Public bio:
Andre is an Associate Director in Group M&A at HSBC in London, focused on execution FIG M&A transactions. He has advised on complex cross-border deals, including HSBC’s $10bn sale of its Canadian operations to RBC.
His experience spans investment banking, asset management, and private investing roles across firms including Santander, Morgan Stanley, and a €1bn+ family office. Andre holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School and is a CFA charterholder.
Public bio:
- Currently a Vice President at a megafund focused on traditional buyouts (latest fund size of $15 billion). Was an associate at the same fund - received sponsorship for business school and Vice President return offer
- Previously worked as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley for two years
- Holds an MBA and a BS in computer science (non-traditional background)
Public bio:
- Current Managing Director at a credit/distressed debt hedge fund for the past 5+ years
- Top 3 MBA
- Previously spent 3 years in private equity and 2 years in investment banking (Goldman Sachs)
- Broad sector coverage experience including Real Estate, Industrials, and Power & Utilities
Public bio:
- Current Founder and Portfolio Manager at family-office-anchored hedge fund
- 20 years of international investment and management experience at a global hedge fund
- Bulge bracket summer and full-time analyst
- Ivy League undergraduate education
- Former public company Director
Public bio:
- WSO Head Mentor, former Carlyle real estate private equity investor, and Director-level real estate investment professional with experience across acquisitions, asset management, underwriting, portfolio strategy, and finance recruiting.
- Previously worked in The Carlyle Group’s U.S. Real Estate group, where he underwrote, valued, and asset managed a $1.2B+ portfolio across multifamily, student housing, self-storage, retail, active adult, and mixed-use assets.
- Has also held senior investment roles at CrossHarbor Capital Partners, Lincoln Avenue Capital, and PIA Residential, with experience across acquisitions, asset management, debt underwriting, capital stack analysis, refinancing, dispositions, and portfolio strategy.
- Began his career at Starwood and JLL’s Hotel Investment Banking team, where he worked on acquisitions, debt and equity sourcing, refinancings, feasibility analysis, and investment committee materials.
- Has been on both sides of the recruiting table: breaking into competitive finance roles, interviewing candidates as a senior investment professional, and coaching students through resumes, networking, technical interviews, behavioral interviews, and offer positioning.
- Has mentored hundreds of WSO candidates and aspiring professionals across undergraduate, graduate, lateral, and career-switcher backgrounds. Works with candidates targeting investment banking, private equity, real estate private equity, asset management, development, brokerage, and related finance roles.
- Holds an MS in Real Estate from New York University and previously taught real estate valuation and feasibility analysis at NYU from a private equity perspective.
Public bio:
Current Corporate Development and Strategy Manager and Leading Sports Agency with the following background:
- Graduated from University of Notre Dame (Mendoza College of Business) in 2019 with a degree in Finance and Applied Math
- Had a summer internship at BAML Palo Alto in the tech group (received return offer)
- Did my IB analyst stint at Credit Suisse in Chicago in the Mobility in Services Group
- Recruited on-cycle for PE, was placed at Linden Capital (UMM Healthcare-only shop in Chicago)
- After 1.5 years at Linden, took a Corporate Development / Strategy Role at Excel Sports Management, a top sports agency. Have been at Excel for 3 years including a promotion to Director.
Can speak to / advise on:
- Recruiting for IB or PE
- Including on-cycle / off-cycle decision and networking
- Succeeding in IB analyst and PE associate stint
- Stay-or-leave decisions for IB and PE roles
- Corporate Development / Strategy roles and considerations for potential opportunities
Public bio:
- She is an Investment Director at Antin Infrastructure Partners’ New York office, responsible for all aspects of Antin’s North American investment activities from deal sourcing, and execution to portfolio management.
- Prior to joining Antin, she spent two years as an Investment Associate at Blackstone’s Private Equity team in New York, which she dedicated to energy and power investments.
- She started her career at Credit Suisse’s Houston Energy Investment Banking Division.
Public bio:
- Currently a Finance Director at Fortune 50 company
- Previously Director of Strategy & Corporate Development at Fortune 50 company
- Served as Career Coaching Consultant for investment banking and corporate finance at top MBA program
- Prior to getting an MBA, worked as a Private Equity Associate at a top middle-market private equity firm in the consumer space
- Started career working as an analyst at Jefferies for two years with experience in consumer and retail investment banking
Public bio:
- Managing Director overseeing an industrial real estate portfolio.
