September 8, 2025 • 36 mins
Kicking off our special application-season mini-series, we're joined by Raul Verma, Co-President of the LSE Alternative Investments Conference (AIC), to demystify the finance career journey from inside one of the world’s top universities.
In this episode, Raoul shares his unconventional path, including dropping out and returning to LSE and the real pressures, decisions, and strategies behind landing finance roles.
Whether you're considering banking, exploring alternatives, or just starting your journey, this episode is packed with raw insights, relatable stories, and actionable advice.
Perfect for students navigating their next steps and looking to hear from peers who’ve been there.
(00:00) Intro to the Mini Series
(01:37) Dropping Out of LSE & Coming Back
(08:11) Life at a Top Uni: Pressure & Competition
(13:26) Mentors Matter: Finding Your Guide
(18:08) Handling Parental Expectations
(21:33) How to Apply to Finance Roles
(31:52) Why This Series? + AIC Overview
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to this new mini series where I'm going to
be joined by students from the London School of Economics
Alternative Investments Conference, a leading finance
society at one of the world's top universities.
Across this series, you can expect us to explore the
realities of studying at the topuniversity from managing
(00:20):
pressure and expectations. We're also going to have
different speakers covering things like leveraging
opportunities to land internships, securing roles
through unconventional routes orthe back door, exploring
alternatives to investor banking, and navigating a
culture that can often prioritize IB above all else.
All of this and more to come. So make sure you subscribe to
(00:42):
the channel so you don't miss any of these future episodes
with the LSEAIC team and myself.But to kick things off, really
excited to have Raul Verma with us, the Co president of LSEAIC.
So how are you, Raul? I'm good and I just want to
preface this entire conversationby saying thank you, Anthony,
firstly for having AIC on for the miniseries and also having
(01:04):
me on. It's an honour to be a part of
your podcast and I look forward to the discussion we're going to
have. Yeah.
And look, I, I, I having spoken to you a couple of Times Now,
you're definitely the best person to kick this off, not
just because of your role withinthe AIC, but mainly because of
your your passion, your energy and your honesty about a lot of
these these things. And, you know, our goal is to
(01:27):
help educate. And as we've discussed before,
open up the somewhat black box of the LSE magic of what a lot
of the students are thinking doing in order to be successful
in their future careers. But perhaps we start straight in
at the deep end. Yeah, if we can, which is you
actually dropped out of LSEI, remember you telling me before
in a prior conversation. So how did that happen and how
(01:52):
did you weigh up that decision at the time?
That must have been huge for you.
Yeah. So I initially joined LSE in the
2023 intake. I attended for, I would say
around a month, maybe slightly over.
And I think over the course of that month, I made the decision
mentally that I definitely wanted to take a year out to
consider my options. And I think before I say kind of
(02:15):
more on why I dropped out, the LSE faculty, the LSE team was
absolutely incredible from the process of dropping out to
coming back and also supporting me throughout the year.
I met with my academic mentor once a month during my year out
and I was incredibly generous ofthem.
So nothing against LSE, but I think there's two main things,
right? I think firstly, you are in
(02:37):
education for 18 years before you attend university.
For a lot of people, I think it's a good idea to step back
and see the world before you go back into education and stay in
that bubble. I think that's something I
definitely felt going to the LSEwas I think academia.
I was a little bit sick of it bythe time I got to got to the LSE
(02:58):
because you come off a levels which a very intense time Prior
to that, you're in your GCS ES and I feel like I've just been
doing academia for my entire life.
And secondly as well, I had a lot of personal things going on
in my life, but also I wasn't sure if LSE was the place for
me. And I guess we'll speak a a tiny
bit more about this later, but the LSE is a very unique place
(03:20):
in and of there's a lot of pressure to achieve certain
things, there is a lot of pressure to go down a certain
path as opposed to others. And I think coming from an
outside and not really knowing much about, you know, things
like finance, things like investment banking, private,
actually all the buzzwords you hear, I felt like quite an
outsider when I first attended. And I think I definitely wanted
(03:42):
some time away before I came back.
So I made the decision about a month into my journey LLC that
I'm going to take a take a step back, take a year out.
And my academic mentor was kind enough to put it through so that
I had a guaranteed spot for the 2024 intake if I wanted to
return. And I think maybe go a bit more
on what I did in that year out. So #1 and I'm sure they won't
(04:06):
mind me name dropping the company, The Ivy.
I was a waiter there for a year and it was one of the most
incredible jobs I've had becauseit's a very old school
restaurant. It's pen and paper.
Introduce yourself to every table.
An extremely busy restaurant as well.
So table turnover is constant. So I really got comfortable with
going over to people, introducing myself and trying to
(04:26):
build a connection in the 1st 30seconds.
Because the idea is, you know, the routine never changes.
I'm going to come to your, come to your table and offer you
water. But it's about how you gauge
that connection as quickly as possible and move forward with
that. So that's first of all, one of
the most pivotal skills I gained.
But also throughout that year, Igot the opportunity to think
(04:47):
about what I wanted to do as a career, whether I want to return
to the LSE, whether I want to pursue a different part.
And during my time out, I secured 2° apprenticeship offers
at the Big Four. And one was in consulting and
one was in audit. And weighing up those options
was incredibly tough. And I remember speaking to my
(05:07):
older sister about this, actually, funnily enough, when I
was considering the options and she just kind of asked me, she
was like, Raul, Are you sure youwant to do XYZ career without
having considered a place like LSE?
