needs a thesis and you need to structure your CV to reflect it. Example: On my CV, I really want to sell the internship I had - I worked times at a great fund. That internship is the largest section of my CV, greatly overwhelming my other work exp and...
Someone I know works at GS in Sales and worked as a male escort (for women) - he said its hard because women are much less likely to hire someone vs men. So unless your happy sleeping with men also, your unlikely to get very far/have a steady income unless your exceptional.
Body - Not...
Penn is the most represented on the street bar none.
That said, I don't think I'd wanna work at a bank that was overweight ND and Georgetown. By the way, just throwing this out there - but if you haven't noticed lately there's been a decline in the level of "talent" in IBD these days. And...
Well, I cant think of any lies Ive told to get ahead (maybe some minor things like "oh yeah, the report is almost done, just doing some touch ups, itll be over to you asap" when it wasnt started. I will tell this though. Back in either 9th or 10th grade, I was up one Thurs. night ~10:30. Had a...
I've pulled a few pranks on our interns...nothing that has hindered their success though. I say do it as long as their within reason.
The worst one I did was jump on an intern's computer when he was in the washroom. I sent a VERY casual email to one of the top MDs (lets assume his name is...
PM me an email and I'll send you a study guide I made which helped me land an offer at one of the top CRE lending groups in the US.
I expect a couple SB's :)
I have just entered the MBF program in HSG (that is the best place I can afford to finance), so I expect to have better options in German-speaking world. London is costly and the salaries are lower than in Germany (according to glassdoor), moving to PE is not my dream (while it is still an...
Just bring back Glass Steagall and repeal the Commodities - Futures Modernization Act of 2000. In a sane world, this is what we'd do. It's far simpler than Dodd-Frank and effectively eliminates the problem of TBTF and interconnected zombie banks.
Can you really pay for Bschool with Pre tax 401k dollars? I'm about to start contributing 50% of my paycheck to my 401k in that case.
Yes and no.
You can pull money out of a 401k penalty-free to pay for a 401k. But that money is taxed in the year it is withdrawn unless you qualify for a...
Pauly,
Go file an arbitration against your previous firm TODAY. It doesn't cost you anything and it's the way things are done in this business. They can absolutely remove a negative U5 comment, and they're fucksticks for putting it on there in the first place.
Guys, this is a hard lesson...
ok, in my opinion, i dont think you would get many first round interviews with this CV.. as a matter of fact, you would be lucky to get any.
::::::::::Some Problems:::::::::::::::
- you have only 1 month of "real" finance experience
- no relevant coursework mentioned
- you are bachelor in...
Yea I got a free handshake and sometimes I got a free 30 minutes nap in the bathroom stall right before I started my 2nd 10 hour shift. Oh wait there was that one time my shirt got stained and I got a free hour pass to go home and replace it. Fuck me we're balling out of control.
What is a good website for day trading?
Scottrade.com and just watching the market. Try to figure out why prices are moving the way they move. If you can understand what happened, you might be good at this.
I did well from 2004-2008 following a supply-constrained demand growth market and...
At previous job:
(like 50 years old) Senior Trader: "you fuck her yet?"
Me: "hadn't really planned on it..."
Senior Trader: "good, don't. i'm gonna fuck her first."
Me: "well now that it's a contest..."
Senior Trader: "oh and rape still counts"
Me: "you win."
fairly common exchange...
I say take it. I took a role similar recently over a research role at an MBB affiliated consultancy. My role is more compliance at a large international firm in London. Obviously mine is temporary (as I'm heading to grad school soon) and I've done the associate gig already but the position was...
My girl gave me an ultimatum when I was studying for the CFA, either we:
1) break up while I strive for greatness
2) or stay together and settle for mediocrity.
And then I gave her some sex therapy; now i get to stay with her AND strive for greatness
This is a good post overall but I can say that so much of this is group dependent. For example, one major thing to note is that the disparity between top bucket and bottom bucket is jokingly small, especially on an after-tax basis in the current economy. You're better off working your ass off...
France is getting smacked up by Spain tomorrow. England and Italy will take their match to a penalty shootout with Italy winning.
Oh, and Samir Nasri is a little bitch.
Here are some tips from the buy-side. I thought it might be useful to some, or maybe not, you'll be the judge of that. It's not my intention to cause animosity or be patronising, just to show you what a buy-side person thinks. I apologise in advance if anything below comes off derogatory or...
Thank you everyone- people all around the world are praying and wishing lily well. The blog has had about 2800 hits, from everywhere.
Lily had a good day. I'm hanging in there. Thanks for your support WSO. I appreciate the prayers, messages, and well wishes more than you...
Gen Y is superior at technology.
We're also far more heavily networked and those of us 25+ actually remember what it's like to NOT have so much technology around...so we see both sides of this.
Gen Y isn’t loyal to one company.
...because our generation was the first to be sold out on a...
Dude, change the attitude ASAP.
I'm not judging, as I've had this problem before. And it is unfair that some people get to use Adderall while others don't (for what its worth, I'm not one of them). But keep in mind that other people are getting laid, working out, becoming more knowledgeable...
lol, well do you know what the top 5 advertising / PR agencies are? Top law firms? top media / talent groups? Do you even know what people do there?
I have no fucking clue except for what I see on madmen / entourage / suits...
I waited tables + bartended and now manage a place, it's how I paid for college and kept money coming in after losing a parent. I regard my coworkers like extended family, and an attack on us is personally offensive to me. When I have time, I'm going to post about this topic in collaboration...
If one of those girls told you that she was a Paleontologist, or she is a cross-talent controller, or a relationship developer you wouldn't know wtf that is, so I suggest you branch outside of your brain and realize that just because you love finance and happen to be knowledgeable about it,...
In gaining an understanding of the different ways people define success, I've drawn two major conclusions:
Society at large pushes an image of success that is destructive in nature
The post-financial crisis generation has a much different idea of success than the generations before...
I don't know why you people think this shit works. IT DOESNT.
I secured my previous M&A job, and my current buyside gig from an initial cold e-mail with a follow-up call. The smart thing to do is to reach out to MDs, and not dipshit, over-worked, over-stressed junior guys like ourselves. If...
One of the issues I've harped on a bit on here about PE is that due diligence can truly be soul crushing.
With that said, one of my bigger issues, and this is probably just a personal thing here, but is that I feel like it's way too easy to just sit back and pick apart a business. It's all...
Here's a fairly regular occurence and something that made me hate banking: It's a random Tuesday night at about 9pm. There's a pitch in the morning across the country. The MD gives you his "final" comments before he goes to sleep. You make the changes and then the associate checks it over. ...
I just think that a lot of people don't quite know what they're getting themselves into.
Agreed. I think PE is a great opportunity post-banking. You learn a lot of valuable stuff and it really teaches you to "step-up" in ways you never would've fathomed as an analyst.
That said, I...
Compliance: (Personal experience)
Hours - 8-5
Lifestyle - fair work/life balance -- personally, I had no life while I worked in compliance, because all I was focused on was first in, last out...finish month end at the highest of my analyst class and kick ass. I ended up getting promoted within...
We used to break it up by school and by division. Students would drop their resumes for our division (or multiple divisions, which happened a lot). Back in 2005, I was a VP and the team lead for a target school. We would get something like 150-200 resumes from that school. Here's how we did...
I talked to some analysts at the Minneapolis office of Harris Williams about a year ago. I was told they worked a lot of hours in the prior several months and you could tell they were dragging ass, lol. I don't know what that translates to in 'hours per week' but rest assured you will be tired...
I don't think anyone should spend their entire twenties dicking around "finding themselves," but I also don't think everyone should spend their entire twenties following some rigid path because others think they should. I feel that it's most important to be productive in some way shape or form....
School is the single biggest waste of one's time. Unfortunately, like most things, everyone has a misconception about its benefits and here we are stuck having to endure it for the first 25% of our lives. I think it's pathetic that we're prisoners to it, and the longer you stay in the system...
It's very easy for a smart person who's had success after success to become an asshole or douchebag.
I think that when same said people struggle with stuff, they become better people.
Growing up on the Chicago North Shore, on varsity swimming and water polo, taking all of these tough...
The hardest brainteaser I ever got was a riddle:
It starts with the letter "S".
It's two words.
It's on every forum.
It rhymes with the phrase "Church Glutton".
S _ AR _ H
B_ _ _ ON
Solve the puzzle.
Nobody's been responding to my emails all day. Not even the interns. Not even a text. Is this standard policy? Seriously f***ed up IMO.
