"Modelling"

Don't use templates, always build your models more or less from scratch or from (your) existing models, otherwise you won't learn the material and will be screwed for buyside interviews. The thing that takes a lot of time is not getting your work til 5/6pm, then having to adjust each of the scenarios/cases and sensitivities in the model over and over and over again. Modeling is not what necessarily takes up your time either, it's more of the associate or vp or director above you who wants to put in his own input and wastes your time on a bunch of bullshit pages that will inevitably be deleted or put into an appendix which no one ever looks at.

I've recently tried building my own DCF's (I'm a junior in college). Anway, I've searched for help online with limited success. Does anyone have any templates, or even an old model, that they might be able to send me so I could use a legit model as a guide to build my own against. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I'm interested in this as well.

PM me, I have some models I can send out.

Build them from scratch and learn how to do it. Best advice ever. You start getting large, multi tab models and you cannot simply plug and play. Might take you a little more in the short run, but when you move to something else being fluid will be a huge plus.

Did you guys always do your models from scratch? The reason I ask is what happens when a superior asks for something modeling-related ASAP or within a very constricted time period? Would it be better to use a template then?

not to correct you, but things dont' work AS WELL in the places outside the US. though they do still work.

so MD gives you a valuation and you somehow justify that? Is that it?

Also, someone told me that CEOs almost always tend to think of valuation as revenue multiples in their industry and same with senior people in banks. Is that correct?

While it is good to know how to build the models inside and out, I disagree that building your own models is the way to go. If you want to practice on a small model, that's fine, but you can not work cohesively with your team if you're the only one who understands a full-blown model, which can often be 20 tabs with hundreds of inputs. There is a reason there are templates (yes, you should absolutely know how to run them and understand them), and besides saving time, that is because your associate or another analyst can easily pick up your model and see what you're doing.

it'd be unusual for a bank to build M&A models for real deals off templates. there's template outputs but the drivers and line types are typically unique

i dont really build dcfs but it's like you need to know the lego pieces well enough when the time comes you can figure out how to put together a death star. I hvnt played with lego for many years.