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Monkey to Millions | Victor (Session 5) - Mock Interview to Prep for a Fidelity Interview - June 14, 2021

Monkey to Millions

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In this session, I put Victor through a realistic mock interview for a position as an investment solutions specialist with Fidelity. Both of us see this as a great opportunity because it gets him a stable paycheck and drops the hours he's working from 80+ down to more like 50ish. This will give him more time to network and actively improve himself.

 

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WSO Podcast (Episode 5) Transcript:

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:23] 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, I put Victor through a realistic mock interview for a position as an investment solutions specialist with Fidelity. Both of us see this as a great opportunity because it gets him a stable paycheck and drops the hours he's working from 80 plus down to more like 50 ish. This will give him more time to network and actively Improve himself with financial modeling, training, and whatnot. Enjoy. All right, Victor, it's been a while. What a month or two a month or a couple months, six and a half weeks? Awesome. So yeah, I love for you just to give an update on To myself and I talked With you for about 10 minutes last week. But yeah, just I'd love for you to share it.

Victor: Absolutely. Before I start, how are your how's your throat? I know the last time.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:57] I think the big party I had on Saturday night helped me relax.

Victor: [00:02:01] Oh, that's awesome. That's great.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:03] Party party means I had, like a couple other friends over with their kids were seven kids in Our house and like, It was great. They just entertain each other and it was just like the adults could sit and just have A few drinks and relax.

Victor: [00:02:16] Nice. That's a party. All right. Yeah. Seven kids.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:19] Nice, huge party. I think I stayed up past midnight for like the first time in like months.

Victor: [00:02:24] That's awesome. That's awesome. So I just want to kind of give you a quick recap. Last time I think we talk was an early April, and I told you I had since the start of this year, I had some personal problems that I kind of had to put in order to kind of figure it out. I'm coming to basically closure on that kind of solid management, very close to the solution. It's almost done because of my contract job that I found most of them are minimum wage jobs. But I like we talked about as a corporate dishwashing job, they teach you one or two things and you find it basically, You know, do the few functions for the big firms. So I was kind of trying to make the ends Meet by working a bunch of Jobs and working.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:12] How many hours a week you were to work 80 plus hours

Victor: [00:03:15] A day plus hours? Yeah, 80

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:17] 80 Plus hours a week you're doing, but you're only getting paid while like 15 bucks an hour.

Victor: [00:03:20] Fifteen, sixteen dollars an hour.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:03:24] Yeah, yeah. So you're struggling to

 Pay the bills. Ok, so tell me a little bit about just, Yeah, what do you do?

Victor: [00:03:28] So you told me about like the kind of looking into the LinkedIn, looking into the, you know, networking and talking to people starting somewhere because you you told me that maybe we need a kind of different perspective. Find the job that you can actually Work 40 to 50 Hours and you have that quite a large amount of time. If I'm doing about 90 hours, that is like a 40 hours, which I can put into Work, get the courses done, you know, do other networking events, get my technical skills up to the level? Because coming from one work having like twenty five minutes eating and trying to do that and going to work, it's just the learning Process is basically broken down. And if there is no focus and if you're too tired, it's just you cannot learn that way.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:16] You're not valuing your time at sixteen dollars an hour enough or you're not going to get anywhere if you stay in that rut.

Victor: [00:04:21] True, true. True. So I took your advice to heart with a little bit of luck or a little persistence. I found few people and some one of the one of them, actually, his son was working for Fidelity, So He had introduced us and we kind of got connected to our data guy as action in California. But his son was living in Utah. So I, yeah, I want to meet him and I. We sat down with talk. They asked me questions. It talked about how he started as a sales representative when it was straight out of college. I think It was 21 or something like that, and he got promoted seven Times. Now he's making Two hundred twenty thousand dollars, Something like that. And he's yeah, about the change of jobs. And he looked at my resume and again, I told him, like, I have a mentor. His name is Patrick, and he is this founder of the. So he knew because it was looking into when he was in college. Of course he's your mentor. I'm like, Yes, he's like, Well, that's awesome. Yeah, he and I worked on this, and It's the fruit of his labor on my resume is that I don't think you would want to work for the fidelity. I didn't want to kind of describe what's going on in the background. Actually, Fidelity would be just like our lifeline to get out of this rut. So I didn't want to say anything. He was expecting me. I kind of you have this much experience, you went to Georgetown. Fidelity, kind of.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:54] He was thinking that you Even have like Goldman on your resume. Yes, very impressive. But they don't know what's really going on, I guess. Yeah. So how did you kind of make your way because you may have to deal with that on Wednesday with you. You have an interview coming up. So you may have to deal with similar types of thoughts of like, why do you even want this fidelity?

