Monkey to Millions | John (Session 7) - Interviews Galore - Mar 9, 2020
About
In this session, we learn that John's aggressive volume networking based on our last call is starting to pay dividends. He has a final round interview this upcoming Friday and several second-round interviews coming up. Even though the networking is working, I encourage him to keep the volume high since there is a lot of uncertainty in the volatile stock market and with coronavirus, so it may be even harder in this environment for firms to hire.
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WSO Podcast (Episode 7) 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 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 this session, we learn that John's aggressive volume networking based on our last call is really starting to pay some dividends. He has a final round interview upcoming this Friday with the Big Four and several second-round interviews coming up. Even though the networking is working, I encourage him to keep the volume high since there's a lot of uncertainty in the volatile stock market and with coronavirus, so maybe even harder in this environment for firms to hire. We just hope we're not about to head into a recession. Fingers crossed. Enjoy this. All right. John Recession. No, what? Seven.
John: [00:01:41] Yeah, I think so. It's going. It's going now.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:46] That's got to be like it's a long time since we started. Tell me what's going on and see, you have some news today. Hopefully, good. We'll see if it's bad. We'll keep. We'll keep cruising. But tell me you had interviews today, right?
John: [00:01:57] Yeah, I had one earlier this morning. It was a phone interview. It was kind of like a second round. I'd say. That's how I got into this interview process was through networking from, you know, from last conversation. I hopped on Sales navigator and I started networking with all you see on not just UCI. And actually, the alum that I head up that got me into this interview process was a Ucsd alum with a health care lower middle market investment bank. They have offices in Boston and L.A., and we had a good conversation headed off the bat really well. And she put me in touch with her associate, and I felt that one felt more like an interview. The associate grilled me about my past experiences
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:45] That was today or
John: [00:02:46] Before. That was last week.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:49] Ok, so that was almost like you pass the phone screen. Yeah, that was like maybe a second phone screen, first interview with the associate. And that was more like technical and stuff.
John: [00:02:59] It wasn't really technical. It was more so. Ask me about my background. He really grilled me about like my work experience, especially over my fall internship at B. Riley and what exactly what I was doing. And then he, like, went into it a little deeper to see if I was like guessing it or if I actually knew what I was talking about. And he asked me about one of the deals I was working on, specifically one of The Sims that I was tasked to work on. And he basically asked about the business and how the revenue model worked and all that good stuff. So how do you like, how do you clear that? Yeah, that was cake.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:30] You were ready. You knew everything on your resume cold like I told you. Yeah, you know. Yeah, OK,
John: [00:03:34] I was ready for that. Okay, good. Good. Good talking. I could talk about that. And then later
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:38] He so he clearly passed you on.
John: [00:03:41] Yeah, he's passed me on. And then today I had a phone interview with a senior associate at their Boston location, and I'm own pretty well wasn't as technical as I thought it'd be. That was kind of the same as the first. Like the first one, it was kind of asking about my background. He wanted to like my interest in space health care, and I kind of gave him a few points of what interests me about it, and I kind of didn't try to be upset. I was pretty blunt and straightforward with it, and then I took the advice.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:16] What would you say? Like, you're just like, Look, I'm not like, I'm trying to get a job here,
John: [00:04:19] Kind of thing. I mean, like I said, like, I mean, from my past experiences, pretty generalist. I had a little bit of health care experience and nutraceutical space at Harvey and Company. I thought that was really interesting. A lot of the clients were really well versed in space like Phds and MBAs, and I thought, that's super interesting to work with them. Also, you know, health care is very non cyclical and it's very like straight to the point like in terms of like the health care services, which is a huge front on their end. And I told them that is something interests me and willing to learn a lot more about. And I heard they have a really good program. When you first hop on as an analyst like the first two weeks, they don't just teach you about technical skills and modeling. They really like grill you and give you a fire hose about industry stuff. Not just like investing, you regurgitate
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:12] That to him. I hope you tell them that you're that interested you? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I told him,
John: [00:05:17] I told him, Yeah, pretty much all of that and more. And then. About my experience, he told me what I was looking to get out of an analyst program. Pretty, you said, jump to
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:28] Private equity right away. Right now, I'm just kidding. I hope you didn't say like I'm going to jump to. No, no. He was telling me that they really try to shoot for career like bankers,
John: [00:05:42] Like a lot of the analysts they bring on. They want them to become career bankers. They don't want them to just hop on to like private equity after two years. So he's telling me, like a lot of the associates of senior associates, he actually analysts and interns with them. Wow. So they do a really good job of retaining their analyst, which is pretty cool.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:01] Nice. Sounds like it went well. Sounds like it was a conversation, any parts that you felt like weren't didn't go so well. It's like anything like, what about next steps, did he say anything at the end, like next steps? Yeah, he said he's going
John: [00:06:12] To get in contact with the L.A. office and see what they want to do. They're either going to like, hop on another phone, call me, or they're going to bring me straight in. And then shortly after that, they'll let me know. So, you know, hopefully all goes well,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:27] I'm down in O.C.. April ish. Ok, so if it's we should meet either way, just for a beer or something, but if it's. If it's like before your interview, I could even do like a live mock and really just I could be a total ass, I could be an ass to you and just like try to grill you, try to make your life hell for like.
