Hey everyone – recently joined WSO as a mentor and figured I'd introduce myself and do a Q&A / AMA. I've always enjoyed helping students and younger professionals navigate recruiting, especially those coming from non-target backgrounds like myself.
Quick background:
- Born and raised in NYC and went to a non-target for undergrad
- Had no real finance network or traditional recruiting pipeline coming into college
- Interned throughout basically all of undergrad and gradually worked my way into more relevant "high" finance roles
- Started full-time in capital markets at a large bank
- Lateraled into a top BB M&A group and spent a few years there
- Eventually made the jump into LMM PE, where I'm having a terrific experience
I didn’t have some master plan when I started. A lot of it was figuring out the best next move from wherever I happened to be at, getting rejected plenty of times, networking, and simply creating as many “at-bats” for myself as possible.
I know how easy it is to read WSO posts as a non-target student or just someone who feels a little lost early in their professional career and come away feeling like everyone else figured this stuff out from the get-go.
Happy to be an open book about my overall experience and chat about what worked, what didn’t, mistakes I made, what I’d do differently today, etc.
Hit me with anything. If you don't feel comfortable posting publicly or have a more specific situation, feel free to shoot me a PM too.