Victor: [00:06:11] Yeah, I told them, Look, look. Ever since I came to the United States, I was always interested in investing in finance financial markets. I didn't even know what I'm going to go to college for that I have a different ideas. But when I got To Georgetown, I majored in international economics and finance. I took lots of finance classes. I, most of my internship was strictly was dealing with the financial markets, even the consulting internship that I did. It was mostly in the financial analysis financial industry. And one thing that fidelity attracted me, that it actually starts from the scratch. It kind of strips your all kind of like, you know, rags and you know, all this like, you went to Georgetown. They don't care. They provided you with the tools and they ask, you take these series seven and six three. And if you are a good student, which I believe that I am, If you pass those tests, they start you with the tools and support system. And then there is almost like upward mobility is pretty good and this is not just on the go right up there. There are a bunch of people that I talked to at the fidelity, and they all concur with the notion that it's pretty it's very much a structured environment. They have few things that they need you to do. And if you do it well, you actually move up in the company very fast. And it's also something this role

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:07:33] This really apply for is like asset management is like for private wealth.

Victor: [00:07:37] It is. It is an investment solution representative. And I think there are two things. There is a high net worth Individuals and also the This institutional investors along with the companies. So I think you get to choose the track, you can mix them up. This is what I'm actually trying to mix them up a little bit, but they will kind of come to you with that. I think somewhere midway in the six month because first 10 weeks is just the training they need. You kind of they pay you to get you license seven, Six, three And no other company Does that. And if you have them, yeah, if you have them, you can actually get if you do well, they start poaching the other companies that poaching. So they want to lock you in. So for at least about a year and a half, you have to work with them, which Is fine, you know?

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:22] Yeah, the base isn't that high. It's like 50 or 40 something or whatever, but they've got fifty

Victor: [00:08:27] Four thousand something like that.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:29] But at least it gives you time because then you're probably Only doing 40 to 50 hours a week, 60 hours a Week.

Victor: [00:08:35] And that extra 10 hours is, you put it, like a time and a half. So that will be yeah, it's about sixty thousand, which is great. Yeah. So I have actually that 30 hours that I can put into another personal development things.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:52] Now is your time, I love it. Ok, and so are you thinking of staying in Utah, going California? What's the thought?

Victor: [00:08:57] So the job is based on a Utah and it's 50 50. I'll be at the office 50 percent of the time, under 50 percent of the time. An office is basically if it's a high net worth individuals or seeing their representative, like institutional investors or the Companies kind of have to travel a little bit. But it's like Within the city. It's not like across the state saying go to California, too. But so far, I kind of planning to stay here for about a year and a half to kind of learn the basic get the ropes down on. If I wanted to kind of move into California. Once I have to look Knowing that I spend up to

Seven months, then I can transfer. And by that time, I hope I'm hoping that,

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:35] Yeah, this might be a really good fit For you. I think given that you're a little bit older too. It's actually an advantage to be a little bit older in this industry because it's like normal respect comes with that. Like people I see, Like coming out of college, it's very hard to people like to feel comfortable. I see every minute. I mean, not that you're going to be managing money like Right away, but like the age of you or you could actually get see yourself get promoted pretty fast. So tell me a little bit. So I guess you have an interview for this Coming up Wednesday.

Victor: [00:10:04] It was Thursday, so one last screen on the phone. This is what I think the manager, because they had the screen interview I passed that then they send you. This assessment Has two parts skills, like a basic Math reading. It was not that hard. It was difficult to kind of measure. If you know how to make the numbers work and you understand the text and you kind of come up with the solutions and the second part of it, like,

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:29] I think as you pass that, you pass that second part, the assessment.

Victor: [00:10:32] Yeah, both of them. Ok. So this Thursday, it's going to be another interview. I think it's not a phone conversation with a hiring manager. And then I'm going to go to the office, I think, sometime next week. They haven't told me exactly the day yet. It'll be their final interview. On based on what I've Heard, I don't want to jinx it, but that's what I've heard. They love my resume. They love my background and the guy who actually introduced me to them. He basically hype me up so much. It is like a comment from the internal thing. So they just pulled my resume out. And that is Thanks to you because I have a bunch Of places I have not Heard anything

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:16] And based on your knowledge? That's all you know, and that's that wasn't even that much networking from you. That was like, you know, the first 10 messages.