Because LSE is the door opener, right?
And I was like, you know what? I'm not sure.
And I remember it was the biggest coincidence ever because
(05:29):
I was driving at the time, talking to my sister on the
Bluetooth and my phone goes off.And it was one of the firms that
offered me a position asking, you know, are you going to send
over your passport and your details?
We need to start onboarding you.And I said I'm really sorry and
I hope you can give my position to someone else, but I'm going
to go back to LSE. And during that time out as
(05:49):
well, I think it's worth mentioning that I definitely had
kind of 1 friend in particular who I kept in contact with who
was in one of my LSE classes andhe was pursuing finance and he's
currently interning at an investment bank.
And I have absolutely no doubts in my mind he's going to get the
return offer. One of the more hardest working
people I know and one of the most down to earth people I
know. And he knows who he is.
I'm not sure she wants me to name drop him, but he knows who
(06:11):
he is. And he really walked me through
like the opportunities that are in finance and I guess as a
philosophy undergrad, and he's also a non conventional, he
doesn't study econ or anything like that.
As a philosophy grad, I didn't really know what finance had for
me. You know, I always just assumed
it's just a bunch of punching numbers.
And then I realized all the things that I'm doing right now,
(06:34):
you know, I love reading the news.
I love keeping up with geopolitics.
I love keeping up with policy. I love keeping up with, you
know, macro trends in the world.I like thinking about what's
going on in Asia right now. I like thinking about, you know,
what's happening on, you know, Thailand's border right now.
I realized all these things really do play out in finance
and a lot of the strategies and business decisions made are
(06:54):
heavily linked to all the thingsI was already reading.
So I realized that, you know, there's there's a lot of
qualitative in finance I hadn't previously considered.
And I definitely think that yearout helped me realize and guide
me more directly towards what I wanted to do.
And I think perhaps a lesson foranyone who's maybe not in
university yet, definitely do consider taking year out.
(07:14):
I think the skills I gained justin terms of confidence and then
also the ability to articulate myself, I think was incredibly
important. And I think I wouldn't be in the
position I am today if I hadn't taken that year out.
And definitely definitely recommend taking gap year even
if you're considering it if you're on the fence because I
think Anthony, you'd probably agree one year out of your life
(07:35):
when you're 18/19/20 compared tothe rest of your life is
absolutely nothing. Yeah, I mean, the, the, I guess
an alternative route to that wasI did a sandwich year.
So I did like a third year in industry out of a four year
undergrad. And that was actually my
favorite year of, of my entire university because it was the
(07:55):
one point where actually the penny dropped and the work you
were doing had real tangible meaning.
And you got paid and it was like, ah, OK, this makes a lot
of sense. So, so, yeah, I mean, there's
different ways to to do it, but totally agree.
So that what, you go back to LSEthen.
And I think a lot of students, particularly now, we just
recently had things like GCSEA level results, things like that.
(08:19):
And a lot of people will be aspiring to attend at one of the
world's top universities. So whether you're LSE, Imperial,
Oxbridge here or you're Stanford, Harvard in the US,
wherever it might be, that all sounds great.
I want to be at the top. What is it actually like though?
One transitioning from, I guess you go from school to college,
(08:43):
then to like this International University scene and the talent
pool widens dramatically. So what is that transition
through those leaks? Like if you like an academic
achievement and then just day-to-day that environment of
living within that competitive place, what is it like?
Yeah, so I think something you said that was incredibly true,
(09:06):
right? When you go to a top university,
the talent pool is insanely big.You go from being one of
probably the smartest people in your school, you know, one of
the top performers, one of the most well versed in whatever
degree you're going into, to literally knowing nothing.
You become a fish in a big pond again, right.
And I'd say the the environment depends on where you place
(09:29):
yourself as well. Every single university, every
top university definitely has a group of people who want to work
24/7, are extremely competitive.And, you know, I've anecdotally
had conversations with people atLSE and I can tell, you know,
they're not asking, you know, how are you?
They're asking more like, what are you doing?
You know, have you got X spring?Are you doing a summer this
(09:51):
year? Are you doing any work
experience? You know, what societies are you
going to? Are you going to go for
president in this society? Are you going to do this?
So there's definitely is that, but I want to say on balance,
the kind of mentorship, friendship, and just general
allies I found at LSE have been overwhelmingly strong as well.
I can safely say that I've met some of my lifelong friends at
(10:12):
this university. A lot of it is through AIC and I
can get on to more, more about that later about how it is
genuinely the best community I found at LSE.
But when it comes to living in the day-to-day pressure and, you
know, interacting with people who are more competitive, I
think first of all, you're goingto have to learn how to be
brutally honest with yourself. Are you someone who likes to be
(10:35):
hyper competitive? Are you someone who can thrive
in that environment? Because I feel like there's
quite a few people who end up placing themselves in that
environment, but it's not the most conducive to their growth.
And there is no, there is no shame in saying I don't want to
be in a hyper competitive environment.
If there's one thing I can get across, There is no shame in
saying you don't want to work 100 hour weeks.
There is no shame in saying you don't want to be in a hyper
(10:56):
competitive environment. You know, if it's not conducive
to your growth as a person, don't do it.
That's number one. You place yourself where you
want to be. And if you let the external
pressure get to you of trying toplace yourself in a certain
environment because you think that's what everyone else is
doing and that's what's going tolead you to success.
