Jaime Rodriguez

Experience Prior To The Program

Prior to the program, I was the founder of my school’s finance and investment club, however, I had no professional experience. My finance knowledge was all self-taught and limited to public resources. I joined because I wanted to learn technical skills in the financial services industry, primarily financial modeling and valuation. My goal was to learn as much as I could to leverage my knowledge into an internship.

Training Experience

I found that the most valuable attribute of training was that I could learn at a chosen pace. I was able to put my head down and grind out the modules when I needed and I was able to take care of other responsibilities when needed. This helped with my career goals as I was able to improve on my time management and push myself to handle multiple projects and tasks at once. For example, during the beginning of the training, I had limited access to a computer, internet, and time as I was out of town so I was not able to complete as many modules as I would like. However, once I was able to utilize my time and resources, I was able to grind the modules while taking the time to learn each concept.

I enjoyed my experience in all aspects of the program: training, internship, and mentorship. My advice to students is that I would join this program if you are interested in going into a career on Wall Street and have limited experience/knowledge.

Internship Experience

I would describe the internship experience as independent, challenging, and a good learning experience. I would say that the training prepared me for 80% of the internship responsibilities and financial analysis. For example, creating complete models and presentation material was taught during the training. The other 20% consists of differences between industries during due diligence, modeling different line items, and deciding multiples.

Mentorship

The one-on-one mentorship was particularly helpful in identifying mistakes, areas for improvement, and best practices. This helped me save my work in the correct format, model more accurately, and create more efficiencies in my work. I also enjoyed the Tuesday-Friday morning mentoring sessions, as I was able to learn more about applying skills and concepts in real-world investing as well as market patterns.

Career Development

The program helped me to improve my resume by implementing better verbiage and displaying my strengths more effectively. Also, I am able to point to specific projects I completed to showcase my new skills and knowledge.