Wall Street Oasis

In this episode, chicago13 shares his winding path graduating from Berkeley in 2006 and trying to make it big by building apps and living in the start-up ecosystem in Silicon Valley. Listen to why it didn't work out along with some words of warning, what the main turning point was and why he ended up getting his JD and jumping into Big Law...only to leave one year later to join a middle-market investment bank. Learn about the common associate struggles starting out in IB, why he was screamed at during a Holiday Party and how he managed to overcome those obstacles to get promoted to VP.  

In this episode, Jason shares his path coming from a non-target school, and how a mentor from his home town changed his life. Listen to how he was able to land a few critical internships, prepare for the interviews, and beat the odds to land a full-time offer in the fixed income division of Morgan Stanley right out of undergrad. Learn why he ended up moving over to Citi in their investment banking division and eventually why he jumped to the buy-side at a family office.

In this episode, Tim shares his path graduating with a masters in engineering and quickly losing his job as the scandal at Enron unfolded. We learn how he got back on his feet, how he leveraged the MBA to get a job in investment banking on the west coast during the great financial crisis in 2009 and eventually how he had a 10 year run from Associate up to Director at Barclays. This is a long one, but Tim was a really insightful guest so I wanted to unpack what each stage was like for him.  

In this episode, FinTechSF shares his winding path from graduating during the financial crisis in 2008 and having to leave the US as an international student back to Dubai. Learn how he got his foot in the door at PwC in audit and managed to make the transition over to the transaction advisory practice in only 1.5 years even though they kept telling him no. Find out why he moved back to the US a few years later and eventually joined the corporate side in their M&A group.

In this episode, Yuri shares his winding path starting out graduating from his master's program in London right at the start of the global financial crisis and turning down an offer to start at Goldman Sachs to travel the world and try to get into a more direct investing role. Listen to his great advice on specific questions to ask when interviewing for asset management or hedge fund roles as a junior analyst and also make sure to check out his blog snippet.finance, a place where he shares interesting snippets of financial data and analysis.

In this episode, SkininTheGame16 shares his non-traditional path to a top asset manager in London. From dropping out of high school to traveling abroad to breaking into a top Masters program in London, hear how he navigated some unforgiving circumstances growing up in Brussels.

In this episode, Avi shares his unusual path from investment banking, to running a magazine start-up and then back into investment banking two years later. After that re-entry into finance, Avi was able to lateral to an IR role at a private equity fund and eventually became COO of Riverside's European Fund 7 years later. Finally, he made the bold (and I'd argue crazy) move to pursue a phD while working and everntually found himself at Landmark, a private equity fund focused on the secondary market, running the quant research division. 

In this episode, Stephanie shares her winding path over her almost 20 years in finance. From getting a ton of responsibility early in her career for internal M&A at a Big 4 to her pivot into investment banking in DCM, she always seemed to find her way to rapid promotions and managing large teams. Learn what she feels set her apart and how you might be able to emulate some of that magic.

In this episode, Daniel shares his long and winding path in finance careers. Initially getting his undergrad degree, a CPA and a Masters in Finance in France, he moved the USA with Deloitte in their restructuring practice. From there, he used an MBA from NYU Stern to jump into investment banking at Lehman Brothers, starting as an associate with 3 young kids.  We learn how he was able to make the jump into a real estate private equity fund and what happened 4 years later during the Great Financial Crisis. Listen to hear some wise advice on how to survive many twists and turns! 

In this episode, Ryan shares his interesting path from graduating as an Engineer in rural Canada to pivoting to get his MBA from Oxford several years later. Learn why he ended up joining E&Y's transaction advisory services upon graduating and how he was able to land a hybrid job in private equity and venture capital within one year in London. We also hear why he decided to leave it all behind 5 years later for a new degree to get back to his technical roots and what his new business in data analytics, called Zenlytics is up to.