A lot of people assume non-target students are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to Investment Banking recruiting. While they may not have the same access to recruiters or alumni networks, I've noticed that many non-target students develop something that's incredibly valuable: persistence.

When opportunities aren't handed to you, you learn how to network aggressively, reach out to professionals, follow up consistently, and create opportunities for yourself. Those skills often carry over into recruiting and even the job itself.

I've seen plenty of non-target students land great roles because they were willing to put in the extra effort while others relied on their school's brand name.

What do you think is the biggest advantage a non-target student can have in Investment Banking recruiting?

Hello everyone,

I’m currently looking for a mentor in finance—ideally within investment banking or a related field—who would be open to guiding me as I build my practical skills and industry knowledge.

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My long-term goal is to break into investment banking, and I’m fully committed to doing whatever it takes to get there. I understand how demanding and competitive the industry is, and I am ready to dedicate long hours to learning, improving my technical skills, and gaining hands-on experience.

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I have nearly completed the FMVA (Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst) program with CFI, which has given me a strong grounding in financial analysis, valuation, and modeling. Starting this September, I will be studying Finance and Investment at the University of Kent (Canterbury), where I aim to further strengthen my academic and professional foundation.

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Most importantly, I am not only looking for advice—I am ready to contribute. I would be truly grateful for any opportunity to assist, even in a very junior or voluntary capacity. Whether it’s supporting with research, administrative tasks, financial modeling, or simply helping wherever needed, I am eager to learn by doing and to provide value in return.

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A bit about me:

•Highly motivated, disciplined, and hardworking

•Punctual, reliable, and professional

•Detail-oriented with strong analytical thinking

•Fast learner with a genuine passion for finance

•Resilient and committed to long-term growth

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I am based in the UK and able to travel to London and surrounding areas if needed.

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To be fully transparent, I am originally from Ukraine and strongly motivated to build a long-term future in the UK. This gives me an added level of determination to succeed, develop my skills, and prove myself in a professional environment.

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If anyone is willing to offer mentorship, guidance, or even a chance to contribute and learn alongside them, I would be extremely grateful. Even occasional advice or direction would mean a lot to me.

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Thank you very much for your time, and I truly appreciate any support or connections.

I wish to become a fraud analyst but currently have just Aml experience most of the interviews I have had the employers keep saying I do not have fraud experience. If no one is willing to give me a try how then do I get the needed experience? If anyone has ever been in this situation please how did you do it?

In my current role, I spend more time than I'd like to admit technical reviewing the models my team builds/manages. On the side, I've been working on a product to help with that process.

If you do a lot of modeling/technical review, give it a try and let me know your honest feedback.

It can find circular references, broken propagation, cross sheet anomalies, error values hiding in formulas, etc. Thanks in advance for any feedback!

In my current role I’m in a niche area of regulatory reporting within our finance team, but I work with various teams that broadly fall under FP&A and Risk. I hop on meetings where people will spout out what sounds like buzzwords to me and numbers that they got from somewhere that changed somehow.

I’ve taken the classes, and I know broadly what the terms mean but a lot of components I don’t see how they intertwine. I feel like I’m overthinking it at times, but at the same time there’s so much I admittedly don’t know. When it comes to my own job I understand the actions that need to be done and the analysis that’s done if given enough time to look through it, but I’m often asked ad hoc questions that I have no idea conceptually what the answer is. I always go back and review whatever notes or procedures I have, but some people on my team are able to talk through the logic on their own.

I have gotten an offer from both Schwab and Fidelity for an entry role CRA and FSR.
I accepted the Schwab before Fidelity sent their offer. I’ve started the background checks with Schwab but it’s past a week now.
Now I have 3 days to accept or reject the Fidelity. Schwab has higher entry level salary compared to the one being offered by the Fidelity.
In terms of upward movement I turn between the two.

How did you resolve this if you received multiple offers from such reputable firms?

Hi all, I have a phone screen next week for a Senior Financial Analyst role on an AWS Finance team (supporting one of the AWS services). It's a 60-minute video call on Amazon Chime with the hiring manager or a teammate.

For anyone who's been through an Amazon/AWS finance loop, I'd really appreciate insight on a few things:

1. How heavy is the phone screen on Leadership Principles vs actual finance/technical questions? Is it mostly behavioral at this stage?

2. What kind of finance questions came up? (forecasting, variance, P&L, modeling, SQL?) How deep did they go technically in the screen vs the onsite?

3. How many STAR stories did you realistically need for the phone screen alone?

4. Did they ask the failure question in the phone screen, or does that usually come in the onsite loop?

5. Anything that surprised you, or that you wish you'd prepped harder?

🚀 Finance Experts Wanted – Remote AI Project

Are you a Financial Analyst, Investment Banking Professional, FP&A Specialist, Equity Research Analyst, or Finance Expert with Python skills?

A remote AI project is looking for finance professionals to help review and improve AI-generated financial modeling tasks.

Ideal candidates have experience with:

• DCF Valuation
• Financial Statement Analysis
• P&L Modeling
• WACC
• Comparable Company Analysis
• Financial Forecasting
• Python
• GitHub

🌍 Fully Remote
⏰ Flexible Schedule
💰 $60–$100/hour
📈 Long-Term Project Potential

If you have relevant finance experience, comment "Interested" below and I'll send you the application details immediately.

