WSO: What You're Missing - IB & Compound Interest

November 30, 2024

Hey WSO Monkey,

We hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving filled with good food, great company, and moments of gratitude. As we head into the holiday season, we’re thankful for this incredible community and the energy you bring. Check out the latest updates and discussions below.

-Patrick

Top Discus

  1. You’re All Missing This - IB & Compound Interest Potential - "Simply put, IB is the best entry level job to jump start personal savings and get compound interest working in your favor in your early 20s. No other job offers the ability to make 150-200k right out of college, without any additional schooling (with thousands of dollars of loans along with it). You are coming right out of college, where you learned for four years how to survive and thrive on a limited budget, likely have no immediate dependents, and can throw every incremental dollar into the S&P 500. Even if you are a poor saver, saving a full two analyst bonuses has the potential to set you up for life (asterisks there which I will elaborate later)..."

  2. To All College Students and Teenagers on WSO - "I don't know how to describe it. Your career is without a doubt a huge part of who you are. But it's not everything. Sacrifice the night of studying to go out. Talk to the guy / girl you're interested in. Learn to cook, learn about the world, travel as much as you can, and just enjoy your youth. One day, you will be sitting in the office turning bullshit comments feeling the recycled air and LED lights pound on your skin, wishing you could go outside and throw a football with your friends. I know what it is like to be ambitious and to want to set yourself up. There is nothing wrong with it. Just don't let it control you. Don't sacrifice these years of youth, freedom, naivete, and more. Do dumb things. Be impulsive. Just enjoy it."

  3. 2026 IBD Summer Analyst Recruiting Tips - "Stop sending long networking emails that cannot be digested in 5 seconds. Your emails should be extremely concise and easy for us to read. Don't send me an email that is long and gives a drawn out explanation of all your experiences and why you're interested in the group. We don't have time to read this..."

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. Do Looks Matter in Life and IB? - "Professionally in IB, I really don't think looks matter that much so don't have much to say here. Yes if you're really overweight or really good-looking people may initially judge you negatively/positively - but in reality what matters is your work product & your communication skills/personality. If you look like a troll but are good at your job, nobody will care about your looks - likewise if you're a supermodel but can't do basic work without errors then your looks won't save you long-term..."

  2. “Below Replacement Cost” ..Why? - "Real estate is cyclical, alternating between oversupply and undersupply. Understanding replacement costs helps property owners assess the rent, NOI, and value thresholds needed before competition (i.e. incremental supply) impacts their property’s performance."

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 💼

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