Victor: [00:11:24] Yes. Yes. I actually was sports fan messages because I couldn't send anymore because of the job at whatever time I can find and you got back to me and the rest is kind of a story.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:34] So I'd love to do. You sent me a list of fidelity interview Questions that kind of what to expect. So I'd love to do like a little mini Mock interview now and then I can Kind of take notes while you're talking, please. And then kind of tell you where I think you might need a little bit more or a little bit less because I don't want to leave anything, even though it sounds like you have. You have a good inside track to getting this. I don't want to leave It to chance. I want to have you ready and Comfortable and coming in there. Um, so let's do you mind jumping straight into that? Yes, let's do that. All right. So I'm writing them down right now. The six questions, OK, we'll just go through these six Because Obviously this is probably they're going to ask you or something similar. All right, so welcome, Victor, to to your quick, informal chat with us. Just want to learn more about you? I'd love it if you could just start by just walking through your resume. Give me a little bit of background on yourself.

Victor: [00:12:26] Absolutely. I'll start from my educational background. I resume graduate Georgetown University. I majored in international economics and finance, And I minored in French. I moved to Utah at the end of graduation, and although I had a job offered due to pandemic, most of the jobs they offered, they actually resigned the offer they offered. After a few months, I landed a job as a contractor at Goldman Sachs and I've been at Goldman Sachs ever since I was Part of the credit and risk Team. I'm basically assessing and evaluating the company's credit risk, and based on that assessment, I let my supervisors and managers know if the company is good to go. If not, they required a secondary review. That's basically the bulk of what I do at Goldman Sachs these Days. It's one of the major function. Before Goldman Sachs, I had few internship. I had to One or two Consultant internship and two financial Private equity And a Morgan Stanley internship. I would say about ninety five percent of what I've done in internship is directly related to the financial industry. I was either In The team of the debt Instruments or we did overall competitive health of the companies when I was working with the consulting company. But majority of the work I've done based around my education, I would say, pretty much overlapped.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:06] Great. Sorry. I'm just taking quick notes. Um, great, so Why are you interested in fidelity?

Victor: [00:14:14] So there are a few reasons, one of the reasons the fidelity that I got to talk with you, people, one of them is Dan Brown or otherwise, OK? And they both have been at the firm a little over five or six years. And the few things that I've learned, not just based on the research or Google or Glassdoor, but actually talking to people face to face. They told me that they start you off with the great tools at your disposal, and if you're a good, hard working person and they just want you succeed. And if you apply yourself, if you get those licenses done, there is huge upward mobility in the company. And if you show your capabilities, leadership and technical skills within very few short months, you can actually move up very fast. And that comes with a great pay raise that comes with great benefits. And then also the training outside the fidelity they have the tuition reimbursement. They also help you out with your debts that you

Incurred during the college years. If you had the federal loans and stuff like that after six months, they start paying that as well, helping to pay that too. That was another for me and also a transfer. If any state that you want to go after working In one firm, you can easily Transfer to different regional Centers, which was another Appeal to me because I really like that, that you have that flexibility. It's not just located in one place and you don't have the option to. So there are a few reasons that fidelity really appeals to me.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:15:49] That's great. Ok. And then so specifically. Sounds like you've had some roles at Goldman. How have you handled, you know, tough, tough situation with your boss or tough customers? And what was the last Time, you know you solved solve a problem like that?

Victor: [00:16:09] So I will give you two example, one from recent Goldman Sachs experience and another one from the, I would say, early experience when I actually had a face to face and weight issue with their customers when I was working for a consulting company. So as you know, when the pandemic hit, everything became virtual and it was hard to kind of conduct training and due to technological issues we always had. Even at Goldman, I really was floored that they would have these issues. But there was always some kind of technical issues, and sometimes the emails would get sent and certain access to certain systems wouldn't work. But since I was in charge of kind of assessing, evaluating and pushing that forward, that piece of that part of the action, it wouldn't get taken place and I would get angry of first from my supervisor. Then with the big People jumping to call and I have to kind of walk them through a kind of calm everyone down and the client would be on the other side talking to BP and it was Internal client. So I had To kind of make sure that first I explain the situation Very calmly, listen to their complaints, listen and understand Them well, then explain step by step what went wrong.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:26] You said there were technical issues. What do you mean by that in terms of setting up calls or setting up like access to certain systems?

Victor: [00:17:32] Set up this access system?

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:33] Why would the pandemic impact that? I don't know.

