Profiles
Read about a few of our many trainees who have found success after taking our modeling training programs.
Victor Des was working at a Private Equity firm in Malaysia, when he wanted to make a career shift to a larger International firm in the same field. After having some difficulty in a modeling interview test, he called on The Analyst Exchange. We suggested to him our Full Program with Interview Preparation. “I knew the DCF given my experience, but more from a mechanical perspective. I had never been asked about it in an interview. The AnEx gave me insight into how to break down and properly articulate all pieces and aspects of the DCF from a more complete view of concepts and applications.” Victor just landed a job following a very competitive interview process with a private equity firm run by the third wealthiest man in Southeast Asia.
Jacob Branson was an MBA student at Portland State University. “I wanted to make a shift into Private Equity. Given my technical Engineering undergraduate background, I wanted to strengthen my modeling to gain more confidence in upcoming interviews.” Jacob took our Full Program and started the interview process. He landed a job at a Portland Private Equity firm. “AnEx's courses were THE most important confidence booster that pulled me through each one of my interviews. Thank you for doing this for each of us budding Analysts”
Marilyn Jordan is an undergraduate Liberal Arts school student. She took our courses to better prepare her for interviews. After taking our week and a half long Interview Prep course, she began interviews at major banks. “My interviews went very well. I interviewed with 16 people at Lev Fin, FIG, and Industrials. Almost all asked me to walk them through an LBO. One VP at Lev Fin said my knowledge was comparable to incoming Associates. So, thank you for your help.”
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Trainee Profile
Jason Lee
Analyst, Bulge Bracket Investment Bank
Healthcare Investment Banking
Jason Lee was a recent trainee at The Analyst Exchange who has just begun as an Analyst at a bulge bracket investment bank in the Healthcare Investment Banking group. After several attempts to contact Jason, we were finally able to interview him at 1:00AM while he was waiting for pitchbooks to finish printing. |
Q: Jason, you’re a couple of weeks into your job. Any initial reactions?
A: It was a process to get here. I had done plenty of research, so I had the right idea of what to expect- long hours, a lot of modeling, and also presentation creation. But, I’ll be up until 4AM every day this week. I do know, however, that part of it is the learning curve. Once I get a better handle on things, I hope to at least be out of here by midnight!
Q: Is there anything that you didn’t expect?
A: I expected to be more in control of everything. There’s always so much work to be done. I thought I’d hit the ground running without a problem. I know now that every transaction is different, and there will always be a learning curve.
Q: How about the lifestyle?
A: There’s no set beginning and end to the day. You are assigned projects and deadlines. That’s it. |
Q: Can you walk us through a typical day?
A: Every day has been completely different. The one constant is everything pretty much has to do with modeling or creating PowerPoint presentations. Pitchbooks, lots of pitchbooks.
Q: Can you clarify what a pitchbook is?
A: It is a presentation to the client with the purpose of selling our Underwriting or M&A business. There’s a lot of industry and market research involved, but not much modeling. I prefer the modeling…
Q: How has The Analyst Exchange program helped you so far?
A: What I’ve learned at The Analyst Exchange has been very useful as I am well prepared and confident to handle the complex tasks. I often refer to AnEx’s models to help me through tough situations here. It was great preparation, not only from a technical perspective, but to give me a sense of what to expect on the job. |
Q: Do you have any advice for trainees currently going through the interview process?
A: Everyone’s going to have a bad interview. You have to look at it as better preparation for the next. Keep moving forward. Also, technical skills are really important. You will no doubt be asked some technical questions at some stage of the interview process. It’s really important that you build on your technical skill-sets.
Let’s hope Jason gets some sleep. Thanks, Jason. |
| Click here to read some testimonials from our past corporate clients |
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Recent Emails
Read about most recent feedback from our past trainees.
Hey Paul,
How are you doing? How is the winter season going for business? I just wanted to inform you that I accepted an employment offer from Exelon, as a Financial Analyst, and my training with The Analyst Exchange was probably the biggest factor in my employment. The advertised position stated that they would prefer someone with 3-years of work experience or an MBA (neither of which I have), but when they saw the financial modeling on my resume they called asking for more info on my modeling skills. During the interview, I also was asked many of the questions that you went through with us, when discussing how to link the financial statements and building unlevered free cash flows from various points in the financial statements. They also asked how I would go about reconciling an un-balanced Balance Sheet, and the tips you provided really helped answer the questions.
I just wanted to say a thank you for the training. I really appreciated the training and feel that it gave me a strong advantage in the interview process. Also, feel free to use any part of this email as a testimonial for future customers.