John: [00:06:54] Yeah, that's something I was kind of worried about
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:57] Because not even on camera, not even on camera, just to just to get your body language because I don't. It's one thing over Skype. It's another thing to see how you're holding yourself like in a room. Yeah, that makes sense. You do lose a little bit over these calls and not like if I could see how you're like when you're answering your questions, if you're like looking at me directly. Some people do weird stuff. You don't even realize you're doing it if you don't video Record yourself. Yeah, I believe it. Maybe these. This show has helped a little bit if you've watched yourself at all. I mean, I'm pretty natural, so I don't think that you have anything like weird, any weird texture I would have told you already. But anyways, OK, so that all seems like it went well. What else is coming up? Anything? I think you had one.
John: [00:07:41] Yeah. One more interview. I have three phone calls tomorrow.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:45] Networking or interviews.
John: [00:07:46] One interview to networking. Actually, one of the networking ones. I think they're looking for analysts. Or that might turn into something. The other one, they already told me that their analyst pool is filled, but there are more than happy to hop on the phone me and hopefully I can develop a relationship further down the line. They're there in the upper middle market, so wouldn't hurt to have that connection. And they have offices in Chicago, L.a. and New York, I think.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:13] Yeah, you said you kind of wanted to maybe even go to Chicago, is that where your girlfriend's going after she graduates?
John: [00:08:20] No, you're willing to go. She just she doesn't know yet. But in terms of like Chicago, I think that's when I was like talking about like a friend of mine who's been trying to put Chicago on me. He's kind of like been a mentor to me as well. And he was just telling me to look into like other markets other than like California and New York. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:40] Yeah, so it's a fun city. I've only been there like once, but I loved it. Really? Yeah. Maybe it's because I was like, I was there like Lollapalooza. Oh, really, party. When I was younger, I bet
John: [00:08:53] I want to go to that. I want to go to that. Yeah, that's awesome.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:57] It was a lot of fun. I had like a boot on my leg, but I didn't care. I had like a messed up foot that was still like partying was fun. I believe it. Well, I mean, all the parties or festivals are getting cancelled right now. I was supposed to go, I'm set to go to Coachella, but they might cancel that. So who knows? And the good point, I didn't even say what is that when it's Coachella
John: [00:09:18] Middle and end of April, there's two weekends I'll be going the second.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:22] How about those Lakers and those Celtics? We're having a little slide right now, but I think we've given the Lakers a little run for their money each time we played them right?
John: [00:09:29] I know. But I mean, I think we've been coming off strong. I mean, we just beat the Bucks and the Clippers this past weekend. So those are two huge duds in our book. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be, you know, come offs. It’s going to be really fun. It's going to be super fun. I'm excited to watch the playoffs. Yeah, me too. Me too. So, so, yeah, the three calls I have tomorrow, one is with the upper-middle market bank, I think that guys in Chicago.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:59] Industry expertise, they're the one that have the analyst class filled, right? Yeah. So I'm not too worried
John: [00:10:05] About that one. It's just like a general phone call getting to know each other. The interview tomorrow is with, I want to say, an associate at a bank here in L.A. I already had a phone screen with an analyst two weeks ago, and how I got in touch with him was I reached out through networking, ou know, after that phone call or after our last call, I really took it seriously, sending
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:29] Out. I should have done that back in November or something. It seems like you're too busy with your internship. I know you were too busy, man, This is like, yeah, I feel like it was good you got that internship, but it's almost like it came at the expense of like having these earlier.
John: [00:10:44] Yeah, I'm super grateful for the internship. I was a great experience. People, there are great. Yeah, they've been giving me a lot of recommendations and whatnot, but you know, I feel like that's been a great point on my resume and I've used it. Yeah, yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:58] It's like getting you, looks for sure. Yeah, I think you're close. You're really close.
John: [00:11:03] Yeah. To get in something, we just got to don't give up on the
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:06] Networking part just because you have a couple of interviews, you know? And that's what I noticed, especially
John: [00:11:10] With the last run when I was interviewing or when I got to the Super Day with a bank in L.A., you know, a couple of months ago or a month ago, I noticed usually when I start picking up a few, I start slowing down on my networking and I noticed that I mean, on top of school. But like also on top of like the press interviews, how this week I've noticed that again. So I feel like I really need to pick that up. Whether or not,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:33] Yeah, you can't. You can't assume because just a couple of swings, there's nothing you need to give yourself like ten more. Yeah, ten more. Ten more first-round interviews, which will leave for more, ideally four or five more second rounds and like a bunch more super days. Yeah, you're right about that fourth or fifth Super Day is really where you're going to be like in your zone. You've done it so much and you're starting to really feel comfortable. Which is why if it comes to April and I'm there, I'd love to just grill you with a live have to record it for the show. I'll just do it doing it over a beer and just I'm there for a full week,
John: [00:12:06] So I'd be doing. Where are you going to be? You're going to be OK, you said
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:09] Irvine, ok, you're right here. You're right here. You know, it's awesome.
