IB training/boot camps/valuation workshops etc

Hi everybody,
there's a number of firms out there, like DealMaven, Training the Street, etc. who offer similar workshops that cover DCF, Comps, valuations, LBO and M&A transactions etc. The price is about the same, I wonder if there's any difference in how they actually teach and the quality of handouts. Does anybody have any experience? TTS is supposed to be good, they are coming to my school but the workshop was impossible to get into so I am considering taking their class off-campus. But DealMaven schedule is better for me so I am debating..

 

Did TTS at school. I put it on my resume under the education section.

Several interviewers commented on that and asked me about it. Then they proceeded to quiz me on the content. Of course, I was prepared for that. It was a positive part of the interview.

TTS is well-known name among the banks and many of them actually use the service for their own training.

Can't speak for the others, as I have no experience with them.

 

I agree TTS price is too steep to go it alone.

I would say if you can't get in through your school don't bother. I agree that the information in TTS is not secret stuff, it's just basic corporate finance, accounting and valuation. What's good about it is they summarize several courses worth of material in a very concise way, that's helpful for interviews.

There are many other resources to prepare for technical questions that cost way less.

 
Best Response

TTS is great. They came in for the valuation part of our training program.

Don't go crazy on this part. Most intern programs have a couple of days of training to get everyone up to speed. Full time analysts get a much more comprehensive program. They don't expect you to know how to model coming in.

However, the key stuff you should know is basic valuation theory. How can you value things? (DCF, Comparable Multiples, Transaction Multiples). Spend the $20 and get the vault guide to finance interviews and read up on that. That's ALL you need for interviews. Also, if you have free time, look up some excel shortcuts and practice them. They'll teach you the shortcuts in training, but it does take practice.

Spend your time and $$$ doing well in classes and getting a great GPA. Spend that time practicing your interviews and networking. You do not NEED to take a valuation class in order to get an internship or a job.

 

I am not absolutely sure, but it seems to me that the courses offered by TTS on their website are absolutely different from the ones they would teach you in the "real world" courses. Even the course you mentioned above, "Training the Street, Corporate Valuation Models" is actually Modules ;) and doesn't seem to do much with model-building (though, it might be good to teach you the valuation basics, I don't know)

 

ginNtonic,

That is what I was thinking. I am a rising sophomore (just finished frosh year) and I won't be able to take a corp. fin. course until junior year.

I was hoping to have the knowledge for an internship after sophomore year, as well as have it on my resume.

Is it worth it?

Banking isn't my first choice...I'd prefer an internship in S&T - However, I thought something like DM or TTS couldn't hurt.

Suggestion?

 

According to DealMaven's site, they teach Bear, Citi, Lehman, JP Morgan, Evercore, Rothschild, amongst others. Training-the-Street does Merrill, UBS, Jefferies and a few more I believe. You cannot go wrong either way.

The big thing, to me at least, was that DealMaven offers a 'Certification in Applied Financial Modeling and Analysis' which is more of a tangible indicator of your knowledge base.

Loose example: It's the difference between saying "i studied for the Series 7" and "i passed the Series 7 exam". Deal Maven would be my personaly preference, solely for the certification option.

 

I just finished my first year of MBA studies at a top 10 school and am currently enrolled in the IB Institute's one month course. I've only had two classes so far, but it has been an excellent experience. I've had a few corporate finance classes in bschool, but school is very much theoretical, whereas my instructor in the course was a former VP at a top bank and he explains the concepts in ways that bankers actually use. I look upon the $2200 as another component of my b-school education that will definitely give me a leg up during fall recruiting.

 
  1. like i said you don't need to do dealmaven if you already have a job, its a waste of your time and money. the learning curve is so steap you will only be giving yourselves a couple weeks advantange over your peers. just enjoy yourself before training starts.

  2. if you are so lame as to not take my advice, the answer is no you cannot both be logged in at the same time.

 
  • educational: Probably yes
  • valuable on a resume: Probably not

I've seen people have the "swiss academy of finance" thing on their resume too. That's maybe at least worth listing... though junior bankers may think you're a douche bag for paying like 10 grand to go to iBanking summer camp... at least you'll know some basics....

 

I can maybe see it being valuable on a resume if you list it to be helpful in your "acquiring of fundamental investment banking knowledge" rather than listing a wide range of niche topics that you covered or claim to know in-depth. IE if you're an Economics major instead of a target major.

 
MandA_Junkie:
Learning the concepts should make it worth your time. All people care about is the resume, god forbid you actually learn something.

I'm doing it to learn about financial modeling. I was asking if the course was recognized as a meaningful learning tool by recruiters. Having these skills and not being able to ever use them would be a waste, wouldn't you say?

 

Thanks a lot! I wonder whether TTS will cover issues related to real work of banking analysts. I find level 2 CFA is a little bit away from the real world, say, FCFE valuation is not so widely used.

 

I am in a TTS course right now. I would say that their valuation approach is pretty heavy on multiples, as mentioned.

It's a really solid course. As far as benefit from your perspective? I think perhaps the modeling skills will be beneficial.

I always find it helpful too see how another mind goes about solving the same problem.

If your employer is hefting the tab, glean as much as you can from it!

 
FutureAnalyst:
Has anyone done the in-person, 3 day bootcamp? If you have, how well did this program prepare you for Full Time?

I am thinking about either doing that or the BIWS Premium Package (Fundamentals + Advanced) before beginning my full time role in July and wanted to get some feedback.

