Monkey to Millions | Grace (Session 6) - Coffee Chat + Networking Rhythm - Feb 27, 2020
About
In this episode, we learn that Grace was hospitalized the prior week but has since recovered and is doing well again. She's staying up to date with her school work and finished her first semester with a 3.9 GPA. Listen to how I shift the priorities for her to try and make sure she's setting herself up for success come this summer and some specific tactics on how frequently to follow up with contacts she's established during networking.
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WSO Podcast (Episode 6) Transcript:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:04] Well. Hello and welcome, I'm Patrick Curtis, chief monkey of Wall Street Oasis, and this is monkey to millions. A show where you get a front row seat as I mentor young students and professionals to try and help them break into their dream jobs in the first cohort. You'll meet four students, all preparing for intense job interviews while trying to also balance a personal life and schoolwork. The goal of this show is to shine a light on the struggles of trying to break into competitive positions with a non-traditional background and to give you a roadmap for your own success. My hope is that as you get to know these four impressive students, you're inspired to dream big. Remember, these are real people, and this is their true story. Let's get to it. In Grace's sixth session, we find out that she's been super busy with networking calls and coffee chats. She's really smart to be aggressive and apply to accelerated sophomore internships, even though she's just a freshman. We talk about balancing her workload from the internship, schoolwork and interview preparation, and I encourage her to try and start prepping for the technical portion of the interviews even just 30 minutes per week to make sure she isn't caught flat footed and in a case where an interview is unexpectedly offered to her. But first hear from grace over the previous few weeks leading up to this session. So it's another busy week I worked about 20 hours total my internship the past two days in addition to having had class the one day. So today is kind of my catch up day with a bunch of classes and catching up on schoolwork. And then I had I've had some phone calls this week as well as a coffee chat. And in particular, I spoke with one person, a Fordham alum, who I had spoken with before back in the fall. And she was really helpful with telling me about other opportunities, even though I didn't get into the women's program, she said. They think they received more than a thousand five hundred applications this year, so they had a very limited number of spots for freshmen. So it's not too surprising that I didn't get into that. But she was telling me about Goldman coming to Fordham's campus a couple of times later this spring. And even though they don't usually have invite too many freshmen to those, there are ways, and she told me that I can try to get into those opportunities. The really good for networking with people, the firm and breaking in. So I. For when applications for summer twenty-one open up around, I think it's July, she said. And other than that, just I've been working to send out more LinkedIn invites and set up more phone calls and then just catching up on schoolwork. So I've had a very productive week, a bunch of the applications for various diversity programs that a lot of the banks have been opening up. So I've been applying for some of those, even some of them which are only technically for sophomores, but I've been encouraged by others to apply for some of those, even just in case they might overlook the fact that I'm a freshman. You never know. But then some of them are for freshmen as well. So in RBC, one just opened up this week. And with that one, if you get into that program, it's a few days in the spring, then it's an essentially guaranteed Super Day for a summer. Twenty one internships. So I'll definitely be applying for that. And McQuarrie as well has one that's especially infrastructure focused. So I'm definitely interested in that since that's an area that I'm interested in. And then on the networking front as well, I've had a busy week, made a lot of good progress. So I actually had five phone calls today as well as a few others earlier this week, and I have a coffee chat tomorrow. So a lot of them have been really good conversations, people willing to help me out come the fall or next summer when I'm looking for internships. So definitely a good, productive week. Awesome. So I just listen to your update. It sounds like you're doing really well. Yes, so very busy, but good busy with lots of calls. And so tell me about those calls. Like, were they for just through your networking efforts?
Grace: [00:05:00] Uh-huh. Yeah. So it's basically just a continuation, I guess, of what I have been doing a lot of alumni, mostly younger people, and then I guess a little bit to a random mix of other things.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:15] How is your cycle? How are your cycles going or are you starting to get like overwhelmed at all with the number of kind of reminder emails that are popping up in your inbox every day?