Then I got an official termination email from 'David' which I thought was pretty weird (why not HR?). Whatever. Stated I would be terminated...
I'm not entirely sure I buy the doping conspiracy. She beat the world record by 1 second in a 270 second event. That's essentially .33% faster. That doesn't seem too ridiculous to me. Am I missing something here?
looks like a chalk stick, does anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Glycerine
Also, I shove a cucumber in my pants on days I meet with HR chicks.
Harold was in the South of France, and could not understand why Rich had attracted all the girls at the beach, while he had no luck.
So he...
Hair: don't just go for what's easy - you'll get respect for a nice-looking, well-styled head of hair. Girls love that shit. If you're style-retarded, let your hair grow out, then go to a stylist and have them design the right look for you. For a cheaper alternative, look at what kind of hair...
You remind me of me when I was younger..I had the exact same attitude, but had no idea what I was getting myself into...I was stubborn and resilient -- needless to say, I got to where I am because of my attitude and willingness to learn. This relates to you because you have the right attitude...
When I read threads like these, I wish that this site forced certain people to disclose the following with every post:
"I am a high school/college student who has never worked in banking or, for that matter, even had an interview. In fact, the only time I have ever seen a real life investment...
These practices are completely normal; you'll find stuff like this at pretty much any Fortune 1000 company, especially at the plant/satellite locations. However, the consistency you describe is somewhat disturbing. I would definitely recommend you report this via your company's anonymous ethics...
If I do get married it will be on my own terms, not because everyone else is doing it. My main concern regarding marriage is that a woman can pretend to act one way for 'X' number of years while dating and then the second you put a ring on her finger she can turn into a total bitch and have the...
It's hard to argue with 'be happy with what you got,' because the only other option is 'be unhappy,' but don't be ignorant of what you are capable of having either. In some cases, being happy with what you have just means being content with underperforming your potential... and settling for...
God Illini sounds like the lamest person ever. Working 80+ hour weeks, going home and researching dividend stocks, and spending money like Gandhi sounds like a terrible way to live a life. But o wait when he's 60 he'll be ballin outrageous LOL!
I work 55 hours/week. So while you are coming off...
Whoops, misleading title... The Mexican guys building out the patio on my summer home could have really benefited from this had it been what I thought it was gonna be.
It looks like it's time for a recap of last night. Unlike my usual recaps, which are done on the spot after a happy hour, this one required me to actually step back and reread what I wrote in the morning with a set of fresh eyes. In fact, I wanted to make sure this recap didn’t cross any...
This isn't subtle but my boss told me her old vp was a asshole and one day someone snuck into his office after work and literally took a shit on the guys desk. After that she said he got the message and was a lot easier to work with after. Risk worth the reward?
I see anohter opportunity...
I am going to have to back ESM in his opinion that IP is way too smug about being cheap. Life is meant to be lived and while the hang gliding looks like alot of fun, sharing a 5th floor walkup on 11th ave and worrying about how much a beer costs in dividend payments is just not a life that I...
So I can understand -- you're literally walking into the firm's office and asking to meet people without having any connections?
Yes. I am walking in and asking to speak with the person in charge of hiring. If I have a name, I mention it.
lol, slam your briefcase down "WHOS IN CHARGE HERE?!?!"
Q: What happened to the chinese man who walked into a wall with a boner?
A: He smashed his his nose.
(Im kidding Im kidding)
doesn't make sense, chinese have flat noses. i've heard this one before, except it was with a jew.
btw, i don't condone racist jokes. i love all people...
Exactly how much pussy (in kilograms) will I get if I attend a prefteejus M7 business school? And subsequently, how many utils (in thousands) will I acquire during my 730 days of b-school?
Kilos? Fuck that, get your analyst to run that model. I don't speak European.
But utility in...
Patrick (?) posted something on this a few months back and it totally shifted my opinion of the question. This part of the interview is a gift. It is an allotment of time to "sell" yourself.
I created an outline and shifted my emphasis according to the company I was interviewing with. This...
So your 'friend', who undoubtedly knows you have a hard-on for HBS decides to send you an email about how awesome it is there to rub it in your face? Sounds like a real douche canoe.
(Bankerella -- Did I use it in a sentence properly?)
I havent had any real interviews yet but I was informational interviewing someone from a boutique IB this summer. he invited me to get coffee as they usually do and I went to the bathroom briefly and when I came back, the guy at the counter picking up the coffee looked exactly like my guy--same...
It sounds like you're in high school. You haven't decided on college, perhaps because you haven't been admitted yet, and you're roadmapping your life for the next decade. Take things one step at a time. Get into school, then worry about recruiting, then worry about picking from whatever offer(s)...
As an alum of Georgetown ('11) working in finance, I am not surprised by the representation.
The only BB's that didn't recruit for IBD for FT in my senior year were MS and GS.
Just looking at statistics from my class, I have to think G’town has huge representation at 2nd/3rd tier...
I lived in NYC for over three years and just moved out to Chicago. While I think Chicago definitely has a number of competitive advantages, I still prefer New York for a number of reasons. As far as your criticisms go, I think a lot of it is due to the fact that NYC is a TERRIBLE place to visit....
Thank you all for your replies.
let me share my 2-cents here...(cuz currently working for a long-only)....
yeh we are allowed to take some short position...but, interestingly, as far as I observed, we do not have the expertise/courage in this area.... PM not dare to take any significant...
I have a guy who oversees my IRA, but I have a discretionary account that I trade through a retail brokerage. I grew up being taught that it's always better to have someone who specializes in wealth management to watch your money, but I'm not sure if I believe that anymore. SirTradesaLot &...
The bottom line is that AAPL is incredibly well positioned against a massive mobile computing opportunity, which looks to be larger than the PC industry (by far). Smartphones (aka handheld computers) outsold desktop computers in 2011, and sales of tablets should surpass desktops by around 2014...
I have the misfortune of sounding extremely serious when I speak on the phone. I have a deep voice, and because you can't see my facial expressions, it almost always sounds like I'm under some great duress.
Vontropnats. Hah, you're Russian, aren't you? You guys always sound like...
Great advice! I actually did something similar:
I (i) printed my cover letter (signed it with my chewed BIC pen I found on the living room floor) and resume, (ii) sealed them into an envelop and (iii) personally delivered it to the firm i was applying to.
Upon my arrival at the firm, I (i)...
Sit and take a practice test so you can get a good benchmark of where you are at and a feel for the test.
I did TPR (mind you this was back in 2007) and it was alright I'd say, but ManhattanGMAT is generally considered the cream of the crop for prep/strategies. Can't speak for Kaplan.
Get...
Seeing the images of them dragging his body through the streets is sending me into an enraged frenzy.
--Bomb Libya until nothing is left but a barren moonscape
--Stick a giant hose into the ground to suck out any natural resources and send them back to America
Religion poisons...
The people most impacted by this recession are high school graduated or less. Low skilled manufacturing is dead in this country and construction work is well paying and requires labor (can't be outsourced). With the housing crisis slowing/stopping construction the people without an education...
Foreign Affairs , the Council on Foreign Relations and the Rand Corporation all argue that the targeted drone strikes have been a tremendously effective way of disrupting Al-Qaeda and have reduced its operation capability tremendously. Given that no serious Islamic terror attack in the US has...
There's a lot of hate on here.. let it go. I've spilled blood in the mountains and the desert and I've lost many friends. I've spent the last decade living this war... 9 deployments and almost five years spent in the region. So I've seen it all first hand.
Many Muslims have died serving with...
Hahahhaah @ Ant. Romney is done bro. I'm not a big fan of Obama, but Romney is done.By the time the debates are over itll be a 7-8% lead for Obama
We will see. Gotta love re-electing a person who is driving up debt, inflation, lowering labor participation, continued high unemployment, ME is...
This is very accurate. I see so many posts on this site where students/new grads are saying that they just don't understand why they aren't getting more traction in interview processes. The fact is that most interviewees are simply lacking something critical.
When we used to do on-campus...
I'm more than a decade in; seen it all. You better bet I'm a firm believer in chemical assistance as needed.
Nothing heavy. Just small and steady. This life is not natural; you occasionally need a little something to get you through.
Liquor and caffeine play starring roles, but...
You need to realize that finance in NYC/WSO is a bubble and will distort your sense of reality. My peers in other industries are literally making fractions of what I am making. And I am not sitting here saying that in a negative way, I am just saying that you will always be able to find someone...