Not sure if you are referring to the Wall Street Prep IB Bootcamps, just wanted to make sure you know you get 35% off for those if you are still a student and sign up with a .edu address through WSO (can just click name "Wall Street Prep" to access it - discount should be applied at checkout)

Best of luck and congrats on the offer! Patrick

 

I did both - and both experiences were very solid. It ultimately comes down to your style of learning.

Personally, I liked my experience with BIWS a bit more since I could learn things at my pace. That being said, when you sign of for WSP's boot camp you also have access to their web modules. They're fine, but I didn't find them as engaging as BIWS. I also found BIWS's explanations about certain financial concepts more clear and intuitive.

If I'm not mistaken, I think BIWS hiked up their prices a few months ago, but the Premium Package is still considerably cheaper than the WSP bootcamp.

Again, it comes down to learning style, but if you're fine absorbing the material either way, I would go with BIWS.

Capitalist
 

So on your resume, what classes do you list? (asked differently, what finance classes have you gone through?)

I took TTS - Valuation as part of training for SEO. I was promoting SEO-U a couple of weeks ago which provides Dealmaven training for its participants.

TTS was great review, I hadn't covered Merger Consequences Analysis or Leveraged Buyouts, but everything else I've learned at Stanford GSB. I'm sure the course offerings are pretty similar at Stern.

(PS: If anyone who reads this is at Stanford, take Finance 335 and Finance 324, they are some of the best classes I've taken)

 

I've sat in for a few IB Institute classes before w/ Ashish Kohli. He was very good - conducts an interesting class, brings in real world examples - big picture concepts, tries to get the entire class involved. He also offered to help a lot of the students do one on one resume edits and answers any questions via email or after class.

That said, I do agree with Jerome123 that IBI is a bit high level for the analyst-level. Those who had some initial understanding of valuations and general financial modeling concepts benefited. But people w/o any prior knowledge were kind of lost.

Tried 2 classes of WSP - I didn't really like it. Thought they rushed through the material and didn't explain it well. However, this was like 4 yrs ago, they could have changed things since.

A number of banks use TTS, dunno if mine did/does (I was S&T), but heard nothing but good things.

 
PoolSideBanker:
Good. A little simplistic and redundant if you're a finance undergrad major. If you have the $, pay a little more for Training the Street's on-line program.

This ^^^ is incorrect.

TTS online costs $200 whereas DealMaven costs up to $800

TTS Online is composed of 5 applied corporate finance interactive learning modules. They are the same thing that is used by the BBs, but instead of ~15 there are 5. (Think ML University)

DealMaven teaches you how to build a basic, or as one banker I know put it, "cute," financial model.

They are in no way substitutes.

I have taken both, and would suggest purchasing both. If you have to go with one, take DealMaven.

For DealMaven, it doesn't take very long to complete it, so get the three month version.

 

Aspiringmonkey - email the DealMaven people and ask for their Student Pricing Package (university e-mail address required). There is a ONE MONTH subscription available for $70, and if you are diligent you can easily finish each of the two modules in a month. Not $800, $70, and if you paid anywhere close to $800 you are a fool. I have also taken both, paid $199 for TTS, $140 for two months of DealMaven (don't pay the extra $ for the certificate, IMO)

I agree they aren't substitutes, as TTS actually teaches corporate finance, whereas DealMaven is basically an Excel tutorial with a little financial modeling sprinkled in, but does teach some useful shortcuts and Excel nuances for the uninitiated.

 

I didn't pay anything - my employer paid for me to take it at the discounted rate. Considering that the program will be passed down to interns for years to come, they opted for the lifetime plan.

To elaborate, I took DealMaven first, then TTS. THE ONLY THING THAT TTS TAUGHT ME THAT I DIDN'T LEARN FROM DEALMAVEN WAS LTM. I did the first module in a week, including the model.

Ultimately, if you have to choose one, it really depends on what you are using it for. If it is prep for a summer internship, buy DealMaven. If you want to leverage it in interviews, buy TTS.

 

One other thing... I bought TTS right after it came out and they messed up on the billing. I took all the courses before they found the error, so it was essentially free.

This won't happen for you, but you should find an alumni that is willing to give you a password to their ML University (I'm sure other banks have this, ML is just the one I got access to), which is the same thing with about 3x as many modules.

 

i took DealMaven earlier this semester just to give me a rough idea what modelling was all about. I enjoyed it but it wasn't something that deserved the unnecessary hype it gets. I'm interning at a BB and we have a one week training period which i hope to reinforce all the things i learnt. In the mean time, i'm currently using Training the Street which i got free access and its far advanced than the maven

 
mrlover1:
i took DealMaven earlier this semester just to give me a rough idea what modelling was all about. I enjoyed it but it wasn't something that deserved the unnecessary hype it gets. I'm interning at a BB and we have a one week training period which i hope to reinforce all the things i learnt. In the mean time, i'm currently using Training the Street which i got free access and its far advanced than the maven

You're currently using TTS? It takes maximum 5 hours to do... (30-60min per training session, but usually closer to 30)

 

Thanks for sharing Goldman Sachs Undergraduate Camp. This event is open to Black, Hispanic, and Native American students from all majors and disciplines and is best suited for rising sophomores. The three-day program offers an introduction to the firm’s business, history and culture and features presentations, workshops and networking opportunities.

 

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