Even though you know deep down it's damaging you more than
helping you, you know, that's unfortunately the burden falls
(11:19):
on you. You need to make sure you're
placing yourself in a different environment.
And when it comes to dealing with just just in general, the
competitive nature, I think it comes back down to being a bit
more down to earth about what you want out of university.
And this is something, again, I learned on my gap year, and this
might just be a massive gap yearselling program, right this
entire episode. But one thing I learned about my
gap year was when it came to LSEI, initially, I felt like I
(11:42):
committed myself to something because of expectation.
You know, when you get an LSE offer, it's like, OK, pack your
bags to go into London. I felt like I was committing
something due to expectation andnot because of something that
I'm interested in or something that's conducive to what I want
to do in the future. And when I stepped back and
assessed whether I wanted to go back to LSE, that was the first
(12:02):
time I'd really felt like I'd even thought about it, right?
Like I'm going to university, I'm going to be, have to do XYZ.
And even now, you know, we're, we're in, we're in the depths of
the recruitment cycle. I feel, you know, it's already
started. When you are putting yourself
forward for opportunities, I think it's definitely worth
thinking, is this something I want to do?
And this is something that I've kind of taken on personally as
(12:24):
well to deal with the environment.
LSE is that, you know, when you're applying to an internship
or a job, you don't take it seriously.
This is something you're puttingyourself forward for.
And if you're not sure if you want to do it, you're not going
to thrive at it. And I think that's the most
important thing when you're in ahigh pressure environment, you,
you almost have to learn to be true to yourself more than
you've ever done so before, because otherwise you're just
(12:45):
going to place yourself into a pipeline, you know, potentially
for the rest of your life where you're trying to measure up to
other people's expectations and not your own, right.
And I think it's extremely important and I try to do it at
every level in my own life. Is that when I apply to
something, you know, I'm thinking, is this something I
want to do? And if it is, I will 100% put my
(13:06):
foot forward. But if it's not, there is no
pressure to put your foot forward.
And I think that's something that people really need to
realize when they are a high pressure university is that
ultimately you're going to live your life.
So think about what you're doingnow to shape that future.
Yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
But I I wonder then with, you know, the students on campus,
(13:29):
you know, that that quote, I must pursue banking consulting.
Like there's, there's only a handful, it seems of roles that
people seem to talk about on campus.
So I'm sure not everyone has that, that ability to step out
of the noise and have convictionbehind backing themselves.
(13:49):
Is it like you said you had that, that peer, that role model
or that person that you can findin it can talk to you honestly?
Was that what unlocks the ability to have someone to
bounce off to? Then maybe it was your sister,
like for example, who you said you've also mentioned.
Do you need that? Is that the necessary ingredient
to be able where you've been quite safe all through your
(14:11):
academic 18 years, now you're going to have to stand on your
own 2 feet as an adult and make a decision?
That's a very interesting, I'd say definitely yes.
I think something that not enough people understand, you
know, it goes back to saying, you know, no man is a giant,
right? We all sit on the shoulders of
giants, right? You need to find your giant
(14:32):
effectively, right? You need a mentor.
I I don't think you can go through a process alone.
You need to find your mentor andyou need to find people who can
help guide you, right? And when you're talking about
the pressures to pursue, you know, you know, the big careers,
you know, you're banking, you'reconsulting, you know, I think
first of all, you need to find amentor who's lived that
experience, right? I think something that very
(14:56):
much. And yeah, I have no, no problem
in saying this. I'm applying to banking, right?
And for me, the kind of tipping point to decide that, OK, I want
to pursue banking and block out all the noise as to, you know,
oh, seems like everyone's applying to it.
Let me just do this is when I had these mentors who have lived
the experience and told me that their own experiences,
(15:16):
opportunities they gained and what they honestly thought, what
they honestly thought of the job, what teams they enjoyed
being on, what teams they didn'tenjoy being on.
And I think, you know, having someone like that, it only
benefits you because first of all, I think #1 is going to make
you a stronger applicant, right?Let's talk pure practical terms.
If you have a mentor who's livedthe experience and they can tell
(15:38):
you, makes you a much stronger applicant.
We interview for AIC, right? And occasionally we will, you
know, drop the question like youdon't.
What do you know about alternative investments?
What do you know about alternative finance?
Do you know what private equity is?
And you'll be surprised as to the amount of people who get it
wrong, considering these are probably the same people who are
saying, yeah, I want to do investment banking for two
(16:00):
years, then exit to private equity, right?
I think if you have that mental,first of all, you're going to
understand what is it you're getting yourself into?
Are you actually going to be interested in this?
And then #2 with having a mentoris you almost have the ability
to keep yourself grounded at alltimes because I think you know,
and I think Anthony, Amplify Me is great for this.
(16:22):
And a massive shout out to Amplify Me because I know people
personally who have leveraged opportunities through Amplify
Me, which I've actually lead to summer internships and concrete
offers. It helps keep your boots on the
ground because you're going to face so much rejection.
So much rejection. I remember I think I had one of
the roughest spring week cycles of all time.
I was faced rejection after rejection after rejection.
(16:44):
But if it wasn't for my mentors and people who supported me and
helped me understand where I wasgoing wrong, I wouldn't have
had, you know, the, the relatively small amount of
success I have had. So I think it's ultimately
really important to have a mentor, not only to help
yourself and better yourself foryour application cycles, but
also just to keep yourself grounded and understand your
experience is not unique. Everyone has rejections,
(17:07):
everyone has these things, but what is unique is how you deal
with it. I think having a mentor has
helped me infinitely, and I think absolutely any small
amount of success I've had, any advice I now give.