Victor: [00:17:35] So because you didn't have access to access to the technical People or if it Would be hard, they would be always away from their Desk and it had to Have to push some kind of button For you to kind of, let's say You got a bunch of entities that coming along and you have to evaluate them for you to evaluate them.To some, let's

Say CI department, they have to push that to me as a committee, which is their credit department. If they haven't done their work, I can do my work. And for me to access that, they have to access that. But my supervisor only would see their part of my part of the process not being done. So I have to kind of come down saying that I'm working on it. I'm on the phone with the CIA. Guys who are working on it give us 10, 15 minutes. We're kind of working through this. I think two things that I learned at first that you've got a first listen. If you jump and Talk, it doesn't go well, you've got to listen to everything they have to say. They kind of get the things out of their chest and their system. Then you kind of Break it down step by Step. You got to get the Solutions that you understand, acknowledge that problem, hear the solutions and you kind of walk them through the solutions and the other one. The example when I was internet up on the lounge area, we had an issue with it was an NGO that asked us to kind of determine the price capability of Their raising their services, whether it's Through raise the price or not. It was, I think, Friday night and everyone was kind of looking forward to go to that, you know, company sponsor, company finance, the happy hours and my team lead. He left early without telling me that if he has done the work or not, it's finished and it wasn't his fault. Everyone was kind of worked that very many hours that week and I got on a call my day at the company. I had no idea half of the time what they were asking me to do, what they were talking about. But I just kind of listen, Took notes and Made sure that to kind of explain that it will be taken care of by the first thing in The morning. So when I went to the happy hours, I Would not let the Manager know because I didn't want my team to kind of get into trouble or kind of relay them all the information. We came back and he showed me the system. So first thing in the morning, I came earlier, like around seven o'clock before everybody showed up. I fixed it, and by the time the manager came, they checked and we got on the phone and the problem was solved.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:20:04] That's great. I like that. What about feedback you don't agree with? What if you get, how do you handle that?

Victor: [00:20:11] So feedback portion it is tough. If you kind of think that you're doing right and what there is some kind of think that whether the two has not been provided to you or there was some kind of issue. I think the very first thing would be that you've got to identify what is the source of it and what is that you don't agree with. Because if you can kind of identify, I say that, well, I see your point. I understand where you're coming from. These are the things are missing and this is what I could do this. Is there Any way we can kind of Supply This kind of resource, whether it Was a time from work Or get an extra help from Someone if they are handling? I'm here. Excuse me, Assuming that you kind of have To put in the work, it comes with that assumption. So if that's the case, then it would be probably a not a good idea To kind of not to Disagree with the. But if there's some kind Of resource is not being supplied to you, I would say again make sure that it is a clear cut and definite what it is that you are asking For and If there is any chance or capability for the person that you know, clearly supply that whether it's in any form of help in Terms of time Or in terms of any kind of resources or access to certain systems and in your training, so that next time around, so you can actually step by step,

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:21:36] You're just trying to talk it out, basically

Victor: [00:21:39] Communicating but making sure that you have what action steps in plan. So next time you won't face it. But if it's like my problem was always that one is vague and ambiguous to do a better job. I don't know what that means. So I would actually kind of ask questions saying that Doing a better job Means doing a lot less time or doing it Differently or Answering three phone calls instead of five phone calls, whatever the case might be.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:07] Would you say that's a strength of yours?

Victor: [00:22:09] I would think so. I would say so.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:11] I guess what about some other strengths and give me, do you have a couple of others?

Victor: [00:22:16] Yes, I'm very good student. I am very determined. I love learning any kind of learning, whether it's physical or mental. I enjoy the process of learning. I know it's frustrating. But once you kind of get to a certain plateau, once you kind of your brain kind of wires and it gets the pass, that sort of like a frustration point, it is enjoyable. And I found out that once you have the system in place for learning, you can learn anything. And I mean, Of course, given your Genetics, you cannot. I cannot dunk a basketball, but most things in life that can be either learned through that process or I love learning that is one.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:22:54] Sure, you look pretty tall. You sure you can't talk.

Victor: [00:22:57] I don't. I try. I am OK basketball player. But I can.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:23:02] What about weaknesses or stuff you're working on? Tell me about like where you feel like you could learn the most?

