How do you guys go about showing of your modelling capabilities, to potential employers, without sending them an actual model you have constructed?
I'm looking at approaching companies that are not specifically recruiting right now but I'd like them to see first-hand what I can do on a specific asset class and have a model that I have spent some time on. I'm the sole creator of said model but with 50/50 of it created on company/personal time I suppose half of it belongs to the business...I presume that's how it works.
I understand I could ask them to give me a modelling task but I'd prefer take some initiative on the subject.
Sending a model to a company that didn't give you a test as part of an interview is like sending an unsolicited dick pic to a girl you just met.
I can back up that saying you know how to do it, and actually knowing how to do it are pretty much the same thing to most of the people making hiring decisions.
HR has never seen an excel spreadsheet before, Operations doesn't know anything other than the sort feature, your potential boss still does everything on a HP 12c and the capital partner of the company does everything off what his gut tells him.
Story to back this up, as an analyst, I sent a financial model (along with some other things) that I built for a team to my boss's boss in hopes of it helping me with a promotion...... And was asked the next day what all those numbers meant.....
I've also had a recruiter who had worked only in real estate and finance recruiting for the past few years fairly candidly ask me what a 'knowing how to make a waterfall model' was because he had heard a number of clients request it but was too embarrassed to ask any of his clients what it meant.
I agree with MonopolyMoney. Your boss might be the exception. But imo, tons of "bosses" - VP's, Directors, etc are not great with financial modeling. A college student with REFM or BIWS experience will be better at modeling than the bosses. Some bosses genuinely add value though because they fundamentally get what's good real estate and what's not. It's a skill developed over the course of a couple of decades. Their excel skills are not a hindrance to them. They have analysts do the grunt work and have associates check the work.