It's the back of the it's off the back of those mentors.
No, nothing I'm saying is unique.
It's just simply what I've learned and what I've had
success with because of the countless generous people who
(17:28):
have given me time. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
And one thing I was thinking as you were describing it was I was
thinking the likelihood is that a lot of people who are at LSE
have come from a certain probably academic background.
So probably a lot different frommy own, my own, you know, for a
(17:50):
large profit single parent, no interest at all about how I did
at school. I would assume at LSE it's the
opposite where there's a lot of ex parental expectation.
And I just wondered then, for any of those listening who are
in that early part of their academic journey, how do you
manage parental expectation? So we've talked a lot about, you
(18:12):
know, your own expectations, peer group assessment or
benchmarking. What about coming from above
from your folks? Yeah, I think I'm very fortunate
and perhaps similar to you in this, Anthony.
My parents, I absolutely love them to love them to bits.
And it's because I can hand on heart say their only policy with
(18:34):
me was work hard and just do something that makes you happy.
They would never pressure me in terms of studying, in terms of
the getting the grades that I get.
In fact, I think my earliest memory of, you know, kind of
primary going into secondary wasI genuinely thought I was going
to end up in competitive gaming.You know, I was so good at video
games. I love video games more than
anything. And it's been, you know, it's
(18:55):
been a painful detached for me to not play them as much
anymore. But I spent an absurd amount of
times of video games and my parents definitely weren't as
involved. But I empathize a lot because I
know a lot of people whose parents, you know, might already
be in kind of at the end of the cycle they eventually want to
get to, right. So they've already lived that.
They got very good grades at school.
They went to a good university. I mean, neither my parents went
(19:17):
to university, right? So I think the expectation
definitely isn't there. And I absolutely love them for
it because it's a great environment.
I I don't like the pressure fromabove anyways, but I understand
and completely empathize with the fact that there were
definitely hundreds of people atLSE whose parents are probably
lived exactly what they want to top grades, top university, high
(19:37):
flying career. And then I'll reaping the
benefits by being able to support their child to, I can
imagine, hopefully do a similar or same thing because they've
seen the kind of lifestyle can provide.
And I think actually one of my best friends, right, is I could
say that he's got he doesn't want to go to finance.
His name's Yash. One of the biggest piece of
advice he gave me whenever I would define my parents, sorry,
(20:00):
mum and dad, when I define my parents is he always said to me,
he's like, look, as long as you're not doing something
wrong, right, as long as you're not, you know, doing the obvious
wrong things in life. If you simply want to take want
to take a different path, you have to understand your parents
are going to love you regardless, right?
Your parents love is largely unconditional.
So I think if you are in a position where you feel you have
(20:24):
to commit to something because of your parents, I think it's
time you sit down with your parents and have a discussion.
And I understand, you know, I can never understand because
again, my parents are so lazy. I feel like I can talk to my
parents like they're my friends,right?
I think I can talk to my parentslike they're my friends.
I think my parents are some of my best friends.
So I don't really have this pressure, but I can imagine that
(20:46):
it all stems from communication,right?
If your parents don't even know you're unhappy, it's
unreasonable to expect them to do something or to think about
it a different way. So it all comes down to
communication and just in wider life as well, you know, if
you're unhappy with something, you have to voice it.
And if you have parental pressure, the only way to get
rid of it is to voice it. Yeah, yeah, the, the biggest way
(21:08):
is to do what's going to make you feel probably most
uncomfortable, which is perhaps in the first time in your life.
And this is the transition into adulthood, which is this time to
like step up and, you know, havethe elephant in the room
conversations for your for everyone's benefit.
Managing expectations is the keyto really a harmonious
relationship and being transparent.
(21:30):
So absolutely, Lola, let's move on to maybe 2 practical tips.
Now, this mini series, I know from your colleagues, AIC is
going to be packed with much more targeted strategic ways to
help build build students up to get hired and achieve success.
But from your side, two things. One, looking back, what's one
thing you wish you knew earlier about applying to financial
(21:53):
institutions? And secondly, did you make any
mistakes along the way that others could learn from?
Yeah, the second one, I made loads of mistakes.
I made made plenty of mistakes. And again, I think before I say
anything, I want to definitely put out there, I'm not an
expert. I'm going into my second year of
university. Everything I say take with a
(22:15):
pinch of salt because people have varying degrees of success
and everyone has their own unique strategy and different
things work for different people.
But from the limited success I've had and the opportunities I
managed to gain, I'd say my understanding of applying to
financial institutions, something that greatly helps.
I think whenever you get asked, you know, why do you want to
(22:36):
work here? What is it about this role that
interests you? Having a very concrete
understanding of the role and being able to summarize it in a
simplified way is so important. I think if you're able to
explain the role and what you'regoing to be doing to a 5 year
old, you probably got it right. And I think this goes from, you
(22:59):
know, my broader piece of adviceand kind of the interviews I've
been successful in. I feel like it's the ones where
I was most concise and targeted.When you, when you speak with
brevity, when you're able to keep your responses short, but
short, I think that's the most effective way to get a final
institution to look twice at youand think, OK, this is someone
(23:21):
who we can imagine having. Because I think at the end of
the day, right, we often see it from our side, right?
Like, Oh my God, I thought my CDwas so strong.
And you know, it's massive bang suddenly kicked it to the curb.