Victor: [00:23:07] Absolutely. First thing I would say is just might not have the licenses because I know most people apply to this jobs. They already have either seven or six three. But what I have is a plan in place. I know the company is actually helping people to study and take care of the exam since I know how to study. One thing that Georgetown and military taught me well is how to study for certain Things, and At that kind of makes me puts me ideas that I will get it done. Second thing is from the military time they train you very much On paying attention to details. We get to kind of sometimes miss this big picture. We kind of, in the fall, get stuck in the time really takes making everything correct. But sometimes you kind of see that the bigger picture is different. We might actually not. You might get actually stuck on certain details that you do not have to. You can actually doesn't need to be perfect, so it can be OK once you eat the certain standards. One thing I have employed in the past was to kind of either talk to a colleague or the person who's actually in charge of the project, whether it's in my teacher or instructor or person gave the project and regularly check in with them so that I know that if I'm kind of running off course, they can kind of bring it back and making sure that I'm Staying with The bigger picture. Details are important, but sometimes that tendency

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:24:31] That has that has that cost you ever like where you are kind of stuck in the details as an example.

Victor: [00:24:37] Very, very first internship. And I learned from that. And from that on, I would never make that mistake again. It was my very first internship. I was working at Dizer Capital and they told me to kind of go find this food company about Everything that you can. But the point was that to make that two page presentation the very most important thing, and I came up with like a 50 plus pages, and It was like by the end of the Day, I didn't know what to put there. So under that time crunch, if I worked with a little smartly understanding that this is a big picture, they want actually With the highlights, Not every little detail that what their company bought seven years ago, 10 years ago, none of that would have mattered. But it was. I was enthusiastic kind of. From then on, I learned that there is a certain interval at a certain level. You have to check in with your manager, with your supervisor, whoever is giving you that task.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:25:29] What do you think is the right Interval for that?

Victor: [00:25:31] So it depends of the collective project. It's a weekly project, then probably about a day or two. If it's just right end of day, I would say about every couple hours making sure that you kind of check in for just 10 minutes. Hey, at this Point, am I missing Something? Is there anything else? Am I on the right track or do you need me to kind of go completely different check instead of? I waited towards the end when the clients were coming to Office, so we Had to kind of put all hands on deck and they covered me and I appreciate that. But from that experience, I learned that I will never make that mistake ever again.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:04] What do you See you see yourself doing in three to five years?

Victor: [00:26:08] I'm hoping that I get to have all the licenses that allows me to become a financial consultant in the company. And I I always want to work in financial industry in three to five years. I hope that I become the At least senior consultant in company, which is what I was told. That is very doable.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:26:34] And you know what, the senior consultants, what they're spending their days on? Yes, what do you like? What do you know? What do you know about the job in

Victor: [00:26:39] Particular, the person that I've talked to? It's basically at their own book of businesses, and they go based on the clients they've had in the past and based on their knowledge and expertise that they've gathered over the years. They go basically increase the book of sales. They go to talk to clients or Clients, you know, Introduce them to some of the clients, so they bring businesses to the company. It's like a one on one sales job. So you don't have To do much of, I think no matter what the industry is, it's it's a pee shop, it's a hedge fund shop or it's a investment bank. And as you kind of move up, Your technical skills might As well. It doesn't. It doesn't mean that it doesn't matter, but you become a more of a salesperson amount of business. You bring in the company. The more you get compensated, the more successful you become. So that's what I have set my eyes out because it's very transferable skill, whatever. If you transfer from one company to another Company, you can you Go to become a consultant on some other level, What you need To do, be able to kind of sell and those skills can be learned on the job, especially with a company like Fidelity.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:46] So time out for a second is this job is really for your managing money, right? Like you're helping children eventually.

Victor: [00:27:55] Yes, because now

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:27:56] You're you're initially starting a support

Victor: [00:27:58] For the. It is. So I thought I'm applying for a financial representative, but this is like a one step above that. So I didn't have to. The new job that I'm applying to. It is called investment solutions investment solutions.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:12] So it's for institutional grade clients and stuff like that. And statistician

Victor: [00:28:16] Greg Clyde. Yes, yes.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:17] Yes, these high net worth or institutional?

Victor: [00:28:20] Yes. Got it. Ok, so that's good. So I thought I would be stuck with the phone service and which was fine too. But they kind of gave me a step up.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:28] And so are you managing people like that or what are you doing for it?

Victor: [00:28:32] Of course I first know, but after that I think, yes, once you've learn the job, you kind of have to kind of you have about two to three financial representative. They say you work with them, but I think They work for you. Yeah.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:28:43] Got it. Ok, so tell me a little bit about. Just the stock market and do you know, would you actively trade in your own pay?