Eddie please. We all know the USA's history with Bin Laden, Saddam, the military junta in Pakistan, the Shah of Iran and other useful tools (the list goes on).
By isolation do you mean similar embargoes & sanctions that you did to Iraq and are trying to do with Iran, i.e. forcing the rest of...
take the % of women of the total population, who are traders, then take the same top % of men of the total population, in trading, and see who gives the better PNL.
Then list every fucking scientific and economic development in the past 10 millennia...
Subset but culturally different, in large part due to the fee structure of both industries (allegedly) and the people involved (more likely) and the regulation that hamstrings AM at times.
To overgeneralize, at a large institutional top-tier AM house, there is going to be a lot more soft...
I usually go with:
"Where do I start, really? I'm a 24 year old analyst with 6 months of banking experience because I was too lazy/unmotivated to figure out the whole finance recruiting thing while still in undergrad. My firm hasn't had much (any) deal flow since I joined the firm, so my...
Unless you are transitioning elsewhere in the firm, who gives a shit about how difficult it is for your old manager/team when you leave the firm?
I put together a "Best Practices" document when I left. It said:
I can honestly say I've never ever gone around campus
Students aren't alpha.
And what makes you think it's any different with anyone else?
you know who i think is alpha? fathers who take up 2 jobs, waiting tables during the day and then UPS for nightshift so he could put his son...
If this thread was serious bankerella automatically just lost all credibility
hey guys, let's all invest on what people tell us instead of stuff like track records or investor experience! makes a lot of sense bankerella! u fucking idiot
If you had any inkling that this thread might have...
at gugg its more MDs/Directors batting for analysts vs. HHs in regards to buy-side recruiting.From the analyst I knew who went from gugg to PE, he said he used referrals from his bosses to land at a top MM PE and had 0 interaction with HHs.
Harris WIlliams better watch out.
To be constructively honest, if I was your associate or even the third year analyst in question, I would strongly believe that you deserve to be let go. Given the pressures of the job, everyone has days where they slip and act like douchebags. However, they usually bounce back by continuing on...
In my opinion, engineering is last degree you can get that's actually well worth your investment and w/ a high likely hood of realizing that return. IHMO you can never go wrong with engineering.
The great thing about engineering school is to get through successfully you either have to...
OP, first off, I'd say to do the research yourself, but I doubt you're capable of doing that if you're asking us. Then again, I really don't know how many people here can actually talk about DLJ. I mean christ, how hard is it to Google this yourself.
That said, what do you want to know about...
Wish I could give you specifics to help. I would say generally, understand how to make a DCF from scratch, understand different ways to derive the cost of capital, and have an understanding of market multiples.
I did an MSF at one of the schools listed in the OP's post and I can say that out of all the comments #5 is the most important one. You really get out what you put in effort wise when it comes to placement. I was able to land an IB job at a regional MM which was ideal for me but it took a TON...
From my short internship experience quite a while back, the following thoughts came to mind:
- the hours were brutal. Really brutal. Got to the client site at 8am, often didn't go to sleep til 2-3am. No weekends. I took a weekend off (or rather, saturday lunch to sunday morning) but they sent...
Had a friend that worked there. Basically a start-up fund with one senior guy only. The interview process seemed thorough though (a few cases, an actual stock pitch, etc.).
1 indian guy running 4 other juniors and paying them very little. Shouldn't be that hard to get a job though, every associate there is from a non-target and only one has IBD experience.
My view is that Romney is far from perfect, but there are a whole host of administrative issues that he will be much better than Obama on (in my conservative leaning view, of course). Whoever is President in the next 4 years will probably appoint 2 and possibly even 3 Supreme Court justices, not...
Whatever. I am sure some people are voting against Obama because he is black. Some people vote against Romney because he is a Mormon. All I know is he is a successful businessman, a person who has been elected governor, who helped fix the SLC Olympics, a person who has been put in his dues for...
Good post. I also think management and managerial strategy is a great point to touch on, especially in context of your industry. If you can talk about why a company's executive team (make sure to drop names) has the perfect vision for the company, it can be a key point of inflection for your...
For most people their career potential is ultimately decided by the end of their junior year of high school.
Your a moron, there are lots of people who did bad in hs, go to total non targets and through a reassessment of priorities get into M7 business schools and work at MBB and BB IBD...
It matters a lot for PE and banking. It doesn't matter much for most hedge funds (at least not those in the business of making money). There are plenty of state school grads running money and putting up big numbers, and plenty of state school grads at the analyst level.
The best performing...
It doesn't seem like many of the people on this board realize that Romney didn't lose "because the election was about gay marriage, abortion..." The fact that the Republicans pander to the religious right is concerning for anyone with remotely libertarian tendencies, but that's not what's...
1) Yes, I am livid. Obama was re-elected because he is Obama. Bush 1 lost his 2nd term with better economic stats than Obama has.
2) You are correct, he didn't get into specifics. Political necessity. The mortgage interest deduction needs to go as well as a bunch of other things. People in...
Generally, if you are in a large bulge bracket firm, there will be opportunities to transfer and depending on which industry team you're in (energy, metals & mining and power tend to be the most global), you can rely on your MDs or HR to help you. That having been said, I would ask the following...
Why was I thrown monkey shit for no reason ? I did not think I said anything wrong.
It wasn't me, but it sounds like you work for or are obsessed with McK. So you're engaging in some inadvertent douching.
Setting gold standards tends to be an exercise in futility. Five years ago, the "gold...
Prestigious Pete?
Amigos, this entire thread reeks of insecurity and is just dripping with beta banter. Just because I have 7 generations of my family that attended Yale doesn't mean I am any less qualified as a candidate. I filled out the application just like everyone else. I pulled myself...
Some scotches are meant to be drank with ice/splash of water
Splash of water? Might as well be drinking a Minute Maid juice box with an L-shaped straw.
Figure out what you enjoy most about investment banking (what aspects of it) -- and then try to relate that to what you might want to do for the next few years (if not the next 20 years). Buyside jobs are different in that (although a lot of PE programs may be) -- it's not always a 2 years and...
Very basic guide, but should help you get started:
Cash and Cash Equivalents
Flows in directly from Cash Flow Statement
Prepaid Expenses
% Opex or % COGS
Accounts Receivable
Simple: % of revenue
More Advanced: (AR/Revenue) * Days in period
Inventory
Simple: % COGS
More...
Yeahright -
1 - I'm not sure about financial modeling, since I didn't do AM.
2 - Best way to reach out is to email people, introduce yourself and tell them that you're interested in what they do and would like to discuss. Obviously, if you know anyone at all who might be able to serve as...
Does automating the driving of metro trains hurt train drivers? Sure. But the net value add to anybody not a train driver is fairly high, especially in a country with an illiquid train driving labour market (read: London, Paris, etc. anywhere frequently paralyzed by bastards paid over 140k/year...
I agree with IvyGrad. Life now is WAY better than college. A lot of it comes from the flexibility of being an "adult" combined with enough income to do whatever you please. It is really cool being able to pave your own path in life. IvyGrad talks about travel, but that is just one aspect of...
This might be a bit outside the scope of what you're looking for, but I sincerely believe that human beings are always looking to the future for a time when they think they will be happier. In college, I thought I would be happier working, even though everyone I knew who was already working full...
One year we had this absolutely phenomenal intern - arguably the best we'd had in a few years. He was brilliant, nice, down to earth, put together, and just got shit done. He was allowed to work without analyst supervision within a few weeks of starting his internship.
Fast forward to a party...
I the spirit of grammar correction, it is not "would of", but "would have". I would ding someone for this, it's pretty basic.
Do you mean, "In the spirit of grammar correction," or "I, the spirit of grammar correction,"? I can't tell exactly from your post.
Are you serious man?
This is grammatically incorrect.
Option 1: Are you serious, man?
Option 2: Are you a serious man?
I guess the only way it would make sense is if there was some sort of superhero named "Serious Man" (like Superman) and you were asking if I was he. But given that...
This is incredibly helpful, +1 SB. Thank you for contributing.
Any thoughts on how the transition might differ coming from ER? Headhunters have been less than responsive so far.
The issue with ER is that your experience varies significantly depending on the work style of your analyst....
Excellent post, thanks. Any suggestions for a global macro hedge fund interview straight out of undergrad?
I'm relatively clueless when it comes to global macro funds. I'd know general macro theories, do a lot of reading on big themes going on today (Eurozone crisis, Chinese political...