John: [00:12:15] Yeah, we have to grab a beer then. Yeah. My in-laws live in Irvine, live in the West. You know the West Loop. I'm not familiar with it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:25] West Loop, I think, is the name of the street, it's like this little community, and it has like a little lake in the middle and it's pretty chill.
John: [00:12:32] Yeah, it's awesome whether or not I have like a Super Day coming up. We still grab a beer.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:36] Yeah, exactly. Ok, good. But yeah, it would be, you know, even if you don't have yet, and even if you don't, I can try to do like a little mini mock interview for you. I think, yeah, we can chat and have fun and maybe watch a game or something, but I think you'd be good to do a lot like a live one would be great because then I could really see a lot more about everything. And I don't think we've done too many. We haven't like really drilled down.
John: [00:13:01] No, I mean, you drilled me one time and I completely bombed it. And to be honest, like I was going to mention this like a couple of seconds ago, but I lost my train of thought. It's like when I get in these modes of networking, I also forget to pick up studying interviewing tactics. I feel like my, you know, my general behaviors and my simple technical, or, you know, my basic technical skills like, yeah, you've seen me, I've got those down. But when it gets like deeper, I really like, I'm going to be honest. Like, I've rarely picked up the book and really like Hammer down into it, whether that just be, yeah, I'm too focused on networking or too focused on school or to focus on, you know, doing a bunch of other stuff. But yeah, yeah, I really noticed that is like, it's
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:43] It's hard because like, you're a beautiful area of the country, it's always beautiful outside. You got to like, lock yourself away and feel like if you worked on like interview skills as hard as you're working with, you're out of school. You did like a couple 80 hour weeks. You'd be pretty good at interviewing very fast.
John: [00:14:03] I believe it. I believe it. And that's the
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:05] Thing. It's just hard to do because you're having fun. It's like your senior year you want to have. You don't want to just like. Throw away these last few months as well, but like, you know, it's important you don't want to move in with the parents either. So this is super important. I know
John: [00:14:23] It's important to me personally,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:26] If you don't, if you don't have a job when you graduate, it's not like the world ends. The world doesn't end, but it just gets It starts getting harder and harder. What are those things like now? You still have a cover?
John: [00:14:36] Yeah, I understand, though I totally understand that point definitely gets harder. I just feel like. Aside from like not, you know, setting, there's like really deep technical, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer every single time I do talk to somebody and every single time I interview, I feel like I'm getting more comfortable. And you know, from the last Super Day, I was like the farthest I've gone, and now I feel like I'm going to be getting these a lot easier. Do you feel
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:58] Like, did you ever do I think I like, can't even keep it straight who I'm. Because with Andrew, did you ever do that cheat like that? Google Sheet? Does that have the stories?
John: [00:15:09] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I shared it with you.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:11] Is that has that been helpful at all? Have you pulled off from that during your?
John: [00:15:15] Not really. I'm gonna be completely honest, I haven't really pulled. So when they
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:19] Ask you something, are they ever asking you, like, tell me about a time when you struggled in a group, in a group setting? No, I feel like I
John: [00:15:25] No, I feel like I have a yeah. I've haven't been asked any of those questions. Maybe like a Super Day. I will be even at the Super Day and.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:33] But like when they ask you the same
John: [00:15:35] Amount of time, they ask me those questions is more like.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:40] So I was going to say, what if they ask you like, why I b or like tell me about why we should pick you and not some other kid? have they ever asked something like that? Or what are your strengths like?
John: [00:15:49] Yeah, I mean, they kind of like foreshadow that. It's like, why? B, I've been asked that before. I definitely pulled some stories out of it, especially like, know my interest from it. Pretty much. I kind of like, incorporate that into my story. Like when they first asked about myself and how I got interested in investment making, and I kind of rolled through that. What do you say?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:12] What do you say for that? It's like the story is, is senior at UCI
John: [00:16:18] Coming in as an engineer? Just because, like my parents pushed it on me, didn't really love it. Then I studied math, and then that's when I found a good mix of like 20 kind of counting kind of my first internship at Disney blah my friend brought me into the Investment Banking association, and I really love the group of people. They're super driven, goal-oriented, and they all had the same interest in kind. And that's what they liked about it. And I've noticed that I might internships going forward. Then I talk about Harvey and what I did there,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:47] And when I say they have the same interesting kind, what do you mean? Like, they all have the same shared interest? Yeah, that's yeah.