Victor: [00:28:54] I was Doing OK. I mean, OK, it's kind of a bit of a stretch at the beginning of the year 2020, and I was looking into a few stocks That I was trying to kind of Buy. I had a stock of a Netflix from the earlier days. I had a one stock. I managed to buy Amazon in twenty seventeen, but it took me a lot of money and I'm kind of happy with that. So I wouldn't say I'm an active Trader, but I do have an Active interest and not being an active trader, I think stems from one reason Only I was a student. First, I didn't have enough money to be able to have that kind of capacity risk-taking. And then the pandemic happened. That risk kind of evaporated Totally because I didn't Have a job for a little while, so I kind of pulled back, but I would definitely want. I kind of feel that I'm ready that kind of risk. Know I can't develop certain kind of risk and I will be OK with that. I will. I want to jump back. What kind

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:54] Of what kind of investor do you think you would be

Victor: [00:29:58] In terms of risk taking

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:29:59] Or, yeah, just for yourself and how you how would you kind of manage clients expectations and stuff like that in terms of advising

Victor: [00:30:06] Them? So it depends on their age. I would probably depend on the industry. I would probably balance it out in certain industries. I would be very aggressive. For example, the robotics neuroscience That rocketry To show that Certain things that I know in about 10 years that there is like a cool project that's going to grow in health care. What other industries like Oil, You know that things that actually quite a lot of geopolitical analysis that it's not going to be stable? I would be probably Very the I would take a lot less moderate Risk. I would try to balance it out. Okay, that would be my approach.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:30:50] All right. Let's cut it there. That was great. So let's go back to the beginning.

Victor: [00:30:56] Ok, I'm going to take notes while you say yes, please tell me yes. Just one second. While you go over my questions, I'm going to try to pick notes one white one.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:31:07] So I like to I like your background because you start with school and kind of you went through the internship a little bit. I think for each of you, just try to jump a little bit quicker. So like, just hit Like, OK. Internship, just say what it is, what the company did, OK, and then move on. You have a little bit of like us. You're doing your school thing. You're getting there. Don't feel like you need to fill the space. I would go through these questions again and actually record Yourself doing it And then just watch yourself and then try to do it one more time after that to do it twice. Once do it. Watch it be like, Oh my gosh, I said this like, Oh, And then do it another time, and You'll probably be able to eliminate at least half of them.

Victor: [00:31:48] And you don't feel that. No filler words, no filler, you know? You know. Are.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:31:58] So get rid of you now, too.

Victor: [00:32:00] Is that because I'm guessing I'm speaking big, too fast, I probably should slow.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:04] Yeah, you're a little you're not crazy fast, but you're a little fast and you feel like you need to fill it quickly. I stopped to practice will also make you more confident you'll know exactly what you're saying. Another thing, body language. Um, you or you're rocking a little bit. I know you won't.

Victor: [00:32:24] It's because of my chair. Yeah.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:26] Why are you doing it over Zoom like this?

Victor: [00:32:29] No, no, no. I'm going to go into in person. Yes. So if you're

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:32] In a rocking, don't be like a little minor thing, OK? I thought your hand movements were good. Your eye contact was really good, I think. Other than that, that's the only thing, and it was so sorry.

Victor: [00:32:44] Quick question. Do not I probably. I would probably sit by the face or just hand like this, or I might be

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:32:53] Just sitting up straight smiling and I am put in high thought. Overall, your body language is great looking. I mean, yeah, you weren't like like this or anything crazy. It was very subtle. But like I Little things, if people start noticing it, it can make more like. What else they have? Um, the y fidelity and no, the second question, I thought it was great, you drop the names right away. The thing I Didn't quite like about that. Is a lot of the reasons you gave to why Fidelity. It wasn't really fidelity specific, you name dropped and said great tools, you can move up very fast, but then you start talking about like pay rates benefits. So it Was like everything was about like how you were going to go up really fast. And I want you to focus more on just the learning Aspect of it. Ok, so say something like, you know, I I know there's, you know, I spoke with and I spoke with that just like you did a great name dropping. I know they give you the tools to be able to start from scratch, move on, move up, get educated and improve yourself. So like, I think fidelity is a great place to be for this specific role. It's obviously a leader in the space. I know I'm going to be surrounded by really smart people that are going to be able to teach me and train me. And I know that the opportunities are there for people who Are driven and who are Smart to actually move up, you know, and have not just great benefits, which is a great learning experience and a place where I could focus