What's happening, right? And I, I find myself in that
cycle as well. Of course, it's natural to feel
that way, but you have to understand from their
perspective as well, right? They're receiving an
unprecedented amount of applications.
(23:44):
So when you speak to employees or speak to these financial
solutions, if you're lucky enough to get an interview, I
think the mistakes I've made in the interviews I haven't been
successful at is when my answerswere long winded and I wasn't
straight to the point. You know, I remember in a spring
week telephone interview, I didn't, I was unsuccessful in, I
got asked, oh, is there a team, you know, within the firm that
(24:05):
you really look to? And this was something I hadn't
prepped for, right? I didn't know if there was a
team. And in hindsight, I feel like
the best answer to give there was, you know, I haven't
actually had experience within investment banking.
Therefore I don't think I can comment on a team that I'm in.
But something I've read in the news recently that's interested
me and maybe I want to go to this team is this.
(24:27):
But instead I tried to pretend like I knew a lot about a
certain team and instead it justended up in this long winded
answer which went nowhere. And now looking back on that, I
can see exactly why they rejected the right.
So I think brevity is your friend and I think kind of
moving more into mistakes I madewas one being definitely too
long ridden in my answers and #2not actually engaging with the
(24:49):
technical side of finance at spring week level.
Of course, you're not. You're not going to be expected
to know your technicals too much.
I don't think they're going to expect much from you in time the
way of technicals. But you should definitely be
able to verse yourself technically to a very basic
degree at the very minimum. And I've even spoken to a lot of
my friends who are fortunate enough to do investment banking
(25:10):
summers, you know, elite boutiques, bold rackets and
things of that nature. And all of them said to me, you
know, none of their interviews were were crazy, crazy
technical, right? You have the odd interview where
it's like, OK, I just got peppered about accounting for 45
minutes. But a lot of them had this
communal experience where the interviews weren't crazy
technical. But one thing I've noticed about
(25:31):
all my friends who were successful in their cycles was
when they talk about a deal, when they talk about something
that interested in the news, youknow, they can speak like a
banker, right? And I think one of my friends
who was incredibly successful incycle got this summer Ali
Boutique. Whenever I speak to him and I
get advice from him about applying to a certain company or
anything like that, you can justtell his language and you know,
(25:55):
he he points to valuation multiples when he's talking
about deals. He uses, you know, words like
tailwinds, headwinds and all these sorts of things and they
seem very small, but it's a direct indicator that you know
what you're talking about and you could be a banker.
And I think I definitely did absolutely none of that this
spring cycle when I talked abouta deal, I didn't bring up any
valuation multiples. I I just wasn't thinking or
(26:18):
speaking like a banker. And I can exactly see why firms
didn't perhaps see that potential in me.
And I think the number one mistake I made was not engaging
with technicals fast enough. And soon as I engaged with
technicals, I was able to connect with the firm and I did
some work for them over the summer.
And it all stemmed from the factthat, you know, I could verse
myself, you know, in what an LBOis, what's the rationale behind
(26:41):
it and all these sorts of things.
So engaging with technicals on avery basic level is so
important. And off the back of that as
well, practical advice, there are so many resources online to
get with technicals. And I remember answering, we, we
had a conversation about this where I felt one of the
advantages of going to a top university was everyone just
(27:01):
seems to have these resources ontheir laptop Willy nilly, right?
It's just seems that I've got a massive folder on my laptop
with, you know, investment banking resources where it's
every technical guide you could imagine.
And to anyone who listens to this, you have my name.
Connect me with me on LinkedIn if you want the guy, if you want
the folder, please let me know. I'm more than happy to.
I might just stick it in a Google Drive and put it on my
LinkedIn. But yeah, there's plenty of
(27:25):
resources out there. Find them and take the time,
self educate because yeah, that is sorry, I'm just reflecting
now. That is the biggest mistake I
made this cycle for Springs was,you know, I wasn't talking like
a banker. So engage with technicals, keep
your answers brief, be sharp andbe interested, right?
Don't lose yourself. We interview AIC and I think one
(27:46):
of the most unfortunate things is when we have a personal vouch
where we think, OK, we should bring this guy in for an
interview. I kind of know this person.
I thought that they would be a good fit.
And then the interview, they just act like a completely
different person, right? And it's, it's almost
unrecognizable. It's like, OK, who am I talking
to now? So be yourself, you know, be
brief, be sharp and engage with some technical knowledge and
(28:10):
think like whatever the role is you want to go into.
That's great, good practical tips and there are a lot more
coming. So again, don't forget to
subscribe to here Raul's colleagues who are going to drop
some of those in the coming weeks.
But maybe to close then two things.
One, this series, I know you, you initially came to me with
(28:30):
this idea and we kind of brainstormed before.
What is it that ultimately is your motivation for doing this?
Like, like I said, I feel like LSE in history has always been a
bit of a black box of intelligence with these shared
files, as you said. Shout out to Favour, who's an
absolute legend in LSE folklore for for putting together a guide
(28:52):
as well that he's done in the past.
But what? What's driving this series in
your mind, and why did you want to do it?
Yeah. So it's a good question.
I think, I think ultimately it'sprobably my own experience.
You know, I came not knowing much about finance, how to
navigate, you know, these, you know, these high flying careers
(29:14):
to having opportunities, you know, I could have couldn't even
imagine in my gap here, right? I follow my gap here and I have
absolutely no shame in the beingthis.
I felt like I was really down and out.