Grace: [00:05:25] I guess a little bit, but I get like a lot of what I've been doing the past couple of weeks is just having calls with people or kind of contacting people who I reached out to a while ago and then finally actually getting in touch with them. Not necessarily as many new cold messages.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:42] Ok, that's good. And then. I think we talked about this many sessions. I just wanted to make sure you're using it, do you use the templating feature on writing box
Grace: [00:05:53] Yet for follow ups?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:55] Yeah, I have that. You do. Ok, I'm going to show that just real quick. I'm going to share my screen because I think for people don't realize how powerful it can be. So if I go here, I'm composing a new message or I get a new message. For example, like when I'm trying to get people to, I have a call of them and I want to on-board them for, like a new mentor, for example, or a new resume reviewer. I'm not typing all the instructions out each time I just go template mentor AMA. If I want them for an email or if I want them on the podcast, I click this button and boom the whole email just to come with all the instructions. And then I just change the name here, right? And so it's a game changer. If you have like a set number, you can see all the templates I have in terms of like what they do and thanking them, and then just getting specific. It really, really saves time. So I encourage anyone who hasn't seen this with this is kind of what I use for my reminders. If it's something I want obviously like to remind that reminder that day I'll get, I'll do that if something like three weeks or seven weeks out, just to make sure some things don't slip the cracks. I almost always put a reminder on an email, but it's pretty powerful. So I just wanted to show that to people. Make sure you are using this. So you have like certain templates for like first follow up, second follow up.
Grace: [00:07:14] Yes. Awesome. Yeah, you're on. Reminder tool is so helpful as well.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:19] Oh, it's amazing, because like otherwise, how do you even keep track like you could have a spreadsheet? But the reminder tool is so much easier because it just shows up
Grace: [00:07:26] And you have the whole thread right there
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:27] Too. Yeah, the whole thread, you just have to do it right. It's like, Oh, I guess the timing has passed and sometimes I feel awkward about it because it's like, Oh man, they didn't respond, Is this OK? But if you leave a big enough gap, I don't think it's awkward.
Grace: [00:07:42] And I found that when, especially when I'm following up, I get a lot more responses. If in that email I put specific times, I'm available as like from this hour. So this hour on this day. So sometimes that takes a little more time, but it increases the response.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:57] Yeah, that's a good point. I think the other thing is I use calendar. I don't think you can do that, really. Have you heard of Counly? No. So Counly is like a calendar tool that allows people just to click and book time with you. I think as an undergrad reaching out to you, it's a little bit presumptuous to be like, Hey, put some time on my calendar, so I wouldn't advise it, but it's actually a really good, another good hack just to keep things organized. I know with me, I used to start at like a couple of years ago, and it's it saves me by at least two or three hours a week, like trying to coordinate back and forth with like different people, just like, Hey, maybe it's easier. I don't. I'm not like, Hey, book of time, I'm kind of I'm like, Maybe it's easier if you just grab a time that's best for you, and I just throw it out there. You do have to obviously keep it updated and whatnot. But for even for me, for the young professionals listening to this, it's a huge game-changer. Even maybe the entrepreneurs, if you use that tools cowardly and there's lots of them out there, that's just one of them. It's cool. Ok, so you're you are using the templates, you are kind of you aren't going crazy on the new outreach because you have so many things to apply to. You have all these a lot of follow ups to do. So how many are you setting it? So it's hitting your inbox every morning, like eight a.m..
Grace: [00:09:12] Mm hmm. Yeah. So I guess most of the time I do like a three week cycle, at least for the newer people, I guess. And so I'll sometimes I'll get like 10 emails or 15 emails each morning, not every morning, but just some.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:26] Some mornings you're like, Oh boy, I'm going to get through this
Grace: [00:09:29] And I'll stagger doing follow ups. If I do put in specific times that I'm available since there's only so much time and I can't send the same open times to 10 people.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:39] Yeah, you send us like 30 people all book at the same time. Right? So that's where Counly helps because you don't have to. If somebody grabs it, it disappears, right? But yeah, no, that's a good point. I hadn't even thought of that. So. So you're staggering that it sounds like it's in a good and good rhythm. What do you think the response rate is on the total called just pure cold?