Thanks,
Abe
Dear Obed Cepeda,
I am writing this email to you with great appreciation and gratitude for the knowledge that you bestowed upon me. It was a great weekend, filled with knowledge and humor. I actually learned more about financial modeling this weekend than I did while taking a mergers and acquisition class. I am currently working with UBS investment bank and I usually get a little exposure to financial modeling here and there, so it was a great deal for me to learn about financial modeling so intensively.
Thank you for your time and a great educational weekend. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
George
Good Morning Obed,
“I wanted to thank you for taking the time to come out to GW to teach us financial modeling. Your organization was much more efficient than your competitors we had last year, and as an officer in the finance club I will strive to ensure you guys come back in the Spring of 2010.” I look forward to keeping in touch and with your permission refer to you if I ever needed advice on career strategy within our industry.
Adam
Thanks Obed,
“I've received numerous calls and emails stating point blank "this was the best modeling class we have had, leaps and bounds better than Wall Street Prep." Thanks for the great service.”
Cheers,
Jim
Paul,
I hope your holiday season went well.
Once again, thank you for all your help as it has and will continue to be of great benefit to my career and education.
Sincerely,
James
Paul-
It was great meeting you, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to work with Jim and I. The class itself was nothing short of incredible, and the information, techniques, and tools used helped me tremendously to ascertain knowledge of M&A's, LBO's, and Valuation methods that will most definitely create rapport on my resume. If I run across anyone who is pursuing a career in IB, PE, Hedge Fund, etc., I will absolutely recommend your services to them. Have a wonderful holiday season, and thanks again!
Sincerely,
Pete
Hi Paul,
“My interviews at Merrill went very well. I interviewed with 16 people in Lev Fin, FIG, and Industrials. Almost all asked me to walk them through an LBO. One VP in Lev Fin said my knowledge is comparable to incoming associates. So, thank you very much for your help. “
I'll get a decision on 4th Sept, depending on how many current interns accept their offers.
Talk to you tomorrow at 9.
Thanks,
MT
Dear Paul,
“I never had a chance to thank you for all your help with my investment banking/private equity resume and to update you on the result of my efforts. I kept a excel list of my efforts, and in the end, I excelled to final rounds at xxxx & Co. and yyyyy Capital Advisors.“ Unfortunately I did not receive an offer from xxxx & Co, but I was given an offer with yyyy Capital Advisors. So this summer I will be working a paid internship with yyyy Capital Advisort in their growth private equity fund as a summer associate. I realize how competitive it was this year and am ecstatic that all the hard work eventually paid off. I honestly feel that working with you on my resume added a significant edge. Your insight and advice was without a doubt one of the best I’ve ever been giving about the industry. I look forward to working with you again to revise my resume for full time recruiting in September. Thanks again for all your great work.
Regards,
FG
Dear Paul,
Thursday, 11:00 A.M works perfectly with me. By the way, I do not know how to thank you folks, but the depth of the material covered by the program is really practical. Hope to see the positive side on the internship too.
Looking forward to talk to you soon.
Cheers,
Amir
Dear Obed
“This work looks great and I can't thank you enough. You have been a great teacher, both with regard to modeling and providing career direction. “ I hope that I can continue to call upon you, as I continue to see my career evolve. Furthermore, I look forward to the day when we can meet in person. This program has been one of the more productive courses I have taken in all of my academic experiences. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and thank you for all of your help. See you soon!
Warmest personal regards,
Rob
Hi Paul,
“The courses were great and I got a job in investment banking at Berkery Noyes.” Are there any supplemental/periodical reviews to sign up for, like the quarterly case study, or more advanced accounting stuff?
Rich
Long time pal. Just thought i'd check in and say hello,
“Job is going great and learning tons. The modeling course helped out
huge. “ Thought i'd check in and see how you're doing. Now that i know they wont be tracking my long distance charges leave me your number and we'll touch base some time.
anyways take care, talk soon.
Cheers,
IC
Hello John.
“I am really enjoying the course so far. Obed is an excellent tutor and knows the stuff really well. I am interested in registering for the second phase of the course. “ What I am wondering is if it is possible to bundle the Advanced Topics (offered to your corporate clients) in my training as well. This means after going through Valuation & the phase 2 case study, I will like to go further with the advanced topics and the associated case study.
Thank you.
KK
Paul,
“I truly enjoy the program and could not be happier with Julio. He is a great instructor.”
Thanks,
ML
Hi Paul,
“Thanks a lot for asking. It's going great and I am gaining a plethora of benefits from learning.”
Thanks,
Ak
Hi Paul,
“Yes, perfect. Jon is fantastic. Thanks for understanding my time constraint and accommodating it so promptly over the weekend.”
