WSO: Special Sits Overview

December 14, 2024

Hey WSO Monkey,

Prepare to break into Private Equity with our PE Interview Bootcamp tomorrow (Dec 15). Taught by a PE pro, it’s your ticket to success. Seats are limited—secure yours now!

-Patrick

Top Discussions

  1. Overview of Special Sits - "Contrary to popular belief, SS is often mistaken for being synonymous with distressed investments. In reality, it encompasses any investment that doesn’t align with the traditional strategies of other funds. That said, its origins are deeply rooted in credit and distressed scenarios (so there’s a valid reason why discussions about the two often overlap). In practice, on the private market side, each fund has a defined investment strategy that it cannot deviate from, or LPs will be a bit pissed off. To accommodate flexibility, a new fund is often raised under labels such as: Tactical, Hybrid, Opportunities, Special Opportunities, or similar..."

  2. 2025 Megafund PE Anti-rankings: Pros and Cons of PE’s Most Coveted MF / UMM Roles - "From someone who went through the MF associate experience, it’s not the end all be all. What it does offer is arguably the best combination of training, branding, and forcing you to mature quickly that someone could hope for as they enter their mid to late twenties. But there’s no free lunch. IB is tough. MF PE is on another level. The countless “MF PE and depressed” or “MF PE and burnt out” posts on this forum are a prime example of this. And remember that these are the cream of the crop of IB analysts, the people who had seemingly planned out their whole life just to land at a MF, who are tapping out. So if you’re recruiting or plan to recruit for MF roles, I’d urge you to make sure you have real conviction to make that choice."

  3. Q&A: Internship Help Forum - "Just accepted an IB NYC role and wanting to give back to the community and hoping to answer or help you all in any way possible. I always wish I had someone who was a little older than me that could provide some insights on how to fix a resume, prepare for interviews, and help with navigating the application process as a whole. Happy to answer any questions and hoping to be of some help!"

3 Reasons Why You Are Striking Out At Your High Finance Job Search

The recruiting game is changing. Computers are taking over most aspects of application screening. You are filtered out before you get a chance to talk to the recruiter.

Gone are the days when you could afford to have a shit resume but still walk out with a job. Or get a job because you attended a certain school. The competition is much higher, and your odds are much lower.

The old-school mentality of let’s apply and hope we get an interview does not work. Below are 3 things you could be doing that will get you insane results.

  1. Crappy resume. Wrong format. Typos. Wrong keywords. Things no one wants to know about you. You name it. In our experience, 99% of resumes have massive gaps. And most of them think they could no better. Our academy students (including ones from the top target schools) are awestruck every time we complete a resume review session with them. Here’s just one review so you hear from them, not us.
    “She was absolutely amazing - she evolved a resume review into a full-packaged guidance for recruiting strategy and how I should frame myself for the whole upcoming recruiting process.”

  2. 100-500 LinkedIn connections. Really? Those connection requests are free. You don’t pay for them. And it can be done while you take a break from scrolling on your phone🙂 No, seriously, what’s stopping you? At WSO Academy, we help you draft proven outreach templates to 10x your LinkedIn networking success rate and push you to achieve weekly targets.

    “He was phenomenal help and provided tangible steps to take in order to strengthen LinkedIn profile, in conjunction to additional feedback on courses to take to strengthen LinkedIn profile.”

  3. AI. You hear AI can pass standardized tests and will eventually rule over us, but you still haven’t started using it. At this point, there’s no excuse for not leveraging the power of AI. Tools exist. Many tools. And we use them at WSO Academy to supercharge your job hunt. From resume reviews to LinkedIn reviews and much, much more. As part of the academy, you have not just natural but artificial intelligence working for you. Here is a computer-scored report card of a resume before and after the mentor review and finally after the AI review.

As part of WSO Academy, we help you address these problems and much more and get you a job in high finance. Can’t wait to start hearing from recruiters?

Top Discussions (contd.)

  1. Tips and Tricks to Lock-in - "This post generally applies to everyone working 80+ hour weeks. How do you stay motivated to continue working on the weekends? Most of my coworkers are offline but working (probably to not be bothered ) and I want to know what methods people use to help stay productive?"

  2. What Should Long Term Goals Be In Canada? - "Incoming FT analyst in Canada. All my friends in the US that are incoming analysts are starting to look at PE recruiting but we obviously dont have the same buyside environment up here. Are there just more career bankers in Canada? I really liked my group so am thinking currently the plan is to try and A2A, then re-evaluate as I get closer to VP. Obviously a lot can change in that time but everyone in the US seems to be already planning their post-banking analyst life and it doesnt feel like I need to be doing that this early in Canada. Am I wrong? If so, where are analysts going after their stint and when do I need to start figuring that out?"

  3. Credit Research Questions - "FYI buyside shops also have credit research teams. I’m in private credit at a large asset manager, and we have a pretty large credit research team. Also, on the deal side, if predictability and WLB is importantly, insurance -backed asset management arms tend to be much more chill. Or, aim for investment grade roles, IG related work tends to be more WLB friendly because less complexity."

New Podcasts Coming in Hot 🔥

  • Elon Musk: The Richest Person in History?

  • The Impact of Trump’s Re-election on the Stock Market

WSO Alpha: Latest Updates 📈

We uploaded the October brokerage report for those of you curious how we did.

Hot Jobs 💼

Project Finance Associate - "This is a career-level role, and we expect the Project Finance Associate to grow and find new ways to impact our organization, contributing to Zanskar’s broader financial and capital allocation strategy..."

Investment Banking Analyst - “A boutique IB practice focused on MM M&A. Lean, mean, entrepreneurial team of highly motivated deal makers who all ‘punch above our weight’. While other investment banks have large teams working around the clock, we work smart in small teams, and achieve outstanding results for our clients and still get home in time to see our families. Industry generalists…“

Investment Analyst - "...invests in privately held companies across media and entertainment, including film and television, digital media, creator economy, video games, live experiences, sports, and related services and enabling technologies ..."

Director of M&A - "...formed to be the best long-term home for independent companies that provide unique data, content or information focused on small but important niches and are owned and operated by founders."

Sr Discretionary Researcher / Trader - Fully Remote - "We are a discretionary, event-driven proprietary trading firm and hedge fund specialized in the digital asset space."

Marketing Manager - West Coast, US - "The Firm is an early-stage venture capital firm with $300mn in assets under management and a deep commitment to supporting the next generation of groundbreaking technology..."

Research Associate (Equity Small Mid Cap) - New York, NY - "This position will support the Small/Mid-Cap Equity research team and initially be responsible for covering multiple sectors in support of current team members."

On Deck - Training 🎓

All in Eastern Standard Time

Stay Strong,
Patrick Curtis
CEO and Founder, WallStreetOasis.com

WSO Mobile App: iOS | Android

PS - We're also always looking to add resume reviewers and WSO Mentors to our team. Set your own pay (from $40/hr to up to $400/hr) to increase or decrease mentee flow. To submit an application, go here.

PPS - Think you have an interesting story? Want to share it with our podcast listeners? Hit reply and let me know!




* PE Interview Bootcamp includes lifetime access to the PE Interview Course
** FMV Bootcamp includes lifetime access to the Elite Modeling Package
*** IB Interview Bootcamp includes lifetime access to the IB Interview Course