WSMM: Honest Review from a Client

Hey WSO,

I wanted to write up a review on one of the more trending topics right now: WSMM and Sam Shiah. I am one of the clients who joined the program just around a year ago, and I feel like I had an adequate amount of experience to write up a review. I will try my best to address all the positives and the negatives. The review will be detailed and thorough.

Background Information

Before I start my review, let me give you my background. I started my undergraduate studies at a non-target university. After around 2 quarters of taking CS classes, I realized I wanted to pursue Finance as a career. I worked hard to transfer into a West Coast target as a Junior. Now, although I had my mind set on Investment Banking, I did not know jack shit. I had no idea where to even begin, and soon, came to realize that as a rising junior student, I virtually had 0 chance of landing a good SA gig. I also learned that the majority of the people landing good SA gigs at my university were part of exclusive business fraternities, clubs, or diversity candidates. The frats and clubs I mentioned have connections with private equity firms and local boutique banks. Also, guaranteed interviews and heavy interview preparation from what I heard through the grapevine. (More shady stuff, but I will not get into the nitty gritty details) At this point, I had 0 relevant internships, 0 Finance knowledge, and just overall confused as hell. I tried my best to catch up and read through WSO and M&I. I had to revamp my resume, learn all the timelines of different banks, secure relevant internships, build up my technical knowledge, craft my behavioral stories, and learn how to network. At this point, I was burnt out from the pandemic and going through the transferring process. I had 0 motivation and was clueless. This is when I remembered coming across WSMM in the past. If anyone spent more than 1 day looking for information on Investment Banking recruiting, they would definitely have heard about WSMM and Sam.  

Joining Wall Street Mastermind

Yes, I was skeptical like everyone else. I have been through everything. From contemplating whether or not I should drop $5k on a dropshipping course, to almost enrolling in exclusive workshops like "Building Your Own Empire and Wealth". I am easily enticed and always willing to hear out a sales pitch. However, I do not have the most affluent background, and I will never pay for any course without due diligence. So, I scheduled a call with Sam and hopped on a Zoom session with him. (I will go into more details about my interactions with Sam later) I was half convinced, but obviously, I needed to conduct more research. I reached out to one of his clients and hopped on another Zoom call with him. The client was able to provide me details on how WSMM has helped him, and I was sold. 

How did you pay for the program?

I did not have to take out a loan. I did mention my non-affluent background, so I would like to provide more details. Basically, I had around $10k saved up from working part-time. This money was going to be used for my summer trip that I planned on. However, I was forced to cancel my trip, because my passport did not come out on time due to the pandemic. At this point, it was early July, and I had around $10k just sitting around. I receive financial aid and pay basically 0 out of my pocket to attend my university, so I had a hefty amount of disposable income. I concluded from my due diligence that the ROI will be worth it if I invested in the program, so I did. 

Positives

Now we have the background information and the details on how I joined the program, I can dive straight into my experience with the program. First, I will start with the positives. Like I mentioned, I was literally clueless. Sure, I can spend time learning from all the free resources, but I really did not have much time. I had a shit resume, and had 0 finance knowledge. Now, I will start highlighting how WSMM helped me

1. Relevant Internships
    
    
   • One of the major reasons that convinced me to join WSMM was Sam's claim that I will be able to land an internship almost immediately. At this point, I was skeptical, but let me just put it this way. I was able to land one within a month of going through the program with relative ease. Was it an internship from a high-profile firm/company? Nope. It was an unpaid internship from a firm that no one has ever heard of. Still, I now had a relevant finance internship on my resume to work off of. (I definitely could have landed a better internship, but I did not feel prepared to go through a banking interview at this point, so I decided to start from the ground up) I was able to land an internship at a boutique bank the next semester that sent people to BBs/EBs.
2. Resume and Behavioral Revamp
    
    
   • My resume was utter crap if I look back now. The template that Sam provided and all the resume tips were phenomenal. Yes, 90% of the resume tips are available online for free. However, I did find tips that I have never come across from a google search, and Sam and his team provides a resume revamp after you go through the first draft. The resume was a game-changer, and I even had some people mentioning that my format was "perfect", "better than mine" etc. Biggest positive of my experience with the program, and something I can keep for the rest of my career. Also, the behavioral edits were amazing as well. Sam and his team go through each of your answers and point out the areas that need improvement. I went deep into the resume edits, so I will keep this part short, but basically the same sentiment for WSMM's behavioral help as the resume revamp. 
3. Kajabi Modules
   • So Sam has all of his training pre-recorded on a platform called Kajabi. It is structured in a chronological way and very easy to navigate. Basically has everything you need for recruiting so you do not have to spend time scouring the net to gather all your resources. This is helpful if you 1) don’t know what to look for in the first place and might miss stuff, or 2) don’t have a lot of time or are too busy to figure everything out yourself. 
4. Technical Training
   • I will first talk about what I like about the technical modules, but I will also touch on what I think can be improved down below. The technical modules are very helpful in understanding all the underlying concepts needed for investment banking interviews. It’s not that the concepts are any different than what you would learn in the BIWS or M&I 400 guides, because IB is IB. But it did allow me to learn the materials more efficiently, because of the video format. It’s also easier to truly understand and internalize the concepts when there’s a live instruction component (office hours twice a week) and you have a team of bankers that you can ask questions to on Slack anytime you don’t understand something, as opposed to self studying. Overall I think the tech prep is good for 90 percent of the interviews. I can confidently say that techs were not my weakness during the interviews I went through.
5. WSMM Community
   • ​​​​​​​I have met great friends from WSMM. We have a very active Slack channel where people can ask questions. I have had my questions answered in a timely fashion from Sam and his team, and also learned from questions other people ask that I may not have thought of asking myself. Also, other members are very active and respond with great insight regularly as well. I also came across several internship opportunities and insight into various different firms from alumni members.
6. ​​​​​​​Continuous Support
    