TA
“Thanks for all of your help!! This was fantastic training!”
Cheers,
Kel
Paul,
“First and foremost thank you for a great program. I had a pleasure working with Obed, he was a great teacher and I learned a lot from him. “
Sincerely,
Jon
Hi Paul,
Training is going well. We're almost done with the first part and “Jon's a really great instructor and I've learned a lot from him".
Regards,
Marie
Dear Mr. Pignataro:
I hope you're doing well.
I am currently enrolled in the The Analyst Exchange Phase 1 and 2. “Obed Capeda has been a phenomenal instructor and extremely patient” with me since I started the training in the beginning of August 2008. We initially started working on Module 1 (Consolidated Financial Statements which has provided me a solid foundation. Obed recommended that we begin working on Module 3 (LBO), prior to jumping into the Module 2 (M&A) material that has proved to be extremely useful. After completing the LBO module and moving into the M&A, I think his framework overall has been extremely effective for me thus far.
Sincerely,
Frank
Paul,
Will you be e-mailing out the PowerPoint from the training this morning? Also, when & where will the webcast be available for download?
“I really enjoyed the training this morning, and am spreading the word about TheAnalystExchange at my firm. Thank you!”
Cory
Paul:
Thank you for the invitation. I had spoken to Richard via email and told him that I would like to listen to the discussion afterward since I have a deadline to make tomorrow that will most likely prohibit me from the meeting.
“On another note, I found your first session to be fantastic! Your explanations for the flows in the consolidated financials were excellent and really helped me to develop a fuller understanding of the statements. “
Looking forward to learning lots more.
Ian
Obed,
“Thanks for the training today. It was really helpful and I learned a lot.” I just finished the depreciation schedule and have attached my version of the model. I'll talk with you tomorrow -
Brandon
Hi Paul,
Jon and I finished up with the LBO module today. We scheduled a call for Sunday to go over any questions I may have after going through it some more. The M&A and LBO modules were very straightforward. Having the consolidated financials down made it so much easier to grasp.
“I wanted to thank you for walking me through the consolidated financials module. You were an unbelievable instructor and it made for a smooth transition to the other modules. “
Thanks again and I am sure my brother will be next in line as he is a sophmore at Duke and interested in a finance career.
Jose
Dear Mr. Pignataro,
I wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying the program so far. Rick is an outstanding teacher, we are currently working on the debt schedule and working capital statements. I am looking forward to working on the cash flow statement and balance sheet soon.
“I feel much more confident about going into i-banking interviews this Winter (for Summer internships).” My first day of school is tomorrow, and I will be sure to start spreading the word around the business school. My finance club's first meeting is Thursday, and we will be having Piper Jaffray speaking about their investment banking division, which will be a good time to start advertising.
Thank you for the training, I am really enjoying it. Please let me know what if there is anything else I can do to help out.
Best,
Ted
Hello Paul,
How are you?
“The training program was awesome! Obed was a great instructor, he taught me so much and really was great in every way. I've learned so much and realized how much more there is to learn after working with Obed.” Hopefully the fundamentals I learned will help me build the foundations for a career in Finance. I've told Obed that at some future point I would like to complete the Phase II of the modules, but for now, I want to try and apply what I've learned into finding a job.
Currently, I'm working part time and am looking to find a full time job.
Best Regards,
Roger
Hi Julio,
My summer at xxx Partners was great! I learned so much and had a great experience working with the company. “The Analyst Exchange program was also very helpful in getting me ready for the work at xxx Partners.” I really appreciate all your time and energy! How is GEM doing?
Hope to hear from you soon,
Whitney
Dear Paul,
I hope this email finds you well. “I just wanted to thank you for all your help. The training was great and it’s helping me a lot here at xxx Partners. I also wanted to thank you for the good words you put in for me. I really appreciate that!” I love the job so far and I sincerely hope we will stay in touch.
Best Regards,
Omar
Hello Julio,
“First, I just want to say how much I enjoyed and learned from the Analyst Exchange Program. The both of you taught us very well and made sure we learned all the information every step of the way.” That was also my first experience ever looking at DCF, M&A, or LBO models which I was fascinated by and can't wait to master.
Hi Paul,
“What a perfect class to gear up for the internship.” Funny enough, I showed up today and the head admin was not in to set me up so we postponed my start date until tom. I’ll surely let you, Obed and your team know how it goes as I kick off this exciting internship.
Best,
Mark
Paul
Having received a job offer nearly as soon as I finished some AnEx courses, I thought I would inform you of an individual who may need some of your services....
Thanks,
Eric
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