Hi all,
I’m thinking about moving from practice (management accounts and final accounts preparation) into an FP&A/industry role, partly because I’m finding the work repetitive and partly due to the salary difference.
I’m not in a rush to make the move, but I’m still unsure how successful the transition will be and what I should know or prepare for beforehand. What skills, knowledge, or experience would you recommend I develop while I’m comfortable in my current role, so that moving into a completely different position is as smooth as possible?

Thanks in advance!

I recently moved into a Financial Modeling Team Lead role in an insurtech company.

The previous FP&A function is currently being split into two separate teams:

1. Budgeting & reporting
2. Financial modeling (my team)

The structure is still flexible, and business is scaling like crazy so I’m trying to define what this team should realistically own in long-term.

What I’m considering:

Right now I see the role evolving in three directions:

1. Finance-owned data layer (core idea)

• Building a financial data layer independent from operational databases

• Owning core data marts (sales, payments, transactions)

• Building finance dashboards on top of a single source of truth

• Eventually extending into accounting data + reconciliation logic

• Automating parts of reporting that are currently done manually by accountants

• modeling work

  2. Financial modeling

• Company valuation models

• Product pricing (e.g. insurance products like life insurance)

• Partner / supplier profitability and joint business cases

• FP&A input into planning

• Owning or heavily shaping assumption frameworks for budgeting

• Feeding analytical drivers into forecasting (cohorts, marketing efficiency, etc.)

3. Ad hoc analytics

• Cohort / retention analysis
• Profitability breakdowns
• Risk-style or scenario models for strategic decisions

Where I’m unsure:

I’m trying to understand if this is actually a coherent “single team scope” or if I’m mixing multiple functions that normally belong in different org units (FP&A, BI, data engineering, etc.).

Also trying to understand:

• What typically breaks when finance teams try to own data infrastructure?
• What does “good” look like in the first 6–12 months for a setup like this? should i provide a demo or initial success story to keep the team, what projects should i focus on?
• If you were in this position, what would you aggressively prioritize early vs explicitly avoid?

edit: the reason behind the data layer ownership is the incompetence or lack of resource in the data department. In the last two years, the data team was not able to provide enough or accurate dashboards or even ETL processes and datamarts for the fp&a team and I did most of the queries and etl pipeplines myself. My main idea is adding a data engineer to my team to just handle these pipeplines and also having some control over accounting confidential data that i want to add to data marts.

I’ve been applying to entry-level financial analyst roles. Many postings say entry level and then ask for several years of experience, strong Excel, BI tools, SQL, forecasting, reporting, and sometimes full financial modeling. They read pretty senior.

I’ve built simple models for class and internships. I haven’t owned a full three-statement model from scratch in a real company. So when a job says “financial modeling required,” I don’t know what level they mean.

I’ve been prepping by reviewing financial statements, rebuilding small models on weekends, and going through cash flow, ratios, valuation, and scenario questions. I’ve also been practicing interview answers with a friend and sometimes Beyz interview assistant to catch where I sound too textbook. Right now I’m torn between spending more time building small finance projects like revenue forecasts or scenario models and spending more time on interview prep so I can explain the work I already have.

For a first financial analyst role, do hiring teams expect full DCF or three-statement builds, or mostly basic Excel, forecasting, and clear business explanations?

I am having my bcg financial analyst interview tomorrow with senior finance manager. Any suggestions what type of questions could be there in the interview?

Anyone has worked in this role for JPM? I applied but in the job description there was nothing about working the weekend. But today the recruiter emails me about the position with a weekend schedule plus 3 days during the week. This is weird for corporate but I guess anything goes
If anyone has any insight I appreciate it

I’m trying to understand how accounting/finance teams think about AI ROI.

A lot of companies are now using AI tools across support, engineering, finance, sales, and operations. But when it comes time to prove the value, it seems tricky.

Would you trust metrics like:

• vendor spend reduced
• close cycle shortened
• fewer manual hours
• fewer audit/compliance issues
• better forecast accuracy
• headcount avoided
• higher ticket/workflow volume with the same team

Or would you still want to see something else before calling it real ROI?

Also curious: would CSV/spreadsheet uploads be enough for a first version of this kind of reporting, or would finance teams expect direct integrations with accounting/ERP tools?

Hi guys,

I run a Shopify Footwear and bags store and I am struggling with analysing the business P&L, costs basically finances. they don't match up with my bank accounts as what is visible on shopify backend and what is left in my bank accounts is way apart. is there a tool to see what we really make on the go, like the actual profit and. by inventory status and ad spends and all.

would love to get reverts and know what you all are doing.

thanks

Krupa

Hello!

A recruiter reached out to me to discuss a potential Financial Analyst role. I’m currently a junior project manager, with some finance experience and degrees (undergrad and master’s).

I would love it if someone could talk me through the role and let me know what I’d actually be doing based on job description. I’m a quick learner and pretty good with excel, I just want to know if it’s worth backing myself and teaching myself or if it’s too much of big step for where I currently am.

Any help would be greatly appreciated