Grace: [00:10:01] It's difficult to say, especially because doing it through LinkedIn, I feel like there's a lot of people who don't check LinkedIn that often or they don't check their invites that often. So sometimes I'll get a reply back, maybe three months later, right? But I'd say maybe around 30 percent, 40 percent.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:18] It's pretty good.
Grace: [00:10:20] It's difficult to say sometimes if there's especially if it's affordable on in a younger one. I have. Yeah, I have their email since you keep your Fortum email so like I can just type in their name and it'll show up. And so that's been a good way to more directly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:36] So have you been doing searches? Tell me what you've gotten through in terms of the connection requests on LinkedIn, because remember, after you get the connection request, you can grab the email.
Grace: [00:10:47] Mm hmm. Yes, so I've been doing that for the majority.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:51] Perfect. Yeah. And so tell me about which ones have you hit up like all the Fordham alums yet? Have you kind of
Grace: [00:10:58] Like a lot of the junior ones, at least? So there's a lot of Fordham alumni who work at really small boutique banks kind of middle market, and I've talked with a lot of them. And then I've also been going through some more bulge brackets, especially at Goldman. I've talked to a bunch, I think, like seven. And then so I've just, yeah, I've been trying to kind of take it, group, by group and specifically target the people in the groups that I'm interested in. Cool.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:28] And tell me about like your rate. I know you slow down a little bit since the last time, but in summer school and stuff and the internship now, how has the internship going? It's been good. Yeah, you've been doing about 15 hours a week. I think what you told me,
Grace: [00:11:45] Yeah, it's closer to 20, OK in that range, but it varies by the
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:50] Week. And you're OK with school, though, keeping up with school.
Grace: [00:11:53] Yeah, it's nice because it's back to back when I'm in. So it's Tuesday afternoons and then full day Wednesday.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:59] Long day.
Grace: [00:12:01] Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:02] So when you go in, what are they having? You do? Just organize databases, templates, the pitch decks, what are you putting in?
Grace: [00:12:09] It's been a mix of stuff. So this week I was working on some referral deals for them. So really tiny companies where they don't even run the whole process. It's more just like they put together buyers list. And like my MD, it's just kind of him using his connections. And then if they end up reaching a deal just between the two companies, he gets like a commission. So I was making teasers and kind of doing P&L stuff.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:35] Very cool. No comps yet or anything like that. No. Oh, the joy of spreading comps. You'll get there one day.
Grace: [00:12:43] Yeah, it's probably just because of the limited hours I'm in right now. I can't get too involved in anything.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:48] Exactly. Yeah, they're kind of just having to do small projects where you can stop it and start it back up when you come back the following week. Ok, that's good to hear in terms of just anything else, what's going on with. So the outreach, would you say you're doing like five a day on average? Or are you bulking it on the weekend for the outreach like the new outreach? Or are you mostly or have you stopped it completely?
Grace: [00:13:15] It's mostly on the weekend and then I'll have drafts saved if I'm doing any kind of emails, especially for the follow up emails, I'll just kind of stagger that, like I said and then and the LinkedIn like, sometimes I'll pull up. I'll have a ton of profiles and then I won't send out all the requests at once just because of either time to actually send the requests or time to schedule things. But I always have kind of searches pulled up with people.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:39] Do you think, what do you think you're averaging on the outreach? I see you're well over five hundred connections now.
Grace: [00:13:45] Yes.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:46] What are you up to now? Can you see? Can you tell us?
Grace: [00:13:48] I think it's maybe five fifteen.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:51] Ok, so you just passed the five hundred. So you now. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think I wouldn't slow down. I mean, it's great because if you could, the good thing is you're doing the call. So the five calls, can you give me a flavour of who they were with and how they went?
Grace: [00:14:10] Oh, that was, I think last week, right then I
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:13] Yeah, I was just looking at your update. So I figured it was.