I'm not talking about friendly fire. Fort Hood shows that even if people have guns available at their disposal, someone can inflict a significant amount of damage before anyone can react. Classrooms are ideal for that. You can eliminate 10+ people in mere seconds by spraying a single clip and...
You've got to learn not to let negative feedback get to you. I was not the most knowledgeable analyst in my class. It took a tremendous amount of effort for me to get up to speed. I made plenty of dumb mistakes. I had a situation where my associate flipped out and swore at me in front of...
I intern at a PWM, for their xmas party they only invited their top tier clients, I wanted to use it almost as a networking event. I decided to take several shots of whiskey before I went in to take the edge off, this was first my mistake since I can't stop drinking once I start. I walked...
With that said, if someone attacks you or breaks into your house, you should have the right to defend yourself.
I'm just thinking to myself.. for the average American who's just going about their daily business, do these life or death situations really come up? I've never really felt like...
You can view career risk at two levels: the firm and you. PE firms are much more stable because their capital is locked up for a very long time. The honey pot may not be growing, but it won't disappear either. A HF's capital can flee at any time (for the most part, some firms have 1-3 year...
Any hedge fund that invests in companies in a fundamental manner would be a relevant target for an ex-PE guy. Long/short equity is likely your best bet given that it is one of the most prevalent strategies. Long/short credit would be another. The Tiger complex likes ex-PE guys, as do many...
A few reasons:
(1) The cost. Opportunity cost + tuition will easily break 500k if you are leaving a relatively well paying job.
(2) Lack of actual skills. Very little in a MBA curriculum directly applies to high finance. Even targeted programs (Columbia's Heilbrunn, for instance) are...
If you think that telling some chick that you "work at a top bank" will make blood start flowing down to her sex hole, then it will be a lot more than lawyers that are cooler than you.
Someone once told me:
You spend your twenties finding out what you want to do for the rest of your life, your thirties becoming really good at doing that thing, your forties making money doing it.
You're ahead of the curve.
The most annoying question I ever got asked and gave my best was:
Q: Insurance background huh? So you want to go from fucking old ladies to a job in S&T?
A: nah, I only went from fucking you mom this morning to knowing the biggest jack ass ever. (I know the partner of the firm so I didn't...
Listen: You might be like "I'm an energy trader, been doing it since I was 15. Don't care about anything else bro." Thats fine.
But you might find it interesting what people working in E&P think about this. A few years ago, when the natural gas price started to tank, a BUNCH of oil companies...
JamesHetfield,
Sorry to hear about that but I don't have much to say -- I'd contact HR and let them know it was an honest mistake if I were you. Honesty is always the best policy. Life happens -- easier to be upfront now and may give you a chance to showcase your honesty / personality to HR....
DMMSY,
Thanks for making these threads. I sent you a bit of a long-winded message two weeks ago on an BS opportunity I'm pursuing.
Let me publicly ask a related question so that others benefit from the answer:
Had an interview at a $10B fund with one of the PMs. First round was mostly...
Honestly, even if there is some high level truth to this article, it just reeks of a combination of entrepreneur-porn and failure-fetishizing. The kind of articles that seemingly only come from people who have already found great success in their chosen field. Had this guy not sold Bleacher...
A good analyst should look and feel like a good associate - most partners would tell you they would prefer to staff a high performing analyst over an associate most times.
In general associates are tasked with less "raw" analysis and are tasked with the "softer" roles . The best place to be...
1.) Loved it - obviously experiences will differ but I found that I was given an increasing amount of responsibility over time and was able to develop a very real toolkit; there are some less than fantastic parts but overall believe I made the best choice coming out of undergrad
2.) There...
Wow. Imagining my kid "going to college" online in my basement is literally the most fucking depressing thing I've heard all week. Makes my allergies flare up.
Maybe there's value in online education. Admittedly, I've learned more self-studying for the CFA than all four years of school. ...
Infuriating that #3 is in individual page form. Here's a PDF of the presentation:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ny4ejd1cm1sg6lu/Naufal%20Sanaullah%202013%20Global%20Macro%20%26%20Cross-Asset%20Analysis.pdf
MD hands me a stack of papers (double sided) to scan and email to the west coast office at around 10pm. He leaves and i'm now the last person in the office. I couldn't figure out how to set the scanner to scan both sides, so I scanned the odd pages first and then the even ones. I double check...
Thanks for doing this!
What are your top 3 tips for assessment centres? How do you stand out in a group of 20 people who are just as good on paper and have read the same guides as you?
I have been to 5+ assessment centres and always got an offer, so hopefully I'm doing something right....
Let me give you a quick idea of how stressful it *can* be. We post a spreadsheet of our holdings, who has the "rights" to those holdings (aka who sourced it and has maintenance duties, unless it gets to be such a core holding that we're all well-versed on it) and list them in descending order...
Its all rainbows and flowers. You generally show up around 10AM after about 9.5 hours of sleep and start with a gentle bikram yoga class that lasts for 30 minutes. This is followed up an hour long massage from a Swedish supermodel. For lunch, you can choose between the Four Seasons, the Ritz,...
First of all, great thread. OP is making some good points, but all in all, he's lacking the true conclusion.
There are too very good answers within this thread...
I didn’t, especially at the expense of my health and flexibility of schedule.
...Gatsby argued that the OP is using too...
millions of fanatical followers, millions of normal followers, illions in the bank, a baller house and cars, and the standing army in the world.
https://twitter.com/justinbieber
Can speak from my own experience on this one: went to a complete nontarget (sends max. 3 people to the street every year, but usually just 1 or 2). Worked at a top group at GS/MS and got top bucket. Found that my bucket/performance on paper really didn't matter when it came to recruiting - as...
You have no idea if you even like banking yet or if you are even good at it yet. The best way you can tangibly expect to improve your chances of getting into a shop like that isn't by interning at a start up now, it will be by getting into your role as an analyst and learning everything about...
Thanks so much for sharing this.
By having "actual" questions to ask rather than just asking questions just for the sake of asking questions, what do you mean? I mean, you can only ask so many questions about banking right?
Unless you mean questions directed at the professionals
Yes...
For integrated teams: Hours not only vary per group but per the workload of the bankers you support. For instance, in my group, the younger analysts support the more senior bankers, so they have the heaviest workload. When performance numbers come out on the beginning of each quarter, I can work...
Investor is right on par with banker compensation. The capital advisor and wealth advisor both earn significantly less.
Investor is by far the best position.
The top bankers will make slightly more than the top investors simply because they are the ones who drive the revenue. This...
this will have to become the official PB thread
Hopefully. When I was going through recruiting I could barely find info on PB, but now that I'm in it and see the resources the BB's are putting into building up their PB divisions (and AM in general), I figured I might as well give out the...
this will have to become the official PB thread
Hopefully. When I was going through recruiting I could barely find info on PB, but now that I'm in it and see the resources the BB's are putting into building up their PB divisions (and AM in general), I figured I might as well give out the...
"Do not assume that because I am the one pouring your beer, that somehow I am less ambitious than you, or a “fuck up”, or a disappointment that wasn't as capable as you were to get a job in IB or marketing."
Right. Usually what comes to mind for me about bartenders is: this person has...
I don't mind that she's hard on banks. Charlie Gasparino is hard on banks, and I think he's great.
I can't stand her because she is hard on banks while peddling populist rhetoric. Then there is her role in the CFPB...a new, remarkably unaccountable government agency that "solves"...
This is something you'll almost certainly see if you move along in a process at a middle market PE firm. I know I had to do it with the firm I ended up working at. You get a CIM and are asked to throw together a basic LBO and to write up an investment memo. The fun of my process was that the end...
I landed my first equity trading gig during my junior year at a non-target but let's take a step back and look at how it all started.
My freshman year I was running my parents' E-Trade account and developed excellent stock picking skills. My mom was so proud of the returns I was able to...
Cliffnotes for everyone that missed it:
-OP may have a case against illegal termination if he is, as i suspected, pregnant and got terminated because his hormones are flowing like a girl
-Ivan is a communist or socialist...i could never get those two right
-TNA and NorthSide and Rufio...
Nothing is ever a waste of time - we gain something from whatever we do, whether it's the ultimate fruit of success or the experience and knowledge that comes from failure. It's important to know that, as there will be plenty of failure along the way to any goal. Moreover, the state of your...
Not super crazy and I think it happens relatively often in Europe, but once I went to a networking event with a BB that took place the day before the OCR interviews, and I ended up going for drinks and eventually getting pretty drunk with the guys that would interview me the following day....