I had these degree apprenticeship authors.
But I definitely think it was one of the hardest times of my
life because I went from, you know, Raul, who did really well
at his secondary school, you know, deputy head boy to meant
(29:36):
to go to LSE but didn't quite last.
And I think for me personally, it was, you know, again, the
people I connected with through AIC, through university and all
the generous, generous people inmy life who uplifted me and
helped me get to the place I am.And I just think, you know,
(29:57):
especially within the the AIC team, there is so much good
advice, so many interesting stories to hear about that I
thought we should definitely be sharing this with the world.
And I think there is, there is so much knowledge out there
that, you know, even if you don't take the practical tips
(30:17):
away, maybe you are an LSE student listening to this, maybe
you are an Oxford student and you already know everything
that's going to be said in this next few episodes, right?
But it's, it's more just hearingpeople's story is extremely
helpful because I think we, we tend to live in a bubble where
it's survivorship bias, right? You scroll and LinkedIn, you're
obviously going to see the person who, you know, he's going
to JP Morgan, right? You're obviously going to see
(30:39):
the person who's, you know, trading a citadel, but you're
not going to see the story of those people who, yeah, they
might be at that place now, but they had an extremely hard run
up to it, you know? And I think I don't want to give
away some of the next few episodes, but we definitely have
a few where, you know, even the most conventionally strong
people I know were unable to getsomething in a certain cycle,
(31:01):
and they bounced back and were able to get something bigger
than they could have imagined inthe next 1.
And I think it's so important totell stories about setbacks, you
know, failures, if you will, right?
If you're unlabeled that failure, setbacks, whatever you
want to call it. I think when you when you're in
a bubble of prestige, high flying people, people who
achieve everything, it's so important to have boots on the
(31:22):
ground and realize that, you know, life's not this bubble,
you're going to have setbacks. I think hearing it from people
who are now in positions you want to be in is so incredibly
important. And I think that's what mainly
motivated me reaching out to start this miniseries.
Yeah, I know. Look, credit, credit to you.
(31:43):
That is exactly the type of mission I want to champion and
use this platform for. So very happy indeed to have you
and the others with us. Maybe to close then how can
anyone listening engage with AIC?
What is AIC in the conference format?
When's it happening? How can anyone get involved in
or outside of LSC? Yeah, of course.
(32:05):
So AIC is, I'm going to go into kind of the the pitch here,
right? So AIC is the world's largest
student run investment conference.
So with a particular focus on alternative investment,
slabbing, private equity, hedge funds and venture capital.
We hold it in February of every year and this year will be
February 2026. And we invite some of the
(32:26):
world's most global firms. A lot of household names, I'm
not going to name drop them. You can go to the website and
have a look. There's loads of plenty of
household names there. And then also a lot of
interesting firms as well, whichyou may not have heard from.
And to get involved, we take an intake of 350 attendees or
delegates every single year. The application process is done
through Dartmouth Partners. They're just a financial
(32:47):
recruiting firm and all it is, is ACV and you're, you put your,
put your best foot forward effectively.
So when it comes in the way of, you know, if you want to attend,
what advice can I give? It's just generally to have a
well formatted, strong CV, just get a double check, make sure
you know, you haven't got any inconsistencies on it.
And the conference itself, it's an opportunity to connect with
(33:10):
some of the C-Suite executives are some of the biggest firms.
You get to hear from them in keynotes.
You get to sit in on panel talkswhere they're talking about
what's happening in the market, talking about their outlook for
the market. It's extremely helpful if you're
going to be applying to, you know, application cycles and
things like that because now you're not getting it from an
article that you have to interpret, you're getting it
straight from the source. And then we also have workshops
(33:31):
as well where firms take on, youknow, a much smaller delegate
class of around 20 to 30 people and they'll walk you through
either a case study, that business model for anything they
really want to. And we also have an opportunity
program. So if you're listening to this
and you think, you know, I don'tthink I could even afford to
come down to London and, you know, pay a ticket price to
(33:51):
attend this event. We have an opportunity program.
We're trying very hard to expandit this year.
And this is also done at the generosity of our sponsors.
So a massive shout out to all the firms who sponsor us because
they're the ones who give up notonly their time, but their money
to help sponsor delegates who otherwise wouldn't be able to
come. So even if you feel like you're
in that position, there is always a place for your AIC and
(34:13):
it's an incredible opportunity. I know fans who have directly
recruited from the pool of people they've met AIC because
they've really liked someone, made a connection.
And you know, these are definitely, definitely great,
great firms, great people. And I can't sell it enough just
based on community, you know, the people you meet, AIC,
genuinely friends for life. I still meet with alumni that,
(34:36):
you know, I didn't have a connection with through my time
at LFC, but it's just such a generous, generous organization.
And I think if you ever do want to connect with AIC more
informally again, just reach outto any of us on LinkedIn.
We will absolutely get back to you as fast as we can.
And, you know, I've had people reach out and just, you know,
just ask on a phone call, what is AIC about?
(34:57):
Do you have any tips? I'm going into my first year of
university. What are mistakes you made that
I can learn from? And I've had like, you know,
three or four of these calls andI think I speak for the team
when, you know, we don't mind doing these calls.
The whole purpose of this is to put on an event for the
delegates. And it's it's a service based
business. You know, I think I get to take
a lot of the kudos and stand there and give a cool speech or
(35:19):
I get a few professional photos taken.
But ultimately this is a servicebusiness.
