Best HF Modeling / Case Study Prep

Context: I'm an analyst at a BB starting their second year. I'm trying to recruit to a HF and have had good communications so far with recruiters, quick response rates, and a few potential interviews coming (already completed a first round for one). From a market / idea generation perspective, I've been doing a ton of reading (both the news + the books everyone recommends) and have networked a ton. The networking has really helped in understanding the industry and learning the lingo, as well as for generating pitch ideas. 

The Issue: My group is not model-heavy. I'm in the debt world and expected to be doing way more LBOs and overall modeling, but I just build a lot of cap tables and maybe an EBITDA bridge every now and then. I have a good foundational understanding of concepts, but cannot for the life of me build simple accounting models. This has become a huge problem while recruiting and I'm extremely worried that this will be the reason I don't move forward. On one hand, several people I've networked with have said "we really don't model that much at all - you'll never actually do a DCF bc it's full of random assumptions and isn't at all an accurate representation of companies," but then on the other hand, recruiters have warned of upcoming modeling tests and I've already been hit with technical questions during the first round. Unfortunately my school's program sucked (1-year MSF) and we only had to take 1 accounting class and 1 modeling class - accounting prof dropped the class a week in due to terminal illness and we were teacher-less for 2 weeks in-between (losing 3 out of 10 weeks of a quarter system is rough..) and modeling prof was ancient and made us learn Crystal Ball / VBA for 70% of our class instead of doing actual modeling. 

The Question: Does anyone have suggestions for best modeling / case study prep resources?  I already have WSO's HF course, but tbh kind of hate it. The quality of audio isn't great, the "downloadable" information are just copies of the slides, which are much more useful to listen to than read over. There's some good tips there for networking and case studies, but doesn't feel like enough fundamental modeling (understandably, as this should've been something I learned in college/on the job). I've looked into Breaking Into Wall Street, Wall Street Prep, Training the Street, etc - would any of these be good to get me up to speed quickly within 1-2 months and would cover what HFs might ask me to model? I assume there wouldn't be anything too crazy, but not sure if some of them won't be focused enough on fundamentals and will have way too much content to go through in a short time period. 


TLDR: 2nd year analyst trying to recruit to a HF, sucks at modeling because of bad foundations and no modeling at current position - willing to put in the practice hours and looking for suggestions to get up to speed fast.  

 
Most Helpful

Just go on Macabacus and build their operating and valuation models by scratch ten times. It’ll take time but seems like you have that. Then just know when you’re in public markets you have 1/10 the granularity of information for models relative to when you’re on private side. Meaning: build a detailed revenue piece but everything else is very much finger in the wind unless there’s some end market you can point to to drive costs (eg copper prices driving opex up or down, etc). Deep dive into revenue. Make some conservative assumptions on costs. And be sure that when I grill you on margin expansion you’re not just copy pasting sellside’s view bc we all know they don’t know what they’re talking about

 

Great context, appreciate it! 
Unfortunately 2 years late for me, I ended up doing a few initial interview rounds and realizing the culture was not for me long-term. After networking with some folks already in the industry, I realized the day-to-day didn’t excite me, and that I’d do better overall in a job that I felt comfortable and happy in. I ended up leaving banking in a leap of faith for a 6 person marketing startup that’s now a 30 person startup, and have no regrets. It’s been a wild ride, but hopefully your advice benefits someone else looking for resources! :)

 

Macabacus is an overkill...I'd say download Pignataro books and build those models. He covers DCF, operating model, M&A, and LBO. Not too complex but definitely enough to get you started. Also good foundations for more complex models.

I've done HF interviews (3 statement + DCF + a memo on key arguments). It's not rocket science. As long as you know how to match cash flows to balance sheet to get it balanced, you will be fine. 

 

I ended up not staying in finance and instead going to a small remote startup with great wlb for 3 years. It gave me time to explore other aspects of my life, save up money by not living in NYC, and travel around. I am currently not working a corporate job at all and instead pursuing a full-time film/tv acting career in LA :)

 

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