Who Was Your Mentor?
Coming from a background where very people have heard of investment banking or private equity, I didn't have any guidance or exposure to the whole finance scene and was struggling in figuring out how to break into IB or PE.
Eventually, I traveled abroad and started meeting people and alumni within the industry. I appreciated the guidance they had to offer, and they all had great advice to offer. Currently, an ex-Goldman VP is mentoring me and if I could provide any advice to anyone who's still a student: Get a mentor. The guidance they offer is priceless, and you'll end knowing exactly how to approach the industry and what kind of mentality you'll need to succeed both in breaking in and thriving in the industry.
Hey ColdCaller, I think you deserve a response...heck, everyone does. We're listening, sorry about the delay ...my best guess at places on WSO that could help:
Any pros willing to rescue this discussion? mindira Akosua-Dei-Anang RLG
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
I just got paired up with a retired hedge fund guy who is pretty funny and has some good advice
Out of curiosity, how do you approach the relationship being the mentee? I ask because I was fortunate enough to have a senior banker at my firm reach out to me and explicitly say he'd like to take me under his wing and be a mentor. I was obviously very excited but still not sure how to go about being a good mentee, if there is such a thing.
How often do you reach out to your mentor? Do you ask more high level questions or detailed ones?
You obviously can't just go up to someone and say "Hey, can you be my mentor" that you've never met before.
You have to BUILD the relationship, like any other. Get coffee, talk, and ask for advice and insight. If the advice sucks then they probably won't see me again. If it is good then I will go back, listen to them and their advice, etc. Eventually they just BECOME your mentor. If you have to explicitly ask then that probably won't ever be a relationship worthy of fostering. For this to work you obviously have to either connect with them on a personal level (upbringing, interests, hobbies, etc), professional level (your early career trajectory is similar to theirs and you want advice on their key takeaway, similar professional interests, etc), or preferably both.
I understand, and agree, with all that. I guess my question is more about how to nurture the relationship as a mentee. I've already built a good relationship with the guy and we've sort of established the mentor/mentee thing, but now what?
I went to a very non target university to study engineering. After two years I admitted to myself that I HATED engineering and switched to Finance which I love. If you want to do anything with a Finance degree from this school you need to network like your life depends on it and luckily I had a fantastic professor for a number of classes who was primarily a hedge fund manager and taught for fun. He convinced me to study for and take the Level 1 CFA exam my senior year and also made introductions that got me in front of people who's email filters would have put my @nontarget.edu email address directly in their spam folders.
Did you go to UIUC by any chance? If so I might know who you're talking about...
Nope, I went to a coastal state school. Glad to hear there are other guys like my mentor out there.
ouch - yeah that’s brutal you were led down the wrong path - by a mentor too? rough....
never take the CFA exams in college ... GPA means so much more
That might be true at a target university where a degree with an awesome GPA is worth a lot but, from my experience, it doesn’t matter if you graduated with a 3.0 or a 3.8+, BBs simply aren’t interested in graduates from my school. The absolute top performers typically go Big 4, maybe 1 or 2 go to a lower tier IBD.
In my case I graduated with just above a 3.7 and passed level 1 exactly a week after I walked (that part sucked as I was stuck at the library while all my fraternity brothers were celebrating). My grades were actually better while I was studying bc I was taking like 4 credits per term (thanks AP). Anyway, if you’re very non-target and have a mellow schedule I would definitely recommend CFA, it’s a great differentiator if your degree isn’t a major asset.
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