This does not work without the incredible team we have under us
who works so hard to put this conference on so big shouts the
executive management and later on subcommittee who will come in
and help us put this on and generous sponsor firms.
But above all else, everyone whoapplies to AIC puts their foot
(35:41):
forward, attends the conference and get something out of it.
That is what it's all about, right?
That is ultimately how this entire things works.
So to engage with AIC, apply to AIC, attend the conference,
reach out informally. But yeah, it's, it's an
organization for the people. AIC is a service and we want to
make sure we keep it that way for as long as it's alive.
(36:02):
It's. Great.
And what I'll do is I'm going toadd the link to all of not just
this, but future episodes that we do with you, you and your
team so people can just easily access that and anywhere we
share this podcast. So Raul, great to get the series
up and running. Thank you so much for for
sharing your your story and yourjourney and your practical tips.
(36:23):
And yeah, looking forward to it.Thank you so much for having me
on today.
Hello and welcome to this new mini series where I'm going to
be joined by students from the London School of Economics
Alternative Investments Conference, a leading finance
society at one of the world's top universities.
Across this series, you can expect us to explore the
realities of studying at the topuniversity from managing
(00:20):
pressure and expectations. We're also going to have
different speakers covering things like leveraging
opportunities to land internships, securing roles
through unconventional routes orthe back door, exploring
alternatives to investor banking, and navigating a
culture that can often prioritize IB above all else.
All of this and more to come. So make sure you subscribe to
(00:42):
the channel so you don't miss any of these future episodes
with the LSEAIC team and myself.But to kick things off, really
excited to have Raul Verma with us, the Co president of LSEAIC.
So how are you, Raul? I'm good and I just want to
preface this entire conversationby saying thank you, Anthony,
firstly for having AIC on for the miniseries and also having
(01:04):
me on. It's an honour to be a part of
your podcast and I look forward to the discussion we're going to
have. Yeah.
And look, I, I, I having spoken to you a couple of Times Now,
you're definitely the best person to kick this off, not
just because of your role withinthe AIC, but mainly because of
your your passion, your energy and your honesty about a lot of
these these things. And, you know, our goal is to
(01:27):
help educate. And as we've discussed before,
open up the somewhat black box of the LSE magic of what a lot
of the students are thinking doing in order to be successful
in their future careers. But perhaps we start straight in
at the deep end. Yeah, if we can, which is you
actually dropped out of LSEI, remember you telling me before
in a prior conversation. So how did that happen and how
(01:52):
did you weigh up that decision at the time?
That must have been huge for you.
Yeah. So I initially joined LSE in the
2023 intake. I attended for, I would say
around a month, maybe slightly over.
And I think over the course of that month, I made the decision
mentally that I definitely wanted to take a year out to
consider my options. And I think before I say kind of
(02:15):
more on why I dropped out, the LSE faculty, the LSE team was
absolutely incredible from the process of dropping out to
coming back and also supporting me throughout the year.
I met with my academic mentor once a month during my year out
and I was incredibly generous ofthem.
So nothing against LSE, but I think there's two main things,
right? I think firstly, you are in
(02:37):
education for 18 years before you attend university.
For a lot of people, I think it's a good idea to step back
and see the world before you go back into education and stay in
that bubble. I think that's something I
definitely felt going to the LSEwas I think academia.
I was a little bit sick of it bythe time I got to got to the LSE
(02:58):
because you come off a levels which a very intense time Prior
to that, you're in your GCS ES and I feel like I've just been
doing academia for my entire life.
And secondly as well, I had a lot of personal things going on
in my life, but also I wasn't sure if LSE was the place for
me. And I guess we'll speak a a tiny
bit more about this later, but the LSE is a very unique place
(03:20):
in and of there's a lot of pressure to achieve certain
things, there is a lot of pressure to go down a certain
path as opposed to others. And I think coming from an
outside and not really knowing much about, you know, things
like finance, things like investment banking, private,
actually all the buzzwords you hear, I felt like quite an
outsider when I first attended. And I think I definitely wanted
(03:42):
some time away before I came back.
So I made the decision about a month into my journey LLC that
I'm going to take a take a step back, take a year out.
And my academic mentor was kind enough to put it through so that
I had a guaranteed spot for the 2024 intake if I wanted to
return. And I think maybe go a bit more
on what I did in that year out. So #1 and I'm sure they won't
(04:06):
mind me name dropping the company, The Ivy.
I was a waiter there for a year and it was one of the most
incredible jobs I've had becauseit's a very old school
restaurant. It's pen and paper.
Introduce yourself to every table.
An extremely busy restaurant as well.
So table turnover is constant. So I really got comfortable with
going over to people, introducing myself and trying to
(04:26):
build a connection in the 1st 30seconds.
Because the idea is, you know, the routine never changes.
I'm going to come to your, come to your table and offer you
water. But it's about how you gauge
that connection as quickly as possible and move forward with
that. So that's first of all, one of
the most pivotal skills I gained.
But also throughout that year, Igot the opportunity to think
(04:47):
about what I wanted to do as a career, whether I want to return
to the LSE, whether I want to pursue a different part.
And during my time out, I secured 2° apprenticeship offers
at the Big Four. And one was in consulting and
one was in audit. And weighing up those options
was incredibly tough. And I remember speaking to my
(05:07):
older sister about this, actually, funnily enough, when I
was considering the options and she just kind of asked me, she
was like, Raul, Are you sure youwant to do XYZ career without
having considered a place like LSE?