Post #1,005 on this subject.
You are not going to get rich as an analyst. Your are building a career. Max your 401(k). Put some money away and have fun. You are working 100 hours a week and want to make your life more miserable by eating Ramen ever day and having 3 Coors Lights?
Some...
prtScn12 - hey you little shit, couple things wrong with your not-so informative blog.
I'm still in college - so you're wrong, my goal is to be at WF in couple years so cool of your jets because if you're posting a blog on this website at 1pm...please let me know where you work so I don't end...
I read this article in the WSJ and I honestly was pretty frustrated with the author. My thoughts on the value of an MBA are pretty well known as I outlined them in another thread. He seems to be just another individual that has taken a polarizing stance on the entire degree.
My primary...
In summary:
BTBanker: U.S. government is Robin Hood. Except bad.
Ruskii: Would let him do my taxes.
TNA: Not a fan of taxes. Or government. Might move out of the country once the liberals invade the south/New Hampshire.
Gekko: See TNA.
TheKing: Has some strange obsession with "reality"...
Because you can do wtf you want when you get 100x as many apps as spots you're looking to fill. Same reason they recruit from ~10 schools even though there's a couple thousand out there
This is the brutal truth. Coming from a guy who spent years promoting at major clubs in Manhattan all the way through school, when you approach the type of guys who live the table service lifestyle and can afford it, you are sending one signal and one signal only: "I see you spending money, I...
Really??? That's all you all can talk about is the race of the owners. I'm qualified because I'm black? So am I underqualified for a job at any firm with mostly white senior management, which is most of them?
And out of curiosity does anyone have any experience with this company or are you...
I think everyone here is being sarcastic. They are probably all exaggerating a bit.
To be honest, the cut off is probably closer to a 760. However, I have heard of a rare case of a Native American Olympian rower from HBS get into GS's Zimbabwe microfinance desk with a 740.
But that's...
I work with a chick that talks like both of them, and I usually end up jokingly saying "Please shut the hell up". If you want to do something, just do it. Don't make everything about you being a woman.
People that make it about sex, race, creed, etc don't get any respect from me because I...
"Main street" as people call it, is still completely clueless to the fact that wall street “Bonuses” are not actual bonuses per se. Its largely a misnomer and what everyone refers to as a bonus is mostly accrued salary. No analyst is going to work 100 hrs a week for 50-70K a year. And no...
This is tremendously overstated, as it always is. Finance is not an industry known for stability and moderation. There has always been and always will be a lot of over-hiring and over-firing. Right know banks and the industry as a whole are not doing great, so they are in the overfiring phase,...
It is frustrating realizing that Northwood(privateschool) wasn't what I thought it was. I went into the decision thinking that my young age be worth more than the name of the college. Understandably, I realize that I was wrong in saying so. I just really need to sit down and think this out....
I'm a front-office quantitative trader at a quant and macro-oriented hedge fund, and from my view-point (the quant world), most of what the OP writes is basically bullshit. It is *impossible* for any human being through their "experience" and the development of their "intuition" to...
Ah the old "quant funds are superior" thread returns to WSO...a true classic right next to the "i have a 2.5 gpa from Muhlenberg College, how do I get a banking job at GS?"-thread. This one has been on repeat since 2004.
truth be told...quantitative startegies are mostly just cleverly...
It's a job. There's nothing to be proud of.
Based on the original post I feel like you're tieing some weird element of self worth to getting a job in iBanking or whatever. Like if you fight for it and earn it that proves that you're a good person or something. The below paragraph is a good...
Just a general message to any monkeys making the last-minute decision:
If you are on the fence about going to this, you should. I can guarantee that when June rolls around, you will be regretful if you did not buy the ticket now, either because you want to go and can't, or you are going and...
Compared to a female, aged 13-23, my sexual availability in that age range was limited. Aka I wasn't doing it much. So I should listen to mama bear? Bullshit. Now, post 23 .... my options are full: killer job, tall, and great social proof. Means to an end, perhaps, I know very well the next 10...
Men Age Like Wine Women Age Like Milk.
For women that is a very smart move. Her looks will go no where but south after the age of 21 or so. Lots of people have been up and arms over Kate Upton but you can see that she is hitting the wall hard. Its like a train is slowly approaching her face....
I couldn't imagine not having a kid. I don't know what I would be working towards otherwise. You die, then what? Pass on your wealth to a charity? Maybe get a lecture hall named after you at your alma mater? It seems so hollow.
Yep, you die. That's the end result in either case. But,...
I thought it was pretty tongue-and-cheek and a good article. She even says she is bitter and making excuses, which displayed she was well adjusted.
All in all the article is hilariously true. Are people really that dense or is it insecurity and self justification in feeling better about...
I'm a graduate of a top end state university. First job out of college was in investment banking. Most of my colleagues were Ivy Leaguers. They were all quite smart, but when you get to know them, however, you'll realize that they're just normal people who were just a lot more mature at the age...
Lets say that interest rates for a 10 yr t bill is 2% and the current spread between 10 yr t-bills and X co. HY bond is 300bps (3%). This means that the current yield on the X co 10 yr bond is 5%. Lets say tomorrow Bernake raises rates by 1% and the spread stays the same. This means that any new...
This shouldn't even be debated. Duke consistently a top 10 ranked university (currently 8), basically on par with the ivies. IU, while the business program might be good, is ranked in the 80's. Even as far as public schools are concerned, IU isn't a mentioned amongst the best. Duke will garner...
A few tips on the diet front which I have found to be effective:
1. Absolutely drink nothing except water and black coffee. No adding sugar/cream with coffee. No more empty calories from liquids. This means you have to stop drinking beer/whiskey. Weight loss does not come without sacrifices....
Wow, lots of good stuff on this post. Here's some stuff I also do (or try to do):
Drink water, lots of it, and give up every other liquid except coffee for a while. Cut back on that as well.
GET UP AND GO TO THE GYM IN THE MORNING. Muscle burns fat. Build muscle. Verrrrry simple...
You don't need to do all of that.
Sounds like you need to network first, I can load up a bottoms up model in a couple of weeks if you want. That's all you really need to learn to do to be honest.
Part 2 of this series will outline how to break in as...
Is it possible to enter banking after 30?
Well first off it's interesting to see someone on here that's older than me. In terms of answering the question:
"It would be very tough, almost impossible".
I generally rather not shut people down, but after getting the advice from a couple of...
I really like meeting with CEOs and CFOs of companies.
Are you really a first year analyst? If so gonna have to say that I'm very skeptical about how much time you spend "meeting with CEOs and CFOs of companies" and even when you do go to meetings, you typically aren't saying very much. You can...
I got some follow-up questions via PM and have answered below
I was wondering if you could make a distinction between pre-med students and people that actually become doctors. I've met a lot of douchey and shallow pre-med kids that are clearly in it for the money and it really bothers me that...
Who are you to judge someone else's lifestyle choices?seriously?
You have 14 kids and you're on welfare? I'm judging you.
You beat your wife and/or kids? I'm judging you.
You have are able bodied, have no job, and are not seeking employment? I'm judging you.
You weigh 450 pounds and are...
This is entirely fine and the trick here is to keep it short. Do not waste a revenue generating employee's time with a long email explaining your life story to them. If you have a decent resume/background they will help you with certainty. Here's a decent template for you.
"Hi my name is and...
This post reeks of bias. I know all of us are, in one way or another, but this post fails to address a number of major motivations for a high-end MBA. Where is your data on career switchers? I'd argue that an individual in engineering, the sciences, or law has little to no chance of breaking...
I made a post about a month ago that outlines why I think an MBA is indeed worth it (for me): http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/to-anyone-considering-an-mba
Anti-MBA articles seem to be more and more common these days. Almost all of them argue that the ROI is not worth it; that the same...
Ahh... thank you so much for breaking that down for me. My poor little female brain often gets confused, so more explanation is typically needed.
Holy shit, how do you make it through the day.
(PS- that WAS intended to be condescending)
Also, you can fundamentally disagree with...
Tip #10: Personal items for your desk:
1. Tooth brush, tooth paste, mouth wash and extra stick of deodorant
2. 1 bottle of your go-to hot sauce
3. 1 hardcover copy of "Valuation" by McKinsey, latest edition. Don't ever have to open it, just make sure it's in plain sight. Also maybe buy a...
Congratulations on the choice manTgreyman, it is rarer and rarer, as the two schools diverge in culture. In my own experience I see fewer and fewer US-based folks who have the choice.