Grace: [00:14:18] I'm trying to think I had a coffee chat yesterday and then two calls two days before that. And then there was people, two people at Goldman, one person at Stevens, someone else who works real
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:32] Estate groups at Goldman, or they in
Grace: [00:14:34] One was public finance and the other one was S.A.. And that was someone I'd reached out to, I think, in October. And again, it was like four months later accepted the request.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:50] It takes a long time sometimes think, like you said, people are so busy and they don't check and they're like, Oh, I should have helped her or they feel bad or they have a pocket. Ok, so you're basically doing a lot of calls, maybe an average of five a week, like almost one a day, would you say
Grace: [00:15:08] On average, I'd say
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:09] That OK. And then coffee chats, you're actually meeting with people now? Mm hmm.
Grace: [00:15:14] Yeah. And I have a few set up for next week that that's really not as consistent because with certain people I don't really offer. I don't ask for coffee from everyone. It's just the people that I know have a really specific interest in the same thing that they're working in the same area that I'm really interested in.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:33] Tell me about what are you interested? You mentioned infrastructure. What else?
Grace: [00:15:36] Mm hmm. So like I, it's like the public finance, space infrastructure, maybe energy, real estate. I've talked to a bunch of people on energy, and that's really interesting to me. So I guess that area and then like I mentioned, I think last time restructuring as well. And then also just M&A. So we're kind of exploring
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:54] Those guard Houlihan.
Grace: [00:15:57] Yeah, I've talked to a few people.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:00] It's awesome. Yeah, Houlihan is a great shop to look at people there for. They're really strong and restructuring. Okay. And the Rothschild, the Rothschild U.S. Rothschild Group is pretty strong to where I started. So those are good shops, too, but you can do a quick search, it's easy to find those. I guess. Yeah, I mean. It sounds like you're doing really well,
Grace: [00:16:27] Sounds right now, a lot of the applications have been opening for the diversity programs. So most of them are sophomores, but there's a few of her freshmen. So like Credit Suisse, just had their freshman application open today
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:40] And it's February, late February. When do you think you'll hear?
Grace: [00:16:44] Well, so like their program, it's a two day thing at the end of March, so I think I hear back within a couple of weeks.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:49] Ok, you have to hear back soon. And then you said for one of them, for RBC, that guarantees basically a Super Day. Mm hmm. Yeah. Is there anything like that for the others?
Grace: [00:16:58] Not that I'm aware of, at least, at least for freshman ones, ones where they open it to freshmen. So I apply to a few of the sophomore ones, but at least I heard back from a couple of them. I didn't get it, which makes sense. And like one, I get the person from H.R. like, actually? Send me an email from a person saying We'd love to have you next year. It's only for sophomores, so
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:21] It's worth a shot, at least. Hey, it looks good. I mean, you're doing all the right things, you're getting all the right things on your resume. And unfortunately, those two day things, those workshops you can't really like, you're not getting that much out of it, right? Right? Versus like the internship is much more valuable than obviously the summer internship is a ton more value because you're actually there full time and working long hours. So. Very cool. Maybe you'll maybe we'll do a summer internship and be like, you know what? Investment banking is not for me.
Grace: [00:17:48] Yeah, that's why it's good. I'm doing it now.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:50] So it is really good. You're doing it because you'll get I think you'll get a good flavor for it. Just seeing the analysts there and the and seeing what the bullpens like and maybe even doing two internships, especially in the freshman summer and sophomore summer, being able to kind of see two different banks as really rather than doing like wealth management like a lot of people after freshman summer, they'll do like a wealth management and they have no clue, right? Sophomore summer. Yeah, that's good. So what else is going on in terms of classes that everything's good like workload?
Grace: [00:18:24] Mm hmm. Yeah, my schedule of the semester is a lot more difficult, so it's a bit more work outside of class, but it's manageable.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:32] So what do you finish, may or do?
Grace: [00:18:35] Yeah, I think May 13th sometime.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:37] Oh, early. That's right. Yeah, that's awesome.
Grace: [00:18:41] And then I saw I'm in midterms right now this week and next week.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:48] I remember those days. Ok, so yeah, how can I be helpful? I guess? Do you feel? So remind me kind of what we went through. Did we ever do any like mock interview interviews, behavioral? I think we did a little bit of that early on, right? A little bit on these coffee chats you're doing and on these calls. What types of questions are you asking them?
