Fake it Until You Make it Stories

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When I was in audit at a Big4, my team was called into a meeting and asked to brainstorm ideas for digital transformation. Most of my teammates had the decency to suggest small things, but when I was put on the spot, for some ungodly reason, I stuttered that I thought a time-intensive portion of the financial statement review process could probably be automated. A few eyebrows were raised, but I didn't think I would hear anymore about it.

Then the partner asked about it at the next check-in.

At the time, I had no coding experience and was also, to boot, a very mediocre auditor. In my own time, I taught myself Alteryx, and began quietly coming into the office on weekends to work on the project when I was supposed to be studying for the CPA exam. Although later I would tell people that I had a vision for the project from the start, the truth was I had no clue what I was doing and was winging it, one module at a time.

3.5 months later, at a groupwide meeting, during lunch, I went from table to table with a one-page explanation of the program and a 30-second pitch, selling my automation to every partner and senior manager who couldn't get away fast enough. When I finally demoed it for our leadership, the program was 8x bigger than anything our digital people had seen... but it worked beautifully, cutting a 60 hour process down to 30 seconds. Projected savings went at over $5 mm annually (the process was one found on every audit engagement).

I wanted to make implementing the project on audits my full-time job, but the firm told me I would have to work busy season and consult on projects in my own time. But being able to talk about this project in interviews was a game-changer for me, and I went on to land a junior analyst role at a fundamental equity l/s shop... very much because I said something stupid in a meeting in August and chose to lean into it.

my whole life lawl

I'm still doing it

"I lied to him all the way to the airport." -Gary Cohn

if you never had impostor syndrome you never shot high enough amirite boys

I think one can become a PUA god and not get stuck in Simpville.

Any maxims on stretching the truth in interviews?

Mentioned above but to elaborate - Gary Cohn was selling aluminum siding and convinced a trader in NYC on a Friday afternoon cab ride that he knew all about options. From his commencement speech at American University:

"I said, here’s my shot. I’ve got 45 minutes, in traffic on a Friday afternoon to convince this guy that I’m hirable and need a job. He literally went through and grilled me on my knowledge of financial markets, grilled me on my knowledge of certain aspects and I think I moderately passed. By the end of the taxi ride, he says, ‘what do you know about options.’ I said, ‘everything.’ He said, ‘great, I want you to come back Monday, I want you to interview. I said, ‘no problem, I’m your guy.’"

He knew nothing about options. Went out and bought "Options as a Strategic Investment" by Lawrence McMillan. Read it four times (not bad for a kid with dyslexia). Showed up Monday and the rest was history. Legend.

Swish Goswami

going into China to do local PE using my broken Mandarin was def a fake it until make it. Kinda didn't work. I was taking night tutoring in Mandarin at the office though. But certainly was an effort in the 'build the glider while already falling'

I showed up to the one and only BB internship interview I applied to during OCR, and was told to wait in reception while the interviews were conducted in other nearby rooms. I sat in the corner closest to a room where interviews were taking place and could vaguely hear technical questions being asked through the wall. I showed up early enough that I got to hear almost two full interviews worth of basic technicals before my interview. As I did not know a single thing about accounting or finance, I memorized the answers off Google. I completely lucked out that the room I could hear was the one where they were asking technicals (multiple rooms were running at once). I did not know what the three statements or a DCF were but I mechanically gave out the answers line by line from Google. I was asked the exact same questions as everyone else and managed to secure the internship as those were the only technicals I was asked.

After somehow getting the job, I showed up to the first day of intern training having done no prep up to that point, so I still knew nothing. Thank god the training was good and the program was designed for morons like me. Unfortunately, I still had not wised up and focused 100% on my work attitude, doing the slides I was told, and never needed to model once. I had retained basically none of the minimal finance knowledge I received during training. Worse still, I spent my senior year enjoying life and did exactly 0 prep even in the days leading up to full-time training.

THANK GOD for full-time training. I learned accounting and valuation from scratch after doing the exercises, reading a ton and drilling very hard during the weird off-time / down-time we had during the day. I carried that through to my first few months on the desk where I went "full hardo" and would stay in the office an extra 2-3 hours a day to model and practice for PE interviews (something I had just learned about during training) on top of the random hours during the day where I had downtime. PRO TIP: Use that random downtime to your advantage. That first few months of full-time work spent drilling helped me get my MF offer and the rest was history.

It's only been a few years, but I wonder if college kids today could still get away with that.