- Former private equity associate at a lower middle market fund covering industrial companies with prior experience in M&A investment banking at a bank that is not known for having PE exits.
- I found a way into the industry despite not having perfect qualifications by effectively communicating the projects I had worked on and my roles in each, thoroughly preparing for interviews, reaching out to mentors, and having the right mindset.
- I would be happy to pass on my learnings to help you achieve your professional goals whether that be setting yourself up for success in university, discussing finance careers, finding your first internship or investment banking position, and preparing for PE interviews.
Public bio:
- Current equity research analyst performing rigorous, in-depth fundamental research and analysis of US small, mid, and micro-cap equities for Wampanoag Capital, a long/short event-driven special situations hedge fund focused on levered equities and distressed debt with catalyst-driven events across the capital structure
- Over five years of experience on the buy-side as an equity research investment professional, currently as an Equity Research Analyst at Wampanoag Capital, a long/short event-driven special situations hedge fund following his role as a Junior Equity Research Analyst with generalist coverage focusing on the TMT, Consumer, Industrials, Healthcare, and Financials sectors across the small, smid, mid and large cap universes for the Institutional Equity Investment Team at GW&K Investment Management (Affiliated Managers Group subsidiary)
- As a Junior Equity Research Analyst at GW&K Investment Management (an active investment manager subsidiary under the AMG Funds umbrella), he researched the US small, smid, mid, and large-cap equity universes for two separate investment teams.
- Prior to joining GW&K, he worked at the Boston Company Asset Management (an active equity-only institutional asset manager now the equity division of Newton Asset Management at BNY Mellon), a wholly-owned subsidiary and division of BNY Mellon Asset Management (a top 5 global asset manager by AUM), where he sharpened his analytical skills and investment knowledge as a Product Development Manager.
- He began his career as a Portfolio Analyst, then was promoted to Senior Team Leader, and finished at the Boston Company as a Product Development Manager, where he was instrumental in developing the company's first options-based investment product, an S&P 500 buy-write active equity investment strategy.
- Graduated with a BA in Economics from Cornell University and a Certificate in Python Programming from the College of Computing and Information Science
- He has been a CFA Charterholder since 2014, passing all three levels of the CFA Program under the minimum amount of work experience required to earn the CFA designation.
- A member of the CFA Institute, CFA Society Boston, and the Young Leaders Committee at the CFA Society Boston
- In addition, he earned both the CMT (2017) and CAIA (2014) designations while studying for both concurrently during his participation in the CFA Program, passing each level on his first attempt in consecutive exam offerings.
- He is a CAIA and CMT Charterholder and a member of the CAIA Association and CMT Association (formerly known as the MTA)
Frequently Asked Questions
Can’t find an answer? Please send an email to [email protected]
The WSO mentor service runs at a very slight profit (~5-10% net margin) in order to help motivate amazing professionals to provide great (free) advice in the forums (many mentors have green "mentor" buttons next to their usernames) which strengthens the entire WSO community. Luckily, there is a surprising number of elite professionals within the WSO community that love giving back to motivated candidates. We also recently automated the mentor matching with an algo that helps reduce the manual work needed on the backend should a requested mentor not be available. Prices range from as low as $57 up to $997 depending on the package you purchase and the mentor you select. Given the success of our service and the number of repeat clients we have, we know that we can afford to run on thin profit margins and serve thousands of applicants. We also know that many of you will follow the advice of our mentors and invest in additional courses and/or services from WSO.
After checking out, your request will immediately be sent to the mentor you selected. You will be expected to fill our some basic information (location, industry preference, etc) along with upload a Word version of your resume in order to help the mentor decide if they feel like they are a great match. As soon as they accept (usually within ~9-12 hours), an email will be sent making an introduction. Your mentor will introduce him/herself and then proceed to review your current resume and/or offer times when you can connect for a mentor session. Over the following days, you will schedule a time that is mutually convenient for you initial phone call to go over what you need help with (mock interview, career consultation and/or both). If you would like to continue with this mentor, you can schedule more hours anywhere from 1 hour to 3+ hours with him/her over the following weeks & months.