Grace: [00:19:10] It, really. I try to tailor it to whoever it is. I guess, like yesterday, I'd coffee with someone who was in the same honors program that I'm in at Fordham. And, you know, it's a really small program. So we just like talked a lot about that. It was a lot more informal than some of my other ones. And but she did banking at JPMorgan and then now she works on the buy side. So just like it was a lot talking about that and I guess like some of her classmates too and kind of their paths. So I try not to plan it out too much ahead of time and let the conversation just flow naturally.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:49] Yeah, that's better. I mean, having a little bit of idea of like what public finances and energy like if they're doing what group helps a lot.
Grace: [00:19:56] Exactly.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:57] You can show you've done a little bit of research, right? That's great. I think that's great. You're being specific to them. You're letting the conversation kind of flow naturally to build that rapport rather than trying to be like sound overly smart or whatnot.
Grace: [00:20:10] Right?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:11] That's good. Yeah. I mean, as a freshman, you can almost do no wrong. You can almost ask. Exactly so great. You can almost ask no stupid question, but you ask a really dumb question that they would like. Probably think it's great and like, Oh, let me see how this works.
Grace: [00:20:26] And right?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:30] Ok, so you're feeling comfortable with that, you feel like you're getting much better, I assume.
Grace: [00:20:34] Oh, definitely. Even just talking on the phone.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:37] Yeah, it's probably so easy. You're probably like nervous at first and you're like, Oh, here's another one. Ok. It's what happens, right? You get really confident. But the skill, that skill of developing that is going to pay so pay off so well during the super days because it'll just what you want to do is turn those like they'll be grilling you. But then it turns behavioural. You almost want to turn it more into a conversation, if you can. Right? So that's where those skills will really shine and help you stand out. Because if you do the studying, which you will for the technical questions and you kind of get the basics down, I think you're going to be an awesome shape. Yeah, I don't see I don't see any reason why you can't get to wherever you want to go, whether it's a bulge bracket or Leap Boutique or whatnot. I think you should be thinking about. I think it's good you're thinking about the different groups and what they're like. I mean, some of the questions I'd ask specifically for some of these coffee chats in interviews, it's trying to get a sense of the groups, really, because like that, that's actually really valuable knowledge about knowing, do I want to work there or not? And so you can pick up on little hints of like if they say we're thinly staffed or we have lean deal teams, that business means 100 hours a week versus, you know, oh, it's good. The deal flows. The deal flow is amazing. That's good. But if they're saying nothing about the deals that they've done and it's more pitch work, if you kind of pick up on that in terms of like they're just pitching all the time because the business is good or it may not be the strongest group in the bank. Mm hmm. And that place you probably want to avoid because going into banking, one of the most important things is that you get the transaction experience as fast as possible because for herbicide recruiting, if you do want to go that route. That's super valuable because you can talk about those deals. But even if you don't go by side, if you go like corporate development or corporate finance, having those reps of actually going through a transaction looks good. It allows you to talk about things. It allows you to do real modeling instead of just valuation work on like a pitch. Mm hmm. So where you can kind of you should be looking for the groups that have the strongest deal flow. You should be looking for groups that. Have the best culture in the best work-life balance. Because if you get strong culture, good deal flow, it's like the trifecta. It's almost like the impossible trifecta, like good deal, like good work-life balance and amazing. But they do exist out there. You just have to kind of. And it shifts. It's not like it's static. So like stuff you're hearing now may slightly shift. If we go into a recession, for example, restructuring might start taking right and then like, Wow, I really should be going into restructuring. Right now, there's just a ton of corporate debt that's going to be defaulted on. It's going to be a ton of business. So, right, that's what I would. That's what I was. Like, actually go in trying to get some of that information a little bit. You don't want to be too aggressive about it, right? Kind of getting around that of asking about the deal flow and how the analysts work. Are the deal team structured with like always and analysts associate BP or AMD, or sometimes like analysts to BP asking how that works? Because I think know, yeah, you can get a sense of how it is. If you see a lot of if the group is oftentimes like