Today’s guest is Patrick Curtis, CEO & Co-founder of Wall Street Oasis. Patrick graduated from Williams College in 2002 and worked as an Investment Banking Analyst for Rothschild & Co for two years. He then joined Tailwind Capital as a Private Equity Associate in 2005 around the same time that he founded Wall Street Oasis, which he has led as CEO ever since. He also earned his MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurial management from Wharton in 2010. Welcome, Patrick!

What is Wall Street Oasis? [1:20]

It’s an online community for finance professionals and students trying to break into finance careers – investment banking, private equity, etc. We have 500K registered members and 1.5 million visits per month.

The community is similar to any forum-based site. And we offer paid services in addition: interview courses, resume review, etc.

What’s the backstory? [2:55]

I landed on my feet at Tailwind after being fired from my first PE job. I was talking to a friend who had technical skills, and we were thinking about starting a site. There was no good place online for people trying to break in, or for bankers to commiserate about their long hours. We tried to make the tone fun – the theme of the site was monkeys (it still is).

It grew steadily – it took on a life of its own. I didn’t work on it full time until after my MBA.

How did you choose the name and the monkey theme? [4:50]

Have you heard of the book Monkey Business? It resonated with me at the time.

How did you handle the layoff? [6:00]

I was pretty devastated. I realized the transition from IB to PE was more difficult than I’d anticipated. I had all the technical skills, but the project management skills didn’t translate right away. In the end, I think it was more an issue of culture and fit – but it was a hit to my confidence and I had to work hard to get my next job. It can be tough to keep a long-term perspective.

What’s your favorite resource on Wall Street Oasis? [10:10]

It’s really the community itself. I still read a lot of the threads and participate. It’s really the lifeblood of the business. We have interview courses, resume review, etc. But the forums and the community itself is really great.

You recently started a podcast! Can you tell us about that? [11:15]

I partnered with Alex Grodnik, a UCLA MBA. The goal is to bring to life interesting stories. We’re featuring AMAs, people’s stories. We have three episodes so far, and we’re planning to do one a week. It’s called the Wall Street Oasis Podcast.

What are the skills and qualities that investment banks look for? [12:40]

There’s often a misperception that technical acumen is the most important thing. Banks tend to look for polished communication skills, especially for client-facing roles.

Their ideal is someone who can work well with teams, has great communication skills, and also has great financial modeling skills.

Finding and retaining those candidates is challenging for banks – they’re trying to improve work-life balance. But it’s still one of the most attractive careers for undergrads right out of college, because you learn so many transferable skills.

Wall St. is famous for insane hours and the banks have seemed to be trying to change that. Do you think the banks’ attempts at encouraging a little more work/life balance are real, or are some of the “limits” banks have put in p...