    
   • ​​​​​​​Sam has made it very clear that he and his team will continue to support clients until they land their desired gig. I think being responsive to members that have been in the program for 1+ year is really impressive.

Negatives

Yes, there are negatives to the program. I will dive straight into it.

1. Technical Preparation​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
    
    
   • I talked about what I liked about the technical module above, and now I will address what I think can be improved. I do think that if you want a chance at landing an offer from a firm that is notorious for asking curveball questions, you cannot solely rely on WSMM's technical preparations. The modules cover all the advanced accounting concepts, as well as LBOs and Merger Models. However, elite boutiques  like Centerview, PJT M&A etc. tend to ask their questions in non-standard ways to make it harder. I am not saying that you cannot pass elite boutique interviews with WSMM, because WSMM has had clients placed into all elite boutiques. But anyone looking to best the non-standard questions definitely need to supplement their interview preparation with harder questions. (Brain teasers, Finance Brain teasers, etc) I personally recommend supplementing through IBVine's advanced and outside-the-guide questions. 
2. Question Bank
    
    
   • ​​​​​​​No where near WSO's database. I believe this is due to WSO having been around for much longer than WSMM, and also obviously having a much bigger audience that’s contributing. However, you can always reach out to students who have interviewed with the firms in the past on Slack to ask for their insight. But for objectivity of the review, I will conclude by saying that the database is not as helpful as WSO's database.
3. Sales Tactics
    
    
   • ​​​​​​​The biggest reason that Sam is labeled as a scammer is due to his sales tactics. Like I mentioned earlier, I will go deeper into my interactions with Sam. At the time I was deciding to join WSMM, Sam did not use any sales tactics that raised a red-flag. Sam gave me a preview of the modules and explained how his program can help me. However, I have no knowledge of how he conducts his sales pitch in recent history. If the stories of him using scare tactics to manipulate students to buy his programs are true, I think this is a big negative for the program. I would urge Sam to stick with his methods that won over clients like me. A truthful evaluation of where the client is currently at, and how the program can help them land an offer. 
4. Price of the Program
    
    
   • ​​​​​​​Yes, although I made back all the $6800 dollars I paid, I believe that it is a very expensive price tag. Do I think the program is worth $6800? Yes, because I was able to make my money back and gained a lot from the program that I will take on for the rest of my career upon graduation. However, I think Sam may need to consider making exceptions for students who do not have the financial leisure to drop that amount of money. I do understand that students will work harder to maximize their ROIs, but it goes both ways. For Sam to receive the rest of the money, he will be forced to work even harder to help students. I believe this will allow for the reputation and the overall quality of the program to improve over time. I do realize this may back-fire and have potential legal issues, but I think it is worth considering for the long term.
5. Overall Reputation of the Program
    
    
   • ​​​​​​​This is basically a summary of all the negatives that I pointed out. No, I did not include this point because I was lazy, but this is something that I want Sam to read. I am sometimes outright scared to say that I am part of WSMM. The program is labeled as a scam and any student who joins it are labeled as naïve or just straight up stupid. I see all the accusations and the name calling, and I have personally talked to Sam about addressing these concerns. I believe he has done AMAs in the past, but now, he has the most attention that he has ever had. Please use this opportunity to address all the concerns, and I ask all the WSO members that really care about the validity of this program to engage in a mature and productive dialogue. I think Sam can clear some of the accusations, while also identifying glaring weaknesses to his program. 

Final Thoughts

Could I have done all this without WSMM? IDK. I really do not know. I would have to go back in time and erase my memories and run it all over again. What I can confidently say is that I actively made the most out of WSMM and overall very happy with the results. Now, I do have regrets and shortcomings from the recruiting cycle, mainly because of my burn out from the pandemic and adjusting to a new university. The program worked for me, because of my motivation to break into the industry, and my desire to make my $6800 back lol. If you are in a position like me where you did not have any time to waste and had some disposable income, I think the program will be fantastic for you. However, if you are already in an exclusive frat or a club that literally spoon feeds you interviews, WSMM will not be as helpful for you. 

In conclusion, WSMM is not a scam, nor an automatic guarantee to break into banking. There are both positives and negatives to the program, and Sam needs to address concerns before he becomes the next Justine Tobin. I urge potential clients to do your research and reach out to clients to discuss their experiences. The program is NOT for everyone, and I think prospective clients should do their research. 

If anyone would like to engage in a conversation in private, I would be happy to hop on a call with you. Just leave a comment down and I will reach out. 

Thank you for reading!