understaffed or overstaffed or understaffed, they don't have enough bodies. They'll have like an analyst and like an MD working just together and like. That happened to me a few times where I was working just straight with BP because have they associated with the mid-level support for how busy we were? Ok, that's awful, thank you. What else I could so like really go into them, I think with the curiosity about that specific, that specific group and then you can even if the person is not in that group. Um. You could still ask questions about the other groups, I mean, like, well, OK. And in the group, like, what do you feel like is the, you know, not what's the best group that's to like? But what groups do feel like have a good reputation. They're doing a lot of good doing a good deal flow. Get your perspective like from the inside, because obviously there's rumors and everything on the outside and we can see deals that are done. But I think internally it's good to know what groups are well respected and I think you can get some really good info there and then kind of position yourself for one of those. Any anything you're hearing like really good things about in terms of deal flow and culture that should be like your top things because I have a feeling by the end of sophomore year you're going to be able to pick. I would be able to like really kind of direct where you want to go if, if you continue this, if you continue actually putting in work, I think your career kind of direct that. So OK. And I don't want to I don't want to like put my biases on from what I see, what I read in the forums and what I know from feedback. Because things shift like, you know, even every six months, every year, right?
Grace: [00:25:45] That's what I was thinking like. I've seen things on the forums, but a lot of times its five years old.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:49] So even if it's like a year ago, maybe an MD left that was the best M.D. in the U.S., he or she went somewhere else. And now all of a sudden, the group's doing much less deal flow. And all of a sudden, who is leading it is really aggressive and it's more toxic. So you don't know, right? So that's super important. What else can I tell you? Specifically, so like the coffee chat, it sounds like you're feeling very comfortable there, which is most important. Mm hmm. What about like interview any interview prep? Are you? I know you're not going to need to do that for a while, but did you ever say you sent me kind of those stories, right? That you? Yes. Did we ever review them? Did I ever get back to you on that or mine?
Grace: [00:26:35] I think you left like comments on them, but we never reviewed them talking verbally.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:39] Ok? Can you relate me to that? And I'll look. Look at it after this. I wanted to see if you had been able to structure like the action result. Well, because I think when I read it, I think it was a lot of like, here's the situation and what I did, but it wasn't broken down fully. Mm hmm. Terms of how to how to do it. It wasn't, as I should say, it wasn't as direct and succinct as I would have liked, so I just want to keep working on that. I don't want to just forget about that for like six right here. Then all of a sudden an interview is coming up and you're like, Wait. Right? Because besides the coffee chats and that stuff which is helping your interview skills, the technical making sure you're solid on the technicals. Have you started studying at all? And our I, of course, like the technical side.
Grace: [00:27:33] I've looked at, I guess, like that really big PDF. I've gone through that before, but not extensively.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:38] Yeah. So at least the basic stuff
Grace: [00:27:44] Like the basic accounting type
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:45] Question, basic accounting restatement, statement modeling M&A. Yeah, I mean, there's different sections, there's like one on options and trading and pricing. You could look a little bit like just the basics there. Make sure you understand, especially if you're gonna start interviewing for S.A., although I would probably I'm not really looking. I would push you away from that. Yeah, it's kind of a tough place to be. Long term, because of all the automation.
Grace: [00:28:16] Right?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:19] Ok. Yeah, so I mean, it sounds like you're doing 20 hours a week at the internship, you're working school is a little bit heavier, so maybe we put that off. If I had to decide kind of one thing for you to focus on, I would tell you just to keep building their set of interview stuff. But maybe if you can carve out like even a half-hour a week to review a little section, the technicals is actually in our course. There's like a flashcard thing you could print out, OK, and just start looking at those like, you know, half-hour a week, just that by the time in a year, by the time that comes around like and you don't have to look at like salt, like three hundred, you could look at like the top hundred. If you put those down cold, that's going to be 90 percent of what you'll be asking the technicals. Ok. So, yeah, you'll be in good shape, especially likeable, and you get your story out. Sorry, go ahead. Mm-hmm.