John: [00:16:53] That's it wasn't like necessarily I kind of like stumbled. It's usually I say like the goal, like goal-driven and oriented. And then then I usually jumped to just like Harvey and Co. And it's good.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:04] Like, Yeah, I think the more the, the more you can show and the less you can tell them, the better you're going to sound. Ok, OK. It was really interesting. My friend pulled me over there and it kind of just opened my eyes to the whole world of finance. So I started networking to try and find an internship where I could just get any sort of experience. I was lucky enough to get to land at B. Riley, and I got some. I got to work on some deals, which really kind of just further solidified my interest in working in this field. So. So yeah, here I am. And that's like, that can be it. And so I think. Yeah, I think that's good, I think my point is if they do start asking weird questions in the Super Day or whatever about group dynamics, about all this stuff, just be ready with those stories because you don't want to be like, Oh, that's a tough one. Yeah, yeah, you're right for that silly, silly reason. You didn't have a story ready. That's a decent match, because sometimes they're weird. Sometimes it's like, tell me at a time you, you disagree with a superior and you like, How did you overcome that conflict? And it's like, you don't have a story ready for that, like you're going to be digging.
John: [00:18:09] Yeah, that's true. It's like, That's a good question. And you just sit there for like a minute thinking about it. Yeah, I totally understand, and I have a few stories written down on the dock.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:18] Ok. And I'll take a look if you want to link me in the chat or whatever or in the Skype chat Ok, so that I'll take another look through it just to see, OK, I
John: [00:18:27] Emailed it to you before and I'll look for that and then I'll link it to you. Perfect.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:31] Yeah, gotcha. The other thing the technical are one thing like Walk me through the TCF. Tell me about the different valuation methodologies, those you need to have down because they're very common. But obviously, they tell me about yourself and the why I b or the two most. Yeah, right? Yeah. Yeah, no, definitely. Those is like is really important and then being genuine and coming across as genuine, which I think based on what you just told me about the health care thing. It sounds like you're getting better at. Mm hmm. That was my impression based on what you said to that is right. It sounds like you're getting more comfortable with it and you're like, you're not. You're not bossing
John: [00:19:07] Anybody. As I try, I try not to at all. Like, I try to be as upfront and honest about it to I told him, like he asked me, So what are? The experience you had at B. Riley and Harvey Lake, what industries were you cast on? I was like to be honest, like in that scenario, I realized he was trying to see if I had any health care experience, right? And to be honest, I literally laid out the three.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:30] Like, you didn't oversell it. You didn't oversell it.
John: [00:19:33] Yeah, yeah. And then I told them, like at Harvard Company, I had, you know, I had some experience with nutraceuticals, not necessarily health care services, which you guys are specializing in. And then I named off a couple of deals that they, you know, have worked on, specifically him too, because I looked into his profile a lot. And, you know, I kind of talked about that, and then I started asking about his experience and the type of deals he worked on. And I really like I started like pressing him about one specific deal, too and like, want to dig a little deeper into that because they had like a webinar specific to that deal. And they all have a podcast for the firm. And I just like started talking about things like I really liked about the firm.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:12] Interesting. Mm hmm. So you felt like a conversation mark?
John: [00:20:16] Yeah, it was super conversational. It was, yeah. At first I tried to open up with like, Oh, how's your weekend? And he was just like, Great, OK, so yeah, yeah, I was like, I hate when that happens. But then later on he opened up.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:31] Yeah, OK, good. Good. So, yeah, do you have stuff ready for like, you know, why do you even want to be, you know, why do you want to work this many hours? I do know how many hours we work. Mm hmm. How do you know you're ready for actually working 80 hours a week or 90 hours a week?
John: [00:20:51] Yeah, I feel like we talked about this like, I don't know. I don't think it was last call, but the two calls ago, it's like you told me, I have a story for that one. And the story I have for that one is when I interned at Harvey and Company during my spring quarter, as well as I took up the internship at Power 106 just as a hobby of mine. And I basically tell them, like, yeah, like I've seen the experience. I've seen the hours at B. Riley before school started and I was working those hours there. But also before that, you know, I was working eight to four at Harvey and company, and then I would drive two hours to power in 06, where I would work six 30 to one 30 just out of interest. And like, I tell them like that, that's just who I am. I'm always hard working. I strive for the best and
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:35] I love it. That's great. That schedule is good, like actually given the time frame to realize, like, wait, he didn't really sleep.
