Member @Odyssy2112 shares how he has survived a monstrous debt load, horrible timing and some unforgiving industries including investment banking at Jefferies and an internal corporate role at Barclays. One wise piece of advice on what you should optimize for and some humorous stories along the way.

Member @shaynepunim2 shares her path as a Big 4 tax consultant to leaving the work-force for an extended period of time to help raise her two kids. How she broke back in and advice she'd give to her younger self. 

Member @Mentor1119 shares her path from a non-target university to breaking into a bulge bracket investment bank. We cover why she decided to go into finance, how she leveraged certain programs to give her a leg up in recruiting as well as the group dynamics involved during her summer analyst stint. Why she eventually left to go to the buy-side, why she bombed a case interview and one tip on how to avoid the same fate. 

Member @john_quant shares his path coming from an engineering background to landing in the hedge fund industry. Learn how he's managed to pivot successfully three times as several risky senior quant positions at hedge funds didn't work out as hoped. Find out how he came out relatively unscathed and what he recommends to younger listeners trying to position themselves as traders.

Member @coder32 shares his path from a non-target background to a lower middle-market (LMM) private equity shop in the south. Learn how commercial lenders are getting very aggressive with pricing and covenants to win deals and when he knew it was time to make his jump to private equity. 

Member @REPE shares his incredible story from bouncing between continents for his education to landing at a bulge bracket investment bank on the equity derivatives sales desk in London. Learn how he survived massive cuts during 2008, even when his bosses were trying to make him look bad, to why he jumped to a smaller bank. Why he decided to go back to the US to get his MBA from Wharton and what his passion is now.

Member @ParkAve shares his journey -- From working in sales, using an MBA to pivot into a Fortune 20 FLDP program and his latest move into M&A strategy at a top consulting firm. Learn how much he got paid at each level, as well as the various skills he developed in each stage of his career and how they influenced his path.

Member @BrownChad shares his long and arduous road in investment banking to make it to a reputable firm from two nightmare boutiques. We explore his journey straight from India to an MBA program, culture shock, the perils of working at very small investment banks with toxic culture as well as what he did when the people closest to him began to doubt his path.

Member @crePE shares his unlikely path. How he broke into Goldman's ECM group even with no IB summer internship to why he turned down the analyst to associate promotion offered to him two years later. Why he moved west to start working in Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Institutional Sales in Chicago and how he eventually was able to successfully make the jump to the buy-side at a real estate private equity shop on the west coast. This episode has a lot of great lessons about optimizing your life and I'll hope you'll listen to the advice from this guest and take them to heart. 

Veteran member @Dedline shares his story from struggling with ADHD during high school, surviving college and finding his niche in healthcare enterprise architecture. How WSO gave him context on the level of competition for job interviews, his dramatic jump in pay at his latest role and some wise advice on career paths and specialization.