Grace: [00:29:17] And I was just going to make me think the person that I met for coffee with yesterday, actually she like I mentioned, some of these programs are mostly for sophomores. But she had applied to JPMorgan as a freshman and because she had a lot of credits coming in, she was technically a sophomore, so she actually got in through that and got her sophomore summer internship there. And it's a similar position that I'm in now, so definitely trying to find when that opens up. And she said she was able to interview really quickly after a while before her freshman year finished. Oh my gosh! For her sophomore summer. So yeah, that program.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:58] So, yeah, I mean, I don't think they I don't know how much they would expect you to know on the technical. But if you have finance courses like listed on your resume, I can't remember if you do like accounting and stuff, it's kind of fair game.
Grace: [00:30:10] Mm hmm. I don't have any
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:12] Clothes on my not yet. Ok. Not yet, but you will probably soon, right? So. Just the thought, because it sounds like you're really hitting your stride on the networking, which is the number one step the most important? Mm hmm. Just maybe carving out and if it comes at the expense of doing more outreach on LinkedIn right now, I think you have so many programs going on and you already have the summer internship lined up that polishing the interview skills for you a little bit more might be a little bit higher. A better place to focus on right now. Ok. Over the next, say, two or three months over these next three sessions, let's see if you can carve out a little bit of time now. I'm not saying like two-three hours a week, even I'm saying like half hour a week so that by the end of the month, the next time we talk. Yeah, you put it in a good four hours, OK? Oh, right. Yeah, I guess if you're surprised with an interview, all of a sudden you're not like completely like lost on the technicals.
Grace: [00:31:13] Mm hmm. I was going to add there's an upper classmen who's been really helpful, actually someone who's pushed my resume, RBC also because he's there now. And he's been really pushing and helping me with interview prep as well, saying I just want to have you ready.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:31:29] So he's actually been giving you mock interviews.
Grace: [00:31:33] Not yet, but he said by the end of the semester, Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:31:36] Mock interviews where it's at. So like you can study as much as you want, but then actually regurgitating it and like seeing if you can deal with the little slight changes and variations on the questions that they can do. Mm hmm. So like one of the most common questions on the technical side is like, tell me how a ten dollar increase in depreciation flows through the financial system, like being able to do that comfortably. But then when they reverse it and then when they like inventory versus being right, think your way through that logically will go a long way. But that's like one. That's one example in understanding working capital. What that means to a business, a growing business, capital intensive business, being able to talk about as from an investor perspective, what you would look for. That's more like private equity side. But. And then, yeah, valuation a ton of valuation questions tell me about why. Yeah. You know, tell me all the different valuation methodologies. Which one would have the highest valuation? Why? Weighted average cost of capital, all that good stuff. Right. I don't want to bore everybody listening to that, but I think it's important that you are as comfortable telling your story as comfortable sitting in the room with people as you are with that technical because they'll quickly jump off of it. If you're like doing well, they typically will. We'll leave it alone and then just want to get to know you better. Ok? So. Right, yeah. Ok, so I think, yes, it sounds like you're doing great, you don't need much guidance. Maybe we'll talk next month, I guess, and then just see, I just keep the updates coming. I think it's great. I enjoy watching them to hear what's going on. And then is there anything else I can help with in the meantime? All right now, besides somehow giving you more hours in the day,
Grace: [00:33:29] If only,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:33:30] Yeah, anything else? I don't think so. Ok, let me know if anything comes up. I think definitely send me that link to the all-star frameworks because I do want to look at that because you're the upperclassmen that are helping you. I think he's right. Like just being ready for that is the only other thing I'd say, you know, with your limited time somehow carving out a little piece, right? It would be smart. Ok, awesome. Well, good luck with everything. And then we'll chat and late March, I guess.
Grace: [00:34:02] Okay, great.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:03] Sounds good. Ok, thank you. Good luck with everything going OK, bye. And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis dot com. And till next time.
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