Typically the match happens within 12hrs. If your preferred mentor has not responded within 9 hours or they indicate they can't take you on as a mentor, we will notify other top mentors that have the most in common with the mentor you selected (based on our matching algo). These backup mentors will indicate to you if they are available and you have the choice to move forward with one of them, get a refund or wait longer for your preferred mentor. If for whatever reason we cannot match you in time and/or there are no mentors that are available that you'd like to work with, we will refund your purchase in full, no questions asked.
We have an incredible team of 1,000+ dedicated mentors across top firms all around the world. Our #1 goal is to make sure you are placed in the hands of the most competent and detail-oriented professional in your specific target industry. This coupled with our strict process ensures a smooth and thorough experience. Why do we use actual professionals? The answer is simple: they are the ones ACTUALLY SCREENING APPLICATIONS for their own firms! They know what it takes to make it out of the trash pile and into the interview pile. On top of this, since we have been doing mentor sessions for over a decade across THOUSANDS of clients, we are able to immediately identify a top mentor and feed them more clients to ensure happy customers like you (due to our strict screening process). Our team includes investment bankers at all the top bulge brackets and elite boutique banks as well as private equity, hedge fund and VC professionals at the most prestigious funds. We also have reviewers at the top management consulting firms in the world, elite prop trading firms, top corporate finance roles as well as other related finance careers.
Usually these are all self-limiting beliefs, but if you're unsure if we are a good match for you, please send us a quick email to [email protected] and we can send over some bios if we think there might be a potential good match for you.
Too Young / Too Inexperienced: We do NOT recommend our mentor service until you at least have at least some relevant WORK experience that we can leverage. For the young clients out there, this means an internship, ideally in your target or related industry. If you are still in high school, it is unlikely that you have this experience. The earliest we'd recommend doing a mentor session is early freshman or early sophomore year as you prepare for summer internship recruiting. If you have no relevant experience then it probably doesn't make sense to sign up for the service. Our mentors are amazing, but they aren't magicians. If you tell us you really want to be in Investment Banking or Private Equity (for example) and everything in your background points to law or medicine, it's going to be an uphill battle. On the other hand, if you have unrelated experience but you have started the transition process by taking relevant classes and joining relevant clubs and associations, we'd love to work with you. You may not be the most competitive candidate, but we will highlight the most relevant education and functions at your current job that would translate well across industries.
Too Old / Too Experienced: We DO recommend our mentor service for more experienced professionals that are looking to make a transition or have an interview coming up. We have several very senior mentors that can answer the tough questions and make sure you are up to date on the latest trends in your target industry. However, before you move forward, we encourage you to give yourself an honest assessment. If you are looking to make the transition and have not made any steps outside of considering this mentor program, you probably aren't ready. If you've taken steps (education, new degrees, courses, etc) and feel like you're ready, we're on board and eager to help!
Yes, but if you have a negative attitude you are unlikely to have success. If you think a mentor session is an automatic referral, please don't bother to hire us.
Yes, our mentors often do refer our clients for open positions at their firms (over 20%), however, this should not be asked of our mentors to avoid a conflict of interest and it should not be expected as part of the service. It is up to you to impress the mentor if this is your goal, however, we believe you can gain much more out of the experience by being honest about your weaknesses and concerns with the mentor so there can be an open dialogue on how to improve your chances.
The only discounts are for larger packages and more hours purchased at once. This is an incredibly labor intensive 1-on-1 service using finance professionals that typically make well over $200/hr and are doing this primarily to give back.
This is a personal question and the answer is naturally subjective. If you are serious about landing a job in investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, trading, asset management, management consulting or any other competitive industry, it's more than likely that the answer to that question is a resounding "YES".
Career services advisers at your school are not screening applications for interviews...neither are your classmates. If you do happen to have a friend in the industry, are they going to take the hours necessary to give you a realistic mock interview? Odds are that their time is limited outside the office and if they do give you some guidance, it won't be as thorough as our expert mentors. If you look at the competitive nature of recruiting nowadays, why would leave your application up to chance when many of these jobs pay well over $100,000?
Join the 1,000+ candidates just like you who have already used the WSO Mentor Service
If you’re reading this, you’re here for a reason: because you want to be one of the very few who gets an an elite job and because you need help doing it. The choice really is yours. And your opportunity really is limited.
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