Tips: How to find mentors so you don't have to pay for free stuff

Since I just got done calling the guy a fraud, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and tell any students here ways to find real mentors for free. When I say mentors, I mean people genuinely invested in your success, not just some random dude you called at a bank. If you're a student and you've got a couple extra Gs lying around, spend that on something nice for you parents instead of WSO mentors, Invest Like the Street, that one dude in the other thread, or whatever. Your parents put clothes on your back and a roof over your head for 18 years; the Wall Street equivalents of the University of Phoenix online haven't.

Ask your juniors and seniors if there were alumni that helped them a lot in their processes

One of my first real mentors had already moved to PE by the time I got to know him, but told me to use his name at the BB he used to work at. I did, and was surprised because the same response kept coming up: "You know him? Haha yeah, he's the one that got me my job". As I started networking more and more, it seemed like there was someone like this at every firm which my school had 3+ alumni at. A dead giveaway was when I talked with another student and they'd be like: "yeah I got an in at firm x, this one dude just fucking loves me" and it'd be the same guy with 5 different students lol. Especially for non-targets, these guys who are willing to go the extra mile are more common than most people think.

So how do you find people like that? The best places to start are the juniors and seniors that have just gone through the recruiting process and have offers. They'll know who's responsive at which firms, and who's willing to go the extra mile for people. Find these juniors and seniors on LinkedIn, find their emails on the school directory (or if they're in an investment club, usually the club website), and grab coffee with them sometime. During your chat, ask them who they found to be the most helpful at bank X. If the same names keep coming up, that person would probably be good for you to reach out to.

Sometimes you have to ask the question in a nuanced way to find out who this potential mentor is. When I was in school, the standard thing to do was to talk to everyone at the firm that was an alumnus. If you talk to a junior and he / she names all of those people, obviously not all of them are going to develop a vested interest in you. One thing you can do is literally ask your junior about the qualities that you want in a mentor (i.e. "I'm looking for a mentor, was there someone who helped you set up a plan for networking, mocked you, gave you additional contacts, etc."). You can ask them if there's anyone they know who shares your background (in frat x, from town x, etc.) or shares your situation (transfer student, major switch, etc.). This is hashed to death, but people with your background are genuinely way more likely to take on a mentoring role.

The elephant in the room is that this only works if you have juniors and seniors that have worked on Wall Street at your school. This should be true at most flagship state schools, as well as most schools that people outside of your state have heard of. If you go to Grambling State and you're the only person interested in Wall Street, scroll towards the bottom for stuff that everyone can do.

Treat the juniors and seniors as your mentors

This is also an obvious solution if you’re a current student. Most of what I said above about alumni applies to the same upperclassmen that you’re seeking info from. In fact, upperclassmen will have way more time on their hands to help you with small stuff like mock interviews.

Bonus points if you ask around and find the hardo at your non-target who’s been reading WSO since HS and networks for fun. Those guys can teach you a lot about pursuing networking in a structured manner, keeping track of your contacts in an Excel spreadsheet, etc. and are also great sources for contacts at different firms.

The one problem people sometimes run into is that these little dickheads are often in investment clubs, and some will only act as mentors to the people in their club. When I was a freshman, I didn’t know anyone and had some very cold conversations with these upperclassmen. However, I started networking very early, and one trick I learned was to talk about a call with person X that worked at the upperclassmen’s firm. That worked like a charm, though if you feel like a bunch of people are giving you the cold shoulder, you might want to double check other things about your approach first.

In conjunction or in lieu of a mentor, find a peer

This is extremely important because networking is one of those things that is best done early, over time, and sometimes will yield minimal results / milestones for an extended period. There are no grades for networking, no one to say you’re 80% towards getting the job, etc. Because of the lack of immediate rewards, people who are normally very motivated and disciplined can be become disengaged.

Peers can help fill that void by providing a constant touch point and by acting as a benchmark. When you have someone to constantly compare whether you’ve talked with person X at firm X, it’ll push you to say consistent with your networking. It’ll also give you someone to mock with, as well as a fresh source of information. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen two frat lords interested in S&T mocking each other on markets well into the AMs, or two dudes from the same country speaking in their native language about which firms sponsor. Alternatively, the most motivated that I’ve seen underclassmen isn’t before applications open and interviews begin. Instead, it’s after the first round of offers roll out and they see people around them getting offers while they remain empty handed.

How do you find these peers? A good place to start is interviewing at your school investment club. Even if you don’t get in, the process of preparing and interviewing will provide you with a set of likeminded peers. If your school has OCR, you can introduce yourself to some of the other students that show up. If you go to a school that doesn’t have any of that, there’s always WSO. Post a question in one of those company threads, PM some dudes that also posted and see if anyone responds. WSO was extremely helpful for me when I was in college, as my main recruiting focus was on a niche industry that no one else at my school was interested in. The threads here helped me keep up to date with timelines for every firm and introduced me to some like-minded people.

The holy grail: impress people on the call

I call this the holy grail because this can be done no matter what school you go to and whether or not someone shares a similar background with you. However, I’d argue it’s the hardest to accomplish of all the tips, and requires lots of practice. It’s not a miracle medicine, but it’s your best bet to get a complete stranger to develop a vested interest in you.

A word of caution: Never make a call entirely technical, and never make a contact feel like you’re interviewing them. There really is a sort of optimal balance you want to achieve between being a regular guy and showing people you’re smart and you did your homework. Over time, you’ll also learn how to lean the conversation one way depending on the person. You’ll definitely make mistakes at first, and some people will just be turned off if you try and talk about their job. So be it, lots of fish in the sea.

So what do I mean when I say impress someone? I mean asking a question that can spark a back and forth discussion with that person about the specifics of their work or an industry. I mean something that will make them go: “dude, I know when I was your age I definitely wasn’t doing this”. When I was recruiting, people who I did this with correctly would go on to become my mentors. If it was right before interviews began, the contact might just push my resume instead, which isn’t exactly a bad outcome. That’s actually pretty much what I do with prospective students these days as, at the end of the day, we all want to work with smart and hardworking people.

Let’s say you’re about to get on the phone with someone working in a niche industry, say loan-to-own PE. This guy’s WSO posts would be a great place to start:

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/user/233812

There’s a lot of both good and bad stuff on WSO, but it should be pretty clear who the industry insiders posting good information are. Before your call, go through all of this dude’s comments and Google any terms that you don’t understand. Then on your call, you can literally be like: “So I heard x niche thing about this industry, and just wanted to know if, in your experiences, it’s true or more of a perception”.

What about something more general like IB? My go to tends to be finding out which group the person works in, then doing some research on things like M&A trends in the industry and deals the group has worked on. If you’re asking about past deals, strategic intentions behind the deal tend to foster better discussions than the technical aspects. Something that is really impressive is if a student can tell me future areas of business opportunity. Pitch your contact a subsector in his / her coverage that is undergoing consolidation, explain why it’s happening and then say some names that you think will get swept up in the trend. You’ll be surprised how much something like that will send the right signals to people and lead them to go the extra mile for you.

###Conclusion: Don’t pay for this shit

While some parts of what I described might seem daunting, I promise you that it’s not nearly as painful as it sounds (unless you actually go to Grambling State and have to resort to the holy grail). Regardless, going through the process will yield 10x the returns than if you just paid for a mentor. Even if you fail at first, the process of trying, failing, and getting back up is one of the best character developers out there. Lastly, it’s free. Like completely free. If you like paying for free stuff, I have some air that I’d like to sell you.