Victor: [00:34:12] On the learning part of it.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:34:13] More in the learning lesson, like the benefits and the pay raise and the fact that they pay your debt and all that stuff like, that's all good. Yeah. Well, like, I want you to focus more on the learning in the smart people stuff you can say. And then just like I know, you can build a great career here and. I think, you know, fidelity is really great that they invest in their people. Blah blah. Um. What else here? How do you handle tough customers? I kind of liked your second example better, and when was the last time you saw a problem, I think you talked about? How some guy was angry and you took all the notes, you had no clue what was going on in the call, which I kind of like that one because it was the story was more vivid to me, OK? The first one was like. It was like a technical glitch thing and like people couldn't join it makes it look like it was more like. It makes it look like you didn't. You messed up more versus, Oh, I see. Versus the other one, like the guy left and you had to jump in and fill in and you scrambled to make it happen versus the first one

Victor: [00:35:15] I couldn't communicate. So what happened was the CIA guys. They didn't do their job and I did not want to throw them under the bus. So I kind of had them on the phone, other people on the zoom while telling them what's going on. So I was covering for them to kind of control the situation, but I should have probably communicated that well. So if they don't do this stuff on there and I Cannot do that, but I was The one who was getting yelled at, so there was no point kind of thing.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:39] I don't even I would even stay away from the like the yelled out thing I did. I'm telling you, I'm telling you. I know, I know. Yeah. So like for like the way you describe it to say, you know, there were some frustrated customers. But it just makes you look more polished like they were screaming at me or like they're like, you know, like they

Victor: [00:35:56] Were screaming, by the way, that was it was like our angry few people.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:35:59] And that's fine. You can just say there's there are clearly very frustrated, blah blah blah. Because it sounded like the way you were describing it wasn't very good at the beginning, it sounded like you were making an excuse that, like the technical things didn't work because of the pandemic and you didn't explain it well. And so it sounded kind of a little bit like a copout. It sounds like, is this guy like hiding behind some bullshit? I mean, because it works, whether it's pandemic or not, it should if the instructions are sent around. So you've just got to be careful how you set up that story to make it look like a legitimate story. Okay. Phone number four, how do you handle feedback and you don't agree with? Um. I think you said identify the source, which I really liked, you know, try to get to the root cause of like, You know, why there's some, if There's any constructive criticism on how to try to figure out where that's coming From, if it's because I don't have the proper tools or whatnot on all your answers, I thought they were all good. You're comfortable talking. Try to just be a little bit Structure answers to that a little bit more direct because you start going. And you're kind of repeating a little bit of yourself, you're making new points, but you're not quite clear Like in the sense of you're not like one point two Point three point. So try to be a little bit more and you'll see this when you record yourself. But I thought that was a really good answer. Talking about like identifying the source of the issue and communication, just be like, you know, communication with any job or just any relationship in general. It's critical, and I think being able to Take constructive criticism is really Important not to take it personally, But then also try to find the Root cause of like, is this because. Your manager is asking for something you're not reading between the lines properly and trying to be direct about that so that you Can kind of try to fix it going forward, something like more like that. Strengths and weaknesses. I love the no licenses thing, although it's not really a weakness, but it's like, Hey, I'm coming in, I'd like to know licenses saying I didn't have a license, but I know you invest into It And the paying the no, the miss the big picture. Be a little careful with that with the military, that they pay attention to details. And I like that it was several internships ago. It was a good answer with the deadlines and. You know, trying to get cram everything, every little detail Into this book Or they just need the highlights, I think is a very good example. In the last one was what do you see yourself doing in three to five years? You know, ideally you have your licenses, you're working is what's the next step? A senior consultant is the next step up.

Victor: [00:38:28] Yes. After this is consulting and after that a senior consultant

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:32] And typically how many years between each other

Victor: [00:38:34] About two to five years Altogether to get there? Oh, so perfect.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:38:38] Ok, so yeah. So ideally, I have my licenses. I'm, you know, a financial consultant at Fidelity and ideally at that point either about to get promoted to senior consultant or consultant. And at that stage, you know, ideally I'm bringing in growing my book of business and then on my way to building a great career. So I think that's fine. And in terms of the other stuff around the stock market, stuff like that, you can say, I'm not very I just I didn't have the money in college. And you know, with all this, which is true, which is true, you know? Yeah. So just be straight with that. That's fine. So I didn't actively trade. You can say most of my stuff with like ETFs or index funds. I would stay away from naming like a Netflix, Because then I know you

Could get a jerk be like, Well, tell me what you think about the streaming service. What do you think about this coming into this? Oh, good. Ok, I See. I see. Ok. Because it is about investing in the market so they could push you a little bit harder on their. Do you know about like what's going On with inflation, what's going on where the market is right now?