John: [00:21:42] Yeah, no, I didn't. That's good.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:44] That's what they want to know, can you survive on sleep deprivation because that's a big requirement for the job. Couple of coffees and I'm good. Yeah. Ok, so what about it? Sounds like you're getting more comfortable. It sounds like you as you start getting more interviews, you slow down. So to get these two interviews? What was the rate you were putting out? Geez, you're going crazy for these ones, yeah. Like I still have, I still have a lot. I had a lot of phone calls like during that time period, too, and then those
John: [00:22:15] Just those to turn into interviews too. Like I had another, I applied to another bank that's looking for an analyst to go and had a phone call with one of their associates in New York. They have two offices, and that phone call went extremely well. I think she was an alumni. You see, I or UCSD, I think as UCI. Yeah. And. You know, that went well. She said she's going to pass along, pass on my resume and I've yet to hear back. I should probably follow up with her this week.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:43] Sounds like a week ago. That was not last
John: [00:22:45] Week, but the week before that was at the end of last week. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, I applied. They have an open position and, you know, I thought we hit it off. She said they weren't looking for full time, full-time analysts and New York, but they are looking for one in San Francisco. So she said it's great that you applied, but we're going to like, I'll pass on your resume. I just need to follow up with. Yeah, definitely stay.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:09] Don't let too much time go between that and like because she could have knowing how busy they are. Forget to forward it and like you do a great call and then it's for nothing. And then if you enjoy your show, we'll be like, Oh yeah, yeah, and then send it. It's like so many things drop through the cracks and like, you have to just get to guide them and. Make sure that you don't you're not one of those people. So, yeah, so it sounds like. How many connections are you up to, no. You're going crazy. Is it mostly through LinkedIn?
John: [00:23:41] Yeah, mostly through LinkedIn. And I've been getting a really great response, and I noticed that when I messaged people via a sales navigator, it sends them an email as well to whatever I least like. I get an email about it and it looks like they're responding to me via email. So kind of weird out there,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:57] But you only have a certain number of emails, right?
John: [00:24:00] Yeah. No, I use, I use, I use all of them. I think it was like 20. Every so often you get a couple. But yeah, when I find somebody on sales navigator, I hop on LinkedIn too, and I find them and message them as well.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:13] Yeah, I think you're going to need a lot more than 20.
John: [00:24:16] Oh, yeah, no, I've used up. I used up all those.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:24:18] It was just like, No, but it's cool. Yeah, it is good. I think the connection requests, though, like, just keep going, man. Yeah, I will
John: [00:24:27] Like it's just
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:28] Talking to Andrew. You know, it's harder for Andrew because he has an internship all lined up. He's a junior. He already has a job lined up. He had his trip to New York, is cancelled because he's coming from Canada and they have all this networking. I'm like, Just do the trip yourself, man. Yeah, just because there's corona. I mean, there's like five people with corona, you know what I mean? So it's like, just go yourself and you have two months. I told me, you have two months. He has a week in between. He start working, he starts his internship. And when he finishes his finals like that week, if you're in New York meeting with 40 people, you have potentially four full time. After you're done with your internship in Toronto, you have all these connections where you can potentially jump to New York. That's awesome. Was he supposed to? Sorry, go ahead. I was just saying, Yeah, I just. Same thing. He's like, he's tough to motivate for him because he's like, he has. He already has a good internship lined up for junior year and it can lead to full time.
John: [00:25:16] So yeah, you never know. But I mean, it's good to keep relationships open. You never want to burn bridges or even build new ones to it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:23] Always, like, I'm like, you know, you can hit one hundred people off and LinkedIn like every day and they won't block your account. Yeah, I'm like, OK, let's do some math. So like, he's like, So yeah, if I reach out to, you know, for like 20 meetings, I'm like, Don't do the trip to New York unless you can at least meet with 20 people for like that whole week or ideally 30. And he's like, and I'm like, So how many people you have to reach out to get to thirty-eight to 30 actual in-person meetings? I'm like, you. Yeah, I'm like, you. Probably. You probably need like three hundred connections and like one hundred calls to get to. Yeah, yeah. So like a couple of thousand? Probably so I told a lot. You know, 20 minutes, 30, 30 minutes a day is enough, though. Yeah, that's great for him, though.
John: [00:26:08] Is he supposed to look like a school group?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:10] He was supposed to go with like the see if he was hoping the CFA society this contest that if he had won it, they won the portside, but they didn't win the presentation would have paid for his trip a dog to cancel. Anyways, it all got cancelled. So okay, so then he was going to go with the Finance Association of his school to do a trip to New York every year and that got canceled. So now he's like, Oh man, he has nothing but he's in a good spot. He's in a good spot. Grace isn't Grace is like a freshman, and she already has. She's like, set. Yeah, I'm not worried about her at all. She's also in New York. So good for her, good for her. So proud. So we've got to get you. We've got to get you. You're really close, man. I feel like you're going to happen next time we talk. I have a good feeling it happened.
John: [00:26:55] Yeah, me too. Hopefully, they like speed up the process. Oh yeah. Also, he asked. Like where I am in recruiting process with other firms, too.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:02] And that's the other reason why flooding in not stopping with the networking is huge. Yeah, because I'm saying I'm in, I'm in three other processes. It's amazing. And if you can legitimately say that, yeah, I said that. I well, I said,
John: [00:27:15] I said, Well, I have a Super day this Friday, and I have another phone interview tomorrow. And then I'm also talking to two other firms in Seattle and one in New York because I'm still talking to those ones. And then he was like, Yeah, that's great. And then he started going on about and then he asked me, like, what's your preference and location? I was like Los Angeles. And then he was like, That's great, because we really need people. It helps that you're from the area. Yeah. Yeah. So that made me feel better about going to get an offer from them. I hope so. Fingers crossed, you know, knock on wood.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:45] You don't have to tell me who it is, but maybe offline, you can tell me who it is or chat to me. But yeah, I think. That sounds like that phrase being able to say, I'm in this, I'm in this process, this other process, I have a super date on Friday. I have these calls and I've been talking with these. Do you realize what that does to your perceived value?