Because LSE is the door opener, right?
And I was like, you know what? I'm not sure.
And I remember it was the biggest coincidence ever because
(05:29):
I was driving at the time, talking to my sister on the
Bluetooth and my phone goes off.And it was one of the firms that
offered me a position asking, you know, are you going to send
over your passport and your details?
We need to start onboarding you.And I said I'm really sorry and
I hope you can give my position to someone else, but I'm going
to go back to LSE. And during that time out as
(05:49):
well, I think it's worth mentioning that I definitely had
kind of 1 friend in particular who I kept in contact with who
was in one of my LSE classes andhe was pursuing finance and he's
currently interning at an investment bank.
And I have absolutely no doubts in my mind he's going to get the
return offer. One of the more hardest working
people I know and one of the most down to earth people I
know. And he knows who he is.
I'm not sure she wants me to name drop him, but he knows who
(06:11):
he is. And he really walked me through
like the opportunities that are in finance and I guess as a
philosophy undergrad, and he's also a non conventional, he
doesn't study econ or anything like that.
As a philosophy grad, I didn't really know what finance had for
me. You know, I always just assumed
it's just a bunch of punching numbers.
And then I realized all the things that I'm doing right now,
(06:34):
you know, I love reading the news.
I love keeping up with geopolitics.
I love keeping up with policy. I love keeping up with, you
know, macro trends in the world.I like thinking about what's
going on in Asia right now. I like thinking about, you know,
what's happening on, you know, Thailand's border right now.
I realized all these things really do play out in finance
and a lot of the strategies and business decisions made are
(06:54):
heavily linked to all the thingsI was already reading.
So I realized that, you know, there's there's a lot of
qualitative in finance I hadn't previously considered.
And I definitely think that yearout helped me realize and guide
me more directly towards what I wanted to do.
And I think perhaps a lesson foranyone who's maybe not in
university yet, definitely do consider taking year out.
(07:14):
I think the skills I gained justin terms of confidence and then
also the ability to articulate myself, I think was incredibly
important. And I think I wouldn't be in the
position I am today if I hadn't taken that year out.
And definitely definitely recommend taking gap year even
if you're considering it if you're on the fence because I
think Anthony, you'd probably agree one year out of your life
(07:35):
when you're 18/19/20 compared tothe rest of your life is
absolutely nothing. Yeah, I mean, the, the, I guess
an alternative route to that wasI did a sandwich year.
So I did like a third year in industry out of a four year
undergrad. And that was actually my
favorite year of, of my entire university because it was the
(07:55):
one point where actually the penny dropped and the work you
were doing had real tangible meaning.
And you got paid and it was like, ah, OK, this makes a lot
of sense. So, so, yeah, I mean, there's
different ways to to do it, but totally agree.
So that what, you go back to LSEthen.
And I think a lot of students, particularly now, we just
recently had things like GCSEA level results, things like that.
(08:19):
And a lot of people will be aspiring to attend at one of the
world's top universities. So whether you're LSE, Imperial,
Oxbridge here or you're Stanford, Harvard in the US,
wherever it might be, that all sounds great.
I want to be at the top. What is it actually like though?
One transitioning from, I guess you go from school to college,
(08:43):
then to like this International University scene and the talent
pool widens dramatically. So what is that transition
through those leaks? Like if you like an academic
achievement and then just day-to-day that environment of
living within that competitive place, what is it like?
Yeah, so I think something you said that was incredibly true,
(09:06):
right? When you go to a top university,
the talent pool is insanely big.You go from being one of
probably the smartest people in your school, you know, one of
the top performers, one of the most well versed in whatever
degree you're going into, to literally knowing nothing.
You become a fish in a big pond again, right.
And I'd say the the environment depends on where you place
(09:29):
yourself as well. Every single university, every
top university definitely has a group of people who want to work
24/7, are extremely competitive.And, you know, I've anecdotally
had conversations with people atLSE and I can tell, you know,
they're not asking, you know, how are you?
They're asking more like, what are you doing?
You know, have you got X spring?Are you doing a summer this
(09:51):
year? Are you doing any work
experience? You know, what societies are you
going to? Are you going to go for
president in this society? Are you going to do this?
So there's definitely is that, but I want to say on balance,
the kind of mentorship, friendship, and just general
allies I found at LSE have been overwhelmingly strong as well.
I can safely say that I've met some of my lifelong friends at
(10:12):
this university. A lot of it is through AIC and I
can get on to more, more about that later about how it is
genuinely the best community I found at LSE.
But when it comes to living in the day-to-day pressure and, you
know, interacting with people who are more competitive, I
think first of all, you're goingto have to learn how to be
brutally honest with yourself. Are you someone who likes to be
(10:35):
hyper competitive? Are you someone who can thrive
in that environment? Because I feel like there's
quite a few people who end up placing themselves in that
environment, but it's not the most conducive to their growth.
And there is no, there is no shame in saying I don't want to
be in a hyper competitive environment.
If there's one thing I can get across, There is no shame in
saying you don't want to work 100 hour weeks.
There is no shame in saying you don't want to be in a hyper
(10:56):
competitive environment. You know, if it's not conducive
to your growth as a person, don't do it.
That's number one. You place yourself where you
want to be. And if you let the external
pressure get to you of trying toplace yourself in a certain
environment because you think that's what everyone else is
doing and that's what's going tolead you to success.
Even though you know deep down it's damaging you more than
helping you, you know, that's unfortunately the burden