My particular situation-- coming back into i-banking + laptop rec...
Hi All,
I was wondering...so it's been a few years since I graduated. While I was in college I majored in finance, interned at an investment bank and a hedge fund. Was supposed to go on full-time with the investment bank but instead went on to coach a player on the pro tennis tour for a few years. Now looking to get back into investment banking. I know it will probably be tough but I'm going to do it.
So my question is...I'm going to be taking the walstreet prep. financial modeling course and then also doing some modeling of companies on my own so that I have something to show to the places that I apply. I want to know which laptop I should get/I want to know if it's even worth it to get a $1,000-$1,500 windows laptop (I currently have a macbook air but I don't want to get used to mac commands and such while I am modeling...I want to be on a windows) for these few months while I am preparing and renewing my modeling skills and such. I ask this because once I get hired at a bank, they usually give you a laptop, right? So will I even need mine after that? Or maybe because I'll need to be at a boutique bank, they are less structured than the bigger banks and I won't get a company laptop and will need to use mine, in which case I'd be happy to buy one now.
Any input here would be appreciated!
Thanks
Mark
Yea you’ll need a windows laptop (v Mac)
Most big firms give you a laptop but some (GS and Citi) are bring your own device.
My 0.02 for laptop recommendations are make sure:
Portable
Good ports to plug in monitor / keyboard adapter
Bunch of ram (16gb+)
Processor should be gen 11 i7 for intel or 4 series or higher for amd
And personally I’m finicky about keyboard layout (high end Lenovo is good once you swap ctrl and fn in the bios option, HP has a good layout, Dell is meh since dont all have dedicated page up / down / home / end keys which are clutch)
Thanks!
Damn, do they at least pay a stipend to buy a laptop? That sucks. Even my shit-tier, no-name boutique gave us nice laptops.
Reddit has some good recommendations for laptop specs + combos. I will say though practicing modelling will be great to brush up your skills but I doubt the places you interview will be interested in what you've made / laugh it off. The places most likely to be interested in your show & tell will be hedge funds, and even then the focus will be much more on your thesis and how you've identified catalysts vs a mechanical demonstration of valuation. My 2 cents
Thanks. Yeah, the modeling course is mostly just for me to brush back up on my skills and knowledge and feel more comfortable. But if I were to interview at a boutique investment bank, for instance, why wouldn't they want to see that I had maybe done a project or two and created a few models of my own? I'm an unusual candidate who is some years out of school now so I would think it would be relevant because that is what I'd be doing on the job.
I agree that intuitively it makes sense but in practice entry-level recruiting is 20% what have you done lately that sounds impressive, 50% who do you know here / have we hired from your school before, 10% what was your GPA and 20% does this guy sound smart / hard working / that he won't be insufferable working 90 hour work weeks with. There is no smooth channel that will allow you to bring up practice models you're worked on without sounding like a massive nerd, much less send them to be reviewed. As someone who has led SA recruit, on-cycle and off-cycle FT recruit at the analyst level, I can personally tell you that I would not care to review an interviewee's model when there's 20+ candidates in the pipeline, I'm one cog in the process, and have a deck + model + annoying VP to manage upward on throughout the week.
Off-cycle recruiting is by nature a bit nepotistic as resumes mostly come in through referrals before the position even gets posted on a formal channel.
That's just the culture of things IMO in T1 cities. If you're recruiting for a much smaller shop in a T2 city, maybe you could have some more traction w/ show & tell but nevertheless I would advise you to spend more time developing your story and checking off the boxes rather than rely on having some pre-built model carry you in the interview process
are you going to be doing freelance work or do you mean practice with public companies? Currently doing the latter, pm me if you wanna collab.
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