John: [00:28:04] Yeah, it shoots it up. Not like the market right now.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:06] Oh, like not like the stock market right now, which is like a lost eight percent today. But no, like no, literally. It is like 10x is your profile. It's not like a two x like 10x is your chances. By being able to say you're in all these other processes, you've got to be careful. A lot of people try to lie about that stuff and they're like, Oh, well, thanks or whatever. I'll say I have names
John: [00:28:30] Like I,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:31] So like other people have tried to do that and they get caught like, yeah, bullshitting. That's why doing it in a wave as well, like you going hard for like a couple of weeks or three weeks and then having all these first rounds and second rounds at the same time, it actually has it has a multiplier effect. It's actually more beneficial than what you'd expect.
John: [00:28:48] That makes sense. Yeah, I don't really see it till now. So that's pretty cool.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:52] Yeah. So I have a feeling because you said that you're definitely getting passed on and then when they ask you again. So same thing, you're able to deliver that same answer to a partner or to an MD. Yeah. So get him an offer
John: [00:29:06] Now, yes, so what I'm hoping is this Friday, I have I think I sent you a message about the Super day. I have like one of the big. So it's weird. I applied a long time ago and I had a couple of calls with the people at this firm and they just got back to me about like a Super Day. It's big. Yeah. So it's a big four and it's financial services consulting. It's like so it's I can show it to you offline, it's like.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:36] Writing it down. Yeah, I'm a little nervous. It's not transaction advisory.
John: [00:29:39] No, it's not. So I actually talked to I have like a network and call with analysts there from one of the other locations. And he said, Yeah, it's like consulting, but specifically for big banks and financial services institutions.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:53] Sounds like a big dude. Yeah.
John: [00:29:58] So I mean, I'm not like whether I get it or not, like If I get it great. What I'm hoping is, as I can leverage this into,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:07] That's a Super Day this Friday. Yeah, dude, that sucks.
John: [00:30:13] Yeah, why? Why that sucks.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:14] No, it sucks. Because like you're kind of far along what other bank you should be telling. You should be assuming you're going to get that offer. Okay. And so you're not going to have more than like a week after that to accept or reject, probably, you know? Yeah. The thing is, is like, so the two
John: [00:30:36] Banks I've been talking in Seattle. Yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:40] You froze up for a sec, but yeah. Oh, oh. I've been talking, I've been networking with like the CEO of one of the banks in Seattle and because it's got networked with him
John: [00:30:52] Or connected with him in the fall of last year, and he told me that his bank and another bank merged. So now they're working under one name now. And you know, he's telling me they're going to kick off the recruiting process in February. Got with him, then had a quick phone call. He told me they're going to start later or early in March and then got with him late last week. I was like, Hey, like, when are you guys going to start kicking it off? And he's like, Oh, thanks for checking back in, blah. He's like in terms of know because they're up in Washington. So he was like, everybody's been working remotely, so we're pushing it for another two weeks. So he was like, we scheduled a call for middle of March, which I assume will be my first phone interview. And hopefully that goes well. And then the other firm in Seattle just got back to me last week and says they're re-evaluating their animals pool and they're going to get back to me at the end of April about whether they're going to find me up for dinner or not. Mind you, I already had four points, five points of touch with this firm with five different people.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:00] That's the thing with boutiques is like small. They don't know their plans to change every day based on the whim of a partner.
John: [00:32:07] Yeah, they're not really a boutique either. they're middle market. They're middle market. They're yeah, they're well too. I'd feel like. And they have locations in New York
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:16] And also depends like if they lose an analyst's boom, everything changes. Yeah, yeah. So and they have a good training
John: [00:32:22] Program, too, like
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:23] It doesn't help with the market's melting down right now.
John: [00:32:26] Yeah, maybe that's why a lot of
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:28] People, yeah, a lot of people are kind of like In terms of hiring. A lot of people are freaking out like, is a recession coming? Do we want to do this? So this is It's not the best time to be looking since you obviously, didn't you? Weren't you in a similar situation when you graduated? Yeah, 02 right after nine eleven. Right after nine eleven. Okay, so it was bad. It was bad too. I got an offer for full time. It was like the last interview on campus in December. So you're past that
John: [00:32:57] Way, past that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:59] Yeah, you're past that. But you're getting looks, you're getting looks. I think you may start hearing a lot about that, though, like so that's why I just keep like networking, man, don't assume anything is going to come through. Yeah. Pretend like you have to get three offers to get one. Like to get yeah. And then like, you're going to get that one, I feel like you will. But yeah, I mean, if things keep melting down in the market and then we do go into recession or this coronavirus keeps spreading, it could be. It could definitely put a damper on the hiring market for the foreseeable future.
