Public bio:
- Former Fixed Income Portfolio Manager for an asset management firm managing over $12B.
- Have experience on the sell-side and buy-side fixed income and equity markets
- Graduated from Harvard in 2009
- Worked with WSO previously and had success helping previous clients
Public bio:
With a BS in Finance and Information Systems from The Wharton School, I bring over 25 years of experience in the banking and PE industries, including roles at UBS and BSMB (now Irving Place Capital), and as an instructor at Training The Street. As the Founder and Lead Instructor at Ascendant, I specialize in merging professional experience with applicable theory to provide top-tier training for investment banks, private equity, and management consulting firms. Previously, I was a Director and Senior Instructor at Training The Street where I successfully led over 10,000 hours of front-of-classroom training to 20,000+ students in the banking, PE and consulting industries, I'm here to help you navigate the path to a successful career in Investment Banking and Private Equity. I've taught training programs for every major investment bank and PE firm, not just in the US but also around the world. Let's connect and strategize your journey to success!
Public bio:
Experienced associate in European PE mid-market: have worked at Cap10 (Apollo spin-off, 1.5 years) and Tikehau Capital (3 months)
Started his career at RBC Capital Markets (European M&A Execution team, 1 year) and lateralled to Jefferies (Healthcare team, 2 years).
Interned at Deutsche Bank (Investment Banking, Madrid) and Cinven (PE, London)
Public bio:
- Associate at the world’s largest VC firm ($25bn+ AUM) investing in healthcare and technology
- Spent 2+ years in biotechnology and healthcare investment banking working on $23bn+ of publicly announced M&A and financing transactions
- Studied Finance, Statistics and Biology at Wharton/UPenn
- Recruiting captain while in investment banking and recruiting mentor in undergrad
- Extensive experience in buy-side interview preparation including modeling and case study preparation across VC / GE / PE roles
Public bio:
About Me:
I am an buyside stressed/opportunistic public credit investor for a top private credit firm. I came from a non target, broke into a bulge bracket off cycle, internally transferred to New York and into credit research, and made the transition to the buyside. Charting a course into and through the industry over the better part of a decade taught me a lot about how to break into and navigate this business, and more importantly where people are likely to fit well.
Why I’m Here:
I’m hoping to help people break into the industry that don't fit into the target demographic or into on cycle hiring windows. While my background has been focused in credit I’m confident that the networking and recruiting skills required are consistent across most of the industry and I can bring perspective to all markets.
Diversity of thought, talent, and backgrounds are a good thing and sorely lacking in this industry. But if you think that means you’re owed a shot - you're probably doomed from the start. On the other hand, if you’re ready to use that difference to motivate and differentiate you as a candidate I hope you bring your talents here and I’d love to help you do that.
Who Should Work with Me:
- Non target underclassman making a plan to break in without a large alumni base or specialized classes/clubs
- Upperclassmen realizing they aren’t going to have a BB SA stint or some other “gating item” on their resume
- Recently graduated analysts that couldn’t get into the industry or aren’t happy with where they landed in it
- Experienced professionals in other fields looking to transition into this field
If you are a top bucket/target school hardo I most likely do not have a lot to offer you unless you are interested in transitioning to my specific area of expertise (opportunistic credit investing). Nothing against you, that’s just not my background or network - plus this whole forum is geared toward helping you out.
A Note for Everyone:
My firm has separate hiring processes for public and private credit, and the public side has a very irregular hiring patterns so I am unlikely to be able to refer you directly for a role. I charge a lot for resume reviews because I don’t want to do them and that’s not how I’m going to help you get to the top of the pile.
I charge very low rates to ensure as many candidates have access as possible - if money is a gating item I hope you’ll reach out so that myself and WSO know there is a need and maybe one day we can create a way to support it. I use this money to invest in resources for us to leverage in this process - it’s honestly not enough to affect my personal financial standing.
Public bio:
- VP macro researcher with 5+ years of experience providing relevant insights (incl trade ideas) to portfolio managers in London and NY. Can help you with various buy-side/sell-side roles, such as economist, FX/rates strategy, commodities, quant researcher
- Expertise in quantitative analysis and economic modelling, with strong coding proficiency
- Successfully secured job offers from top sell-side firms, boutique hedge funds, and prestigious central banks; able to prepare you thoroughly with real-world coding and technical interview questions.
- Experienced interviewer for analyst and associate positions
- Achieved career success despite attending a non-target and a semi-target university in less prominent locations, which required me to excel in both technical and networking skills. I can help you identify exactly what you need to learn, effectively showcase your skills, and stand out in interviews.
Public bio:
* Credit Investment professional at a hedge fund, investing in performing, stressed and distressed leveraged loans and high yield bonds
* Extensive IB leveraged finance experience, advising financial sponsors and corporates on origination, structuring and execution of high yield bonds and leveraged loans for LBO, M&A, carve-out and refinancing transactions across Europe
* Former staffer and mentor to analysts and associates in the leveraged finance team
* Advisory Board member of a "women in finance" networking organization
Public bio:
- Currently a M&A senior consultant at a Big Four firm in New York with 2 years of experience
- Served clients within consumer markets, private equity, pharmaceuticals, and industrial products
- Held prior internships in consulting, venture capital, and financial services
- Graduated with a Finance major and Economics minor
Public bio:
- Currently a research associate at a boutique industry research firm covering TMT, Consumer, and Industrial. Client base is largely equity focused investment managers.
- Worked as an associate/advisor for a first-time venture fund. Helped to secure funding, lead and structured deals, syndicated rounds w/ co-investors.
- Spent 2 years working at an alternative financial data provider (PitchBook)
- Worked briefly for a venture-backed startup
- Spent 4 years working in Sales & Trading, as a TMT specialist at a boutique firm, then as a generalist at a bulge bracket. Covered mostly long/short hedge funds, some long-only.
- Experience working in equity sales, research, venture capital, and alternative data.
Public bio:
- Began a career in ultra-high net worth private wealth management working with family offices and alternative investment funds across all industries (primarily focused on technology). Assisted in LP commitment negotiations and corresponded directly with investor accounts to address business and diligence questions.
- Pivoted to strategic venture capital at a well-known international fund focused on national security deep tech.
- Currently working directly with early and late-stage companies to carry out pre-deal diligence and develop investment recommendations. Also currently hold several board observer seats to help portfolio companies navigate financing events such as M&A activity, recapitalizations, IPO’s, and wind downs.
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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