Victor: [00:39:41] On with the insulation, I know about what's going on with the market. You should probably day before I go with this, I'll probably start reading The Wall Street Journal and get the Financial Times to kind of get a basic idea.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:39:53] Yeah, you can start. Yeah, you Can start today. OK? Yeah, just To get a sense because you don't want to do it the day before. Just try to get a sense of like where the market's trading, what's been going on, what's what are the themes, what are the big themes you can and then read a few articles on those themes so you can actually speak to them intelligently and sound like you're fumbling around and saying too much? Definitely. I think they just want somebody who's like a hard worker. I think at these levels, it's not like they're high right out of undergrad for this, right?

Victor: [00:40:28] Yes, yes.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:40:30] They're just going to be looking for people who are Hardworking, yes, And have that Kind of financial bent. So I think it was good. You brought finance back in a few times at the beginning.That said, man, I thought it was good that You're you'd be fine. It's just these little tiny things. I will

Victor: [00:40:42] Not. I will work on them. I will actually record myself and I go back, make sure that those arms is very important, and I'll make sure the first story I write it out. Make sure that it's actually there is a storyline. What happened and how jump in fixing that, and I will start reading the either Wall Street Journal or both Financial Times.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:41:04] Yeah, I just start reading like, what's going on in the markets you can just go online to? Yeah. And just because if they ask you like, they may ask you, like, what do you think of this going on? And you don't want to be like, Oh, I didn't even know that happened. If it's something big in the news, you don't want to be clueless. I see. Yes. I would tell you to subscribe to so alpha if it was launched. That's our that's going to be our investing newsletter, really, which is, yeah, we're watching and investing newsletter like three weeks.

Victor: [00:41:29] So nice.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:41:32] Awesome. Yes. But there's Other ones out there that you can look up and Maybe that'll help you. Leading up to The interview, it's Thursday.

Victor: [00:41:37] Yeah, next Thursday, here this Thursday are going to like next week sometime. Let me put it that way. Ok, this Thursday, I have a phone call with the hiring manager. Recruiters are in the past and all that, and after that Is just different. I think this Thursday, they're going to tell me, what time do I need to meet

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:41:54] Them? And it's not a zoom. It's a phone call this Thursday.

Victor: [00:41:57] This is just a phone call. Yes. It's more of like introducing themselves and telling them what to expect as a next step. So I wouldn't even call those interviews like, you have

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:06] Any questions, have any questions for me. That's what I should ask at the end.

Victor: [00:42:12] Any questions for you as a Company hiring manager? Probably. I would ask a little bit of background. How did you get started and what is it that you like about your day job or is that you don't like? What is the one thing you wish you would know when you started and this position something along those lines? Yeah.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:31] I mean, I'd be curious about to hear, like specifically when you're building your own book, how much do they help you do that? But I don't know if you want to ask that,

Victor: [00:42:38] Because it might be better at this level, at this level, I think I'm kind of, you know, jumping way over my head here, you Know? So they want me to kind of be a team player. That's fine.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:42:48] I think that's all good. Any other questions? Thoughts?

Victor: [00:42:52] No, I will keep you updated. One that things kind of start rolling around because my contract with the government ends by the end of July and the class starts with them at the end of July. So it's going to be, yeah, it's going to be jumping from one place, which is if that kind of overlaps that way is awesome. And from then on, once I have a structure, I know there's a 50 hours to see what I'm doing. I want to kind of get back on the, you know, the session. We do start doing that. So start the next.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:23] Yeah, the financial model is not working.

Victor: [00:43:25] Yes. Yes, all of that. Love it. Love it.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:43:29] Yeah, this is big. Hopefully you land this and you know, even if you don't land this, you kind of have a quick, early success and you're networking. So you know, you know, hey, let's scratch, scratch, claw and scratch to find ways to get more of those messages out. If this whole whole

Victor: [00:43:47] Purpose was that just like you told me to get a job that pays, OK, so you have extra time, so you kind can use that to kind of work on the other stuff because working three jobs, it's just not fun. Not a good way of the kind of building that knowledge base

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:44:02] Know rather work. Two jobs One is the job that pays the Bills, and the second is you try to meet more people. Yes, and improving yourself. Cool, man. Well, congrats on the success. Hopefully, we can close this One up and

You buy by August. You'll be working with fidelity and getting some stability in there.

Victor: [00:44:24] Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for I thought I'd talk to you soon.

Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:44:27] Bye 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.Com And till next time.