John: [00:33:36] Okay, that makes sense. I think it's kind of weird because like the senior associate interviewed today, he said that their deal flow is actually picking up. I don't know. Maybe it's because of health care services or health care specifically. And he says they're like upping the amount of analysts or bringing on for the summer, and maybe they're just growing as a bank. But yeah, I know totally like in terms of like the general market. Yeah, I can definitely see it slowing down and people are definitely cutting on the numbers that they're bringing in. And that's also scary.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:02] Energy just melted today. Yeah, yeah. Xle down like 20 percent like, oh, that's tempting to buy some, but you know, oil is probably. Long term, who knows what will happen?
John: [00:34:16] Everything is going down the generator.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:18] Yeah, things aren't as overvalued anymore, though things are like much
John: [00:34:24] More reasonable right now. Do you have any cash? You can definitely put in. Not enough.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:29] I wish I had more lots invested, so I stayed through the financial crisis. I didn't panic. It was good, but I'll go back up.
John: [00:34:38] Yeah, that's me right now.
I feel
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:40] Better. I feel better about this time around, too, because it's not like some sort of systemic like economic issue. It's like a virus that's should at most lasts through. Jim, most this summer. Yeah, I mean, I think it should fizzle, so
John: [00:34:59] I think it will fizzle in the summer like I was listening to a podcast that says, like these viruses, like they were relating it back to the 1918 Influenza virus back then H1N1. Yeah, they said it fizzles in the summer, but then it may hit back harder in the fall just because viruses don't like warm weather. So yeah, Yeah. So yeah, I mean, hopefully corona doesn't stop you from getting a job. I hope not.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:27] Yeah, but listen, I think. Try, I mean, you're mostly focusing on the job search and not your schoolwork, right?
John: [00:35:35] Yeah. Well, yeah, this week we have finals, but in terms of like the job search, like how do you have
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:41] Finals is tremendous.
John: [00:35:43] Interviews Yeah, that's like, yeah, it's trimester quarterly. Yeah, a quarter quarters, quarter to quarter, one quarter after this. Yeah. And I have a pretty easy-going schedule for the spring. So I mean, most of my time will be spent on the job hunt. Hopefully, by then I have something sealed, but you know, I don't assume I'll have anything sealed before. I mean, I think after these finals are done, you have to like, literally be a maniac. You should be a maniac right now because if you get this offer from KPMG, I mean, you'd be a fool not to take it. Yeah. Ok.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:18] So just because you're so close to graduating, like it's going to pay you a really good salary and get you some corporate experience and you can still network. Do you know where it is?
Speaker223: [00:36:27] Is it in L.A.? Yeah, it's in L.A. But yeah, I'll be traveling like Monday through Thursday, and I'll be in the office Friday if I can get that one. Yeah. Consulting. Yeah, but like I said, hopefully if I get that, I'll leverage that at the two firms in L.a. that I'm interviewing with and then see if they'll like, know,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:36:47] Yeah, maybe you'll like it. I mean, who knows? He'll like, Yeah, maybe it'll be good for you to learn more even on the Super Day to learn more about, like what exactly to do? Like, what are the trends like? What's the career look like there if you wanted to stay there? Stuff like that. Hmm.
John: [00:36:59] Ok. Yeah, that's something awesome them don't like. just because I say something, you know,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:05] Doesn't necessarily mean, you know, I'm not all-knowing. Plus, if the positive is, if you start working as a consultant, you can start calling all the consulting teams, which are pretty funny on Instagram.
John: [00:37:16] I was like, This guy is not serious. That's funny. That's really funny. I already feel like the I-beams. Yeah, you got to start following the consulting once in you, maybe in consulting before you know It. Yeah. Oh, that's good. That's good. Yeah, yeah. A lot of my friends are doing consulting at Deloitte. I have a few buddies in my and my, yeah, my fraternity that I already got full-time offers there. So maybe I'll join the stockpile. But you know, I don't know about that. We'll see.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:37:53] Yeah, let's see what happens. Yeah. All right. Well, I'll let you run. But anything else I can help be helpful with you. I'm going to look through that story thing again. Or do you feel like you got it? You got your answers down. Do you want to do a mock or something next time we talk?
John: [00:38:09] Yeah, I think a mock next time we talk will definitely be helpful. I mean, when you're down here, I feel like meeting in person and doing that face to face interview would be super helpful because I feel like when you come, they'll be around. The time will be brought in for a Super Day or two, hopefully, too. Yeah. So yeah, they'll be super helpful. And then in terms of stories, yeah, I'll dig it up and I'll send it to you again. And I had a couple of questions last time that I'll send again, and hopefully you can help me out with that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:34] So yeah, did I miss getting back to you on certain questions? I don't remember it's been a month, but it's OK. Ok. You have tried to think what else? Yeah, I mean, so what are you doing actually on the numbers in terms of networking? You slow down this week because you have finals and stuff, but what were you doing?