In any case, for both schools, it's all about culture. And the weather. If you want to do PE, you will have...
I apologize for the delay in responding to a couple questions - somewhat limited on time right now but I'll try to help as best I can. As it relates to exit opportunities in Lev Fin Cap Mrkts: the bottom line is that the opportunities are much better than DCM (in my experience both personally...
Jesus... get your facts right. Schwartzman cleared 230MM+ in a terrible market (2011).
So you're asking if I'd take a 223MM pay cut to work at a shitty (relative) firm?
/dumbest thread of the day
I think people misunderstand the point of math. Even my friends who are engineers do not use even close to 80% of the math they have learned. The point of learning math is to broaden your ability to think critically and logically.
If the CIO and the President don't have an issue with it then who gives a fuck. Its apparent that the PM is just pissed off at what she perceives to be a double standard or violation of nepotism policies. Her opinion in this case is irrelevant.
I wouldn't want to live with you ... my apartment is all guys in S&T/banking and we're still good fits for SF -- and yes, we believe in a supporting a lot of those things ...
You sound like a fucking cunt. You and your roommates can all get 420-friendly with your cat Che (with the little...
sitting on a private jet with just the pilots, flight attendants, me, the CEO and CFO of a large public company and my MD on my first roadshow... definitely felt like a boss
I'm glad the pilots were on the plane, they really make your story.
I no longer work in the corp fi, but there was...
I agree with a lot of what's been said here already. CG's post was damn brilliant in particular!
Without being repetitive I'll just throw in my 2 cents by touching on something that wasn't as mentioned; basically if they say this or any variation of this in social media or within the first few...
AllDay_028:
SirTradesaLot:
AllDay_028:
To retire at 45 you are likely going to need what, ~25 mil at least with a family and in a higher COL city and a good quality of life? Probably more.
lol wut? If you had $25M saved, you could invest everything in SPY and earn $500K per year from...
Hi Everyone,
Has anybody recruited for Mithril Capital? I'm done with summer recruiting, but I'm curious to learn more about them. I do know their basic investment focus and have read all the relevant news articles on them, but I'm wondering if anybody has had any kind of interaction with...
Not a troll. This is a serious question.
I have noticed that there are many people on WSO hoping to do the IBD----> HF/PE/VC route while looking down upon other careers such as PWM, Corp. Fin, IM, and especially Accounting.
My question is how many people actually make it in IBD and...
1) how many investment and trading ideas are you expected to generate each year?
2) what's the biggest negative return can your boss accept before going rage against you? or have you ever recommended a bad stock, what's the consequence? could you share some experience?
3) how long do you...
Care to share any data points around comp? More interested in structure vs. seniority/performance than actual numbers, but always good to benchmark against anything you can sufficiently anonymize.
Is your all-in comp an explicit function of your P&L, or is it more qualitative (good year =...
1. Style of investing (GARP, value)? Favorite screens to run?
2. Not quite in ER - BB strategy research. Advice on making it to the buy-side? Plenty of experience in bottom-up research in high-yield and value equity.
3. Biggest surprise thus far on the HF side?
1) GARP and value are where...
Whats your background? Is there a typical background for the analysts at your firm?
My background is what you would call non-traditional. I came from a non target school and spent two years doing leasing brokerage in NYC at a CBRE/JLL/CW. After about a year doing that I realized leasing...
Drexel Burnham, with 10k employees, was brought down by two instances of insider trading by Rudy Giuliani of all people.
Whether or not SAC shares its culture with the rest of industry isn't the law's concern with respect to SAC. SAC's internal controls and culture have repeatedly failed to...
I don't want that, because I don't trust the private sector when it comes to matters like healthcare, transportation, and military, things that should be controlled by the government.
You realize that practically all of human history shows that this fear is unfounded. The privatization of...
Turtles -- Networking with everyone is equally important. banking is all about teams -- and people at all levels collaborate with each other -- so I'd say that it's more important that you make a connection with someone that is meaningful.
Maseratimike -- generally I've seen that people tend...
maseratimike -- I've heard of an incoming analyst being 25 before. I work in a group that is pretty finance-intensive, so I don't really know anyone that has come in FT with no finance experience -- there are SA's from liberal arts target schools that don't have finance experience, but usually...
Re: megafunds -- after doing banking you'll get a sense of what you want to spend your time doing assuming that that involves staying in finance and moving to the buyside. Some people love deals and process and working with management teams, some people love financial modeling (lbo, m&a, etc),...
Not sure if the training/modeling post is a troll post, but I'll answer it.
Yes -- you absolutely get training - 3wks for boutiques, 6 weeks for bulge brackets usually.
Modeling depends on your group, and even within modeling, there are a lot of subsectors.
There's DCF / MM / LBO...
I am willing to bet that if they broke down the stats by college major, it would be a completely different story.
I always found it odd that if you were to really level with kids about what they hope to get out of going to college, "getting a job" would be top on their list (or at least a...
I recently walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (into Brooklyn) and went the park that's right there. It's a really nice, clean park right on the water and it's right next to Grimaldi's so you should probably check that out.
+1. Really nice views of Manhattan especially at night. Awesome for...
Katz - get the combo corned beef / pastrami
Food related shit to when you're done with your day, although they tend to be on the pricey side...
Capital Grille - bone in Kona
Keen's - mutton chop
21 Club
Gordon Ramsay at the London
53 and 6 halal
and let me know if you're in the...
SA interviews are usually a mix of fit and technical, but are probably less technical than FT. In terms of SA -- fit is just as important as technical. Most interviewers won't try to make questions too hard -- but the key is to ask questions and admit that you aren't sure rather than pretend...
there's plenty of opptys to get relevant banking experience in a PE SA experience, esp for lev fin and m&a groups. If you can, try to get on a project that will get you LBO experience, that'll definitely be relevant. most important thing is to learn the point of an LBO, and to use that to...
Most guys steer clear of deaf bishes, I say it's all pink inside so more for me.That's why I learned sign language. The downside is it's tough to do sign language at a bar holding a drink. The upside is deaf bishes scream like dying mules in bed (super sexy).
Buyside interviews are everything I wrote in that big post above +
1) more in-depth acctg and finance questions.
2) modeling tests
3) investment ideas
For PE -- usually you'll have some kind of LBO modeling test unless it's a case-oriented firm in which you'll have a more qualitative...
Take comfort in the fact that it's their stupidity, not anything that you've done. It doesn't have anything to do with Raj and his ilk - people like them have been around since the beginning. It has never stopped, it never will, and it's not something unique to finance. There is just as much...
First and foremost don't jeopardize ur current SA firm, gh15. That being said accelerated processes do happen. You will have a lot more leverage in them if u have an offer depending when they happen. Never did them myself and not sure how they work but would talk to ur campus career office and...
this generation will be the one that elects the american hitler. the combination of their sense of entitlement and their laziness will result in a chain reaction of growing poverty, political instability and then election of a madman to get the country's shit back in one sock.
what would you be doing at corporate banking?
i mean, since it is a small group, could it be a good networking chance? would you be exposed to top clients?
btw is it DB?
1. What about candidates who are not from top BB (aka not MS / GS / JPM)?
I always thought that PE firms care much more about pedigree, while HF put more emphasis on the actual experience (books read, personal trading, etc.)
Unfortunately, pedigree absolutely matters and coming from a...
Good luck everyone. Not sure if any of you have had the pleasure of watching Stalla's videos with Peter Olino and David Hetherington but here are a few gems from the best CFA instructors out there:
You write, you read it, you remember it, you pass it, and then you forget it.
You...
I love how people are actually responding with advice. Come on its BLUMIE. Read his posts, the guy is classic, the new wave of trolls need to learn how its done properly. Blumie should be a paid employee of WSO.
Cannot count how many times I have seen this asked on a job board or in real life...
Will it help?
Maybe.
But here is how you get a job imo, ranked in order:
1a) Network
1b) Experience
2) Pedigree
3) Designations
I cannot tell you how many BO/MO heads at my place who are sitting...
all sites are the same, most of the time because it's USUALLY up to the hotel to provide inventory and pricing so there isn't much of a marginal difference but SOMETIMES you get that awesome deal and heres what i use...
hotels.com
expedia
tripadvisor
roomsurge
all 4 above are the same,...