John: [00:38:52] Yeah, I was like at least a hundred a day. I put into two hours
Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:38:57] Like doing one hundred outreach like LinkedIn connection. No, no, no. Sorry, no connection requests connection. Yeah, yeah. So what I would do is like every day I would like go through a school like UCI went through in a day
John: [00:39:09] You see a C, and that took me at least two hours, at least UCSD. I went through a day. Once I got to UCSB, that took me two separate days to get through it. And then I love it. I love this. So every day, like I would focus on a school and go through all the alumni and invest in baking at that specific school. And that's how it kind of paced myself. I wouldn't be like, What are you thinking
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:30] About the next kind of groups to hit besides the U.S.? What do you think that sounds like? It's been really, really helpful.
John: [00:39:36] Yeah, I have would say Cal States, we have. I mean, the Cal State network is huge bigger than UC, so that will be my next target after that, probably. I want to say. I don't know, like I want to say, like, yeah, I want to say Usc and then like other smaller private schools in the area because we have a lot of private schools in the area from the Claremont McKenna schools.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:02] Claremont McKenna has a strong little IB program, by the way. They license our courses for their
John: [00:40:07] Businesses.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:08] That's pretty cool. They're legit.
John: [00:40:10] Actually, the girl that told you that I had a great conversation with New York. She was actually a Claremont McKenna MBA alum. And when I looked at the profiles of that bank, a lot of them came from Claremont McKenna. Yeah. So they were a little like eating into that.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:26] They have a small little IB program for like 40 kids there that does well.
John: [00:40:29] Yeah, that's pretty cool. I think that's awesome. Is it like a class or is
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:33] It like a workshop of some server that like they get together and then they all? Well, I know that school licenses are courses for them so that they can go through that stuff and study together and stuff like that, and they might do a trip together as well. Okay. But yeah, I'd be all the way for them. But yeah, I think I think honestly, yeah, I don't stop doing what's working. I mean, you were putting in the hours to get those calls in those meetings.
John: [00:41:01] Yeah, and it definitely worked. But it's working. It's worked. Yeah. And I just got to pick it up again because I mean, I do feel like a little not like I don't even know what the word is, but I do feel like a little down when I don't have those like phone calls like today. Today, I had the interview. Tomorrow I have three Phone calls, but the rest of the week I feel like Other than Friday because like, I'm going up for the super date. Yeah, Wednesday and Thursday's open and the past two weeks every day at least had two or three at least. So I need to definitely take it up. Yeah. Well, the good news is as you as you keep going, you'll start actually
Patrick (CEO of WSO): 00:41:31] Stacking. So you're going to you could in the stuff starts flowing in from like ones you reached out like weeks ago. You'll still start getting a trickle of people coming in responding to those. Yeah. And so you might surprise you might start getting four or five a day. Yeah, sooner than you think if you keep it up. But yeah, I try to get back on to the hundred a day, if you can, just because it's crunch time, like you said and you're not getting March back, March 9th is almost over. You're not getting March 9th back. My point is like each day is like a day. Yeah, each day is another day closer to graduation, which is what it may or June. water systems in June. Yeah, June.
John: [00:42:12] Yeah, I know. It's like but still like a lot of these programs kick off in June or early July, early July. Yeah, so I mean, they're not going to wait on me to graduate to give me a job. So yeah,
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:24] You're right, I got to pick it up for sure. No. But yeah, keep it up. Because like it was working, you had a couple of really good connections out of those blasts. And yeah, now like you have the resume, man, you have the resume, it's just making sure you're getting it into the right hands at the right time. So like you've hit a couple and they're turning into opportunities. So just a couple more of those, even just for the reps. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I can feel it.
John: [00:42:48] It's getting closer. I know I said it last time, but this time you like a tidal wave. I can
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:53] Feel it. It's going to crash. No, no. We shouldn't say crash. It's going to. You're going to triumph soon enough. Yeah, OK, cool. So you just keep that up. Let's just make it. It's just an odds game. It's just a numbers game.
John: [00:43:05] You're right, it's exactly that. And that's what I've been telling. Like all the younger dudes in my fraternity and like the investment banking association, it's just a numbers game. You just got to keep reaching out. And that's exactly what happened since our last call. Yeah. Good reminder definitely helps if
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:21] You keep it up if you keep it up. Yeah. Well, we'll have a little celebration, hopefully in a month instead of a mock interview. Sounds good. That'd be awesome. We'll talk later. Let me know if I can help with anything in the meantime. Ok?
John: [00:43:34] Ok, we'll do. Definitely reach out. Thank you so much. Good luck. Bye.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:38] 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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