Frankly, I love netflix. I use it all the time. That said I would switch in a heartbeat if something came out that was different, had a better selection etc. To me online media streaming is a war over content pricing. Whoever can secure the best content at the best price will win. Simple....
all of three six mafia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368342/
Madea
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422093/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1142800/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787759/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2215285/
Bow Wow in Lottery Ticket
50 in get rich or die tryin
Kayne (had...
interned there last summer and had a great experience, had great client exposure, stayed in swank hotels, etc. i think you get a lot more responsibility cuz the firms are smaller and the corporate culture in general is a lot more relaxed . im an ABC but i've always had a chip on my shoulder for...
What could it possibly be... like a painkiller maybe? I'd let them know beforehand if that's the case. They don't test for things like Ritalin or benzos typically, and unless you happen to be on methadone (in which case you're not getting the job anyway) you probably don't have much to worry...
Well, the real problem here is that rich people don't spend their incomes. And if the middle class don't have incomes, they don't have money to spend.
I'm starting to turn into a disciple of Keynes now that I am seeing the beginning of a glut of raw materials/commodities, huge demand for the...
People need to quit with the tip inflation.
15% is generally my minimum and 20% is generally my max.
If there is a "service charge", that is exactly what you are getting as your tip.
Good for him. Not only will he learn a ton and get an offer, but he will also make all of the other interns work harder, which in turn, benefits everyone and the firm .
Don't lie, but don't disclose if they don't ask you. As long as you haven't lied to them or been dishonest, you are much less likely to lose your job after you have started than you are for them not to extend an offer.
Also bare in mind, the person handling the FINRA form (in the bank)...
Ok here is what you do.
1. Find the drug dealers in your local area.
2. Go to the dealers and buy a bunch of ecstasy. It shouldn't cost you more than $200.
3. Grind up half the pills.
4. Tell him that you should go out and drink with him. Take the powdered ecstasy and put it in his...
@BankorBust -- depends on the bank -- to be decided after you get a full-time offer. I think you'd do training when the rest of your class got there. your stint would also be 2.5/3.5 years -- you'd be more likely to stay as an associate -- but don't have to -- it'll just be more tempting. not...
Think about how stupid the average American is. Then realize that half of Americans, by definition, have to be DUMBER than that. So right off the bat, there's 6 of the people deciding your fate that are clinically retarded. Now think about all the generally intelligent, successful, and...
This is where networking comes in. Networking isn't just a means to get a job. By speaking with professionals in different niches of the financial services industry, you can get a really good perspective on whether their sector (AM, IBD, PWM, Risk, CM, etc...) sounds like a good fit for you and...
Ok guys, I actively play both and most people here obviously only play one or the other.
Tennis - pros: Much better for networking, more popular, more"posh", and has a huge following (US Open, Wimbledon, Roland Garros etc) . I would also say more rewarding in the end. cons: You can't really...
I tip 15-20% for average to above average service, and I adjust expectations accordingly (i.e. I don't expect the same standard of service at a neighborhood pub that I do at Per Se). I'm happy to tip 25-40% for great to exceptional service, but I'll also tip 10% or less for bad...
I would look at the analyst you'd be working with. Check his ranking, reputation, track-record... personality would be ideal, but that's harder to grasp.
Apart from ii you can check Extel, Starmine, etc. Bloomberg also ranks analysts for particular stocks, so that's an easy one.
For the...
I'm not going to list AUM for all of them, but if you have a specific one that you'd like AUM I can probably find it for you.
Tiger Legatus - Chris Marra
Blue Ridge Capital – John Griffin
Bridger Management – Roberto Mignone
Valinor Management – David Gallo
Maverick Capital – Lee...
So consensus is nobody usually does it because they just don't like the buy-side hahaha
The thing is that in the macro world base salary is low and potential pay-out is enormous. so a guy comes to manage some money after being succesful and making alot of money on the sell-side and he just...
While I think this alone is a bit of a ridiculous service, I foresee a broader industry of "Job Search Consulting" emerging. Applicants no longer just submit a resume, do a few interviews, and hope for the best these days. Job searches are far more "global" and myriad tools exist such as...
As long as you're in some kind of front office/analyst time role at a bank/hf/pe shop then you should be allowed to put it.
However, there are people at my school who put summer analyst when they work in HR. For instance, this guy works in IB campus recruiting and has summer analyst on his...
give me his name number and address and i will track him down and give him a knuckle sandwich cuz no1 talks about invesment banker like dat. invesment banker are way more prestigus than doctor, do doctors work 100 hours a week and make headlines of wall street journal and rule the world? no. i...
Kudos to westcoast and nugs, who are spot on.
The industry is in the midst of some consolidation. Commissions have dropped from an 1/8th to 3-5 cents per share over the last couple of decades, which has hurt the equity S&T/ER business as a whole. However, ER plays a number of different roles...
From GS:
Interviewer: If I told you that the only way you were going to get this job is if you let me sleep with your girlfriend, would you accept?
My response would be: "Is that a risk you're willing to take? I mean, how do you know I'm not into fat chicks?"
In a 2 on 1 where I was the silent #2 interviewing some nervous banker, my only line was "are you trying to fuck us over?" The kid had NO CLUE what to say. Got visibly uncomfortable and said he wasn't sure what I meant. My co-worker goes "why didn't you say no?" Kid just froze like a fuckin'...
BETA: In practice, Beta is calculated by measuring the returns of a given asset against a reference portfolio for given lengths of time (days, weeks, months) over a specified period (5 yrs, 10 yrs, etc.). In theory, Beta should approximate the relative volatility of an asset's value against the...
I think melvvvar put it well as young people can learn a lot about financial servies working at a government or government-sponsored agency and then effectively parlay that into a nice private sector career or entrance into a good business school. Quite a few of the people who I went to...
dont know about them industriez but 4 social media co's its pretty simple, just pick a number, any number between 50 and 100 will do, multiply it by EPS and that will give u the correct share value
Rebuild the Spanish Armada, put people back to work, and start conquering Latin American Again. Pray they find El Dorado and all it's gold.
In all seriousness though, option 3 certainly doesn't look very attractive mainly because the whole we need to grow and introduce austerity is pretty...
From GS:
Interviewer: If I told you that the only way you were going to get this job is if you let me sleep with your girlfriend, would you accept?
Me: I'd rather you sleep with me
I'm the only one who feels the warmth between my girl's legs.
However, if you can convert my lesbian...
Have you seen any non-traditional analyst hires, most specifically those who did not spend 2 years at a bank or asset manager? What were their backgrounds?
Junior guys have all had very typical backgrounds. On the other hand, senior guys have had some very roundabout, non-traditional paths....
Before I say anything, I want to let everyone know that I was a teaching assistant last year for a entrepreneurship/finance course.
Before I was a TA, I had the mentality of, "you can't teach entrepreneurship." I discussed this mentality with the professor and he explained that a lot of the...
Recognizing that everyone knows the following, it bears repeating: it's not all about the GMAT. A 700 and a 740 communicate the same thing, that is, you're smart. A better indicator of GMAT scores at these schools is the 80% range. Sure, they love score toppers who help the average, but...
He points out that the best businessmen are amoral. They are so hopelessly and ruthlessly focused on their enterprise that they shirk much of their responsibility to society. I think this is somewhat of an obvious fact and that entrepreners, even business in general, should be concerned first...
Brady your quesiton was is a 700 good enough. My answer in shorter form is, yes it can be depending on the balance of the application. I agree with many of the posts above that the b-schools know that an extra 20 or 30 points on the GMAT is a negligible indicator of aptitude, but schools do...
Couple of thoughts:
1.) Make networking by far your #1 priority. As okay24 mentioned, a banker will screw with you if he/she wants to and it is impossible to be prepared from every technical angle. Make sure you network hard to land the interview in the first place and earn positive reputations...
Studying guides at length and in depth will be hugely helpful, but the only way to "kill it" it to understand the stuff well. Make sure you have an understanding of the material that technical questions are asking about. As a couple people mentioned before, the standard questions can be flipped...
Hey for all the guys who are in need of some undergrad training materials, send me a PM with your email, as well as what path, if possible. I have a previous dropbox that I can share with great stuff for the undergrad prep.
This is bad journalism from CNBC. The article says MAY have trading loss of $350m. The real figure is of course nowhere near that!
Facebook IPO price: $38
Facebook current stock price: around $28
Hence, loss on every Facebook share: $10
UBS wanted 1million shares and would therefore...
Start investing your time in the 2nd language.
Once you have a basic/intermediate level, you can write it down on your resume, but at your own risk. Banks sometimes conduct inteviews in 2 languages, or (what happened to me) send employees that are native speakers of the languages that I have...
What do you want 10s of millions for? Money is a medium of exchange. That's all. It has no inherent value.
Sample goals:
- Enjoy the company of beautiful young women (or guys):
You're at university. You're young and stupid (by definition). You're closer to the action than most of us. If...
I'm an American whose family came to America from England in 1639. Like most heterosexual Americans I'm extremely xenophobic, particularly against Europeans who have basically culturally devolved into a detestable, effeminate, pussy entitlement society. That said, my goal for my children is to...
hey there young man... do NOT come on WSO looking for drugs. thank you.
in fact... avoid adderall altogether if you can. sure, it'll start off with a little pill popping to help study for AP chemistry, but soon you will move up to harder drugs like speed and meth. best case scenario you end...
Do you find learning additional languages is easier after you know 3+?
i found learning anything in my life easier after knowing 3+ languages...
the perspective on the things is invaluable
it is a huge advantage, regardless of the work/career
definitely go for as much languages as you...
Also, crazy question: Is Institutional Sales going to be around much longer? Someone mentioned that computers don't need someone to pitch ideas to them. So over time could the Salesman go the way of Bud Fox?
I don't know. Does Institutional Sales create genuine economic value and does it...
It seems bizarre to me at least to talk about gpa, resume things and general qualifications with random people.
It seems even worse to take that a step further and assume someone was hired because of their looks based off of what is most likely a snap judgement.
I might be the only asshole...
I roughly stuck to your proposed plan above during undergrad and all the banks I interviewed with in final year were extremely interested in my finance internships in China. Being a Caucasian Mandarin speaker with finance experience in China is a great talking point during interviews and allows...
When it comes to work I have learned that there is no place for any attempt at fashion/flamboyance whatsoever until your the boss and are 100% confident in your ability to pull something off.
For an intern its quite simple: Suit that fits, Blue/white shirt, tie in muted colour plain/striped,...
Also the only thing more annoying than jargon, is the people complaining about it. Please merge with this thread or the numerous others; thanks for doing me a solid boss, let's tag up after your balls drop chief.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/most-annoying-finance-jargonsphrases
Women pay for my first dates; it's a hedge on the time investment.
Always challenge them to a bet (most times a billiards game) and I end up winning. They pay. See the chemistry from there. If good? I pay later, in other ways.
Sounds cheap when I say it online, but in real life it works...
Oh please. OP, here's a list for you:
Silly shit assistant vice presidents do:
1) go on wall street oasis and write posts complaining about the silly shit their interns do.
The end.
There was a day when you were an annoying little intern shithead, too. So was I. Do the right thing...
Well, I will not start my training at a BB for a FT Associate position for a few months, but I can give you my two cents on what led me to banking and maybe let others weigh in on it.
I entered business school after spending my formative years flying jets for the usn. My major motivation for...
When someone on this site (you know...a forum mainly for people in finance or looking to get into finance) says "banking just doesn't appeal to me", "I want to do something that actually matters", or my personal favorite, "I'm glad I gave up banking before I even started" usually translates into...
It will be interesting to see how many of these positions lead to long-term offers. Business schools will probably love people that do this. Still hard to imagine that many will turn down six figure salaries for this though.
I start working in a month and a half. My company is flying out all of it's new consultants to a central location, so that it becomes a firm-wide new hire training. From my understanding, training is a week long and will be full-day intensive. Am I better off fostering friendships with my...
Again, this part of what makes this site a fun dealio. Most people don't know each other personally and we don't even put our real faces on the avatar, but we rip the shit out of each other or encourage or whatever, share stories, experiences. Yaaaay internet. Yet another reason I consider this...
that reaction. A combination of anger, confusion, joy and sexual arousal. Please explain
Sounds like some of my better travels... at least 2/3rds of the human experience in that sentence alone.
On a deeper level, there is a certain enlightenment that comes with travelling and being...
We're quickly approaching the summer when a fun-filled crop of fresh-faced monkeys will descend upon firms nationwide, hoping to secure a job post graduation. For the newly minted managers out there, you've got your work cut out for you. New guys come in all shapes and sizes and they...
Hi, I just got an offer from a firm that has an unique pay structure. I honestly don't know what to think of them. They say they have no base salary and just have commission/deal structure. (eg. bringing clients, lead etc, couldn't quite understand the role) Is this something I should...
I just received a summer offer at a BB in an S&T position. I want to live in Manhatten, hopefully close to my office.
On such short notice what can I do about housing? Any advice? Most of the colleges/dorms appear to be sold out....
so i just got (hopefully) the hang of all the financial statement analysis-evaluation-earnings manipulation thing but still i find myself poorly geared to face stock evaluations for a simple reason: i lack specific industry knowledge. how can i get that besides surfing the internet?
are there...
*"The Michael Jordan of Hedge Fund Managers".
25% net return to investors annually since inception w/an average Sharpe Ratio of 2.5.
"This man has returned 3x the returns of Warren Buffet with a third of the...
If you work in banking - even as an intern - you obviously have access to everything in the IB share drive including the WGLs for all deals going on. Esp. for capital raising deals where there will be many banks working together. Less so or N.A. for M&A deals.
Networking is how you lateral...
Hi Everyone,
I need some advice, I just graduated and I just got an offer from BB ops (MS/GS) however I also have an offer to intern at a elite boutique (LAZ, HL, Moelis) in an advisory group. I really liked the people and the work at the boutique...however it's not full time and I already...
Has anyone applied for Citi's university program a few years out of college and got an offer or will they just immediately reject your application if you're not a current...
Was told to expect a question like this in an upcoming interview. I've seen market making questions before but not involving measuring distance (usually see ones that involve something more easily guesstimated like population). Can anyone help me come up with a reasonable way to attack this...
So after graduating from a non-target last year I was unable to procure a job for a few months and eventually I took a role as a commercial real estate appraiser. I studied real estate investments in my last year at school and I think my ultimate goal when I took my current position was to try to...
I get a ton of emails and answer a ton of posts asking similar questions so I thought I would answer the most common ones I get here and allow others to post their questions so everyone can see them and the subsequent answers. Hope this helps.
<strong>Summer Analyst...
This is the reaction any analyst who has ever worked in banking has when you say you want to leave banking for business school then come back as a post b school associate...
<img src="http://epicpinterestfail.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/how-i-met-your-mother-barney-why.gif"...
I get a ton of emails and answer a ton of posts asking similar questions so I thought I would answer the most common ones I get here and allow others to post their questions so everyone can see them and the subsequent answers. Hope this helps.
<strong>Summer Analyst...
Inspired by comments from this: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/basic-guide-ramping-up-on-a-company-with-public-information-part-1-of-3
Lets just jump in.
<strong>Technology:</strong> In this space there are really two metrics that matter the most, sales growth and EPS...
I'm currently a Private Equity Analyst in Shanghai, China. Academically, I graduated from a target school majoring in Economics and Chinese. I also spent my time at college as the president of an on-campus student organization related to Finance and Economics and a volunteer for a local...
For better or for worse, there’s a very unique feeling when everything goes completely according to plan yet nobody seems to care or notice. Such is the case with our favorite company of the moment, Tesla Motors. For those unaware, TSLA has rocketed upwards since its Q1 earnings release,...
I work as a long/short equity analyst at a large hedge fund. I've been lucky enough to be more than just a model monkey early on in my career, but have also been exposed to the stress of being measured on returns. I primarily cover consumer and TMT names. I went the typical path (target...
Fellow Primates,
We are looking for 1-2 students on each campus to help WSO in its sales efforts to student clubs/career centers, and overall promotion at your school both online and on the ground. Below is a description of the position and benefits...thanks in advance for your help! <a...
<em>Mod note: Best of Bankerella - this was originally posted 10/1/12</em>
I occasionally get PMed by people at colleges I’ve never heard of before, asking if they have a shot at IBD.
Folks, why IBD? The finance world is broad and varied, and there are a million ways to...
This is just fantastic. After sitting through Carl Levin and John McCain spewing a bunch of nonsense about how Apple doesn't pay enough taxes (despite being the #3 taxpaying company in America behind ExxonMobil and Chevron), Rand Paul lit them up about what a travesty it was to blame Apple...
Someone was asking me about this in PM and I wrote a long and detailed reply about what it is like to work in Big 4 and what advice I would give to people thinking about interning / working there. Thought it might be useful for others so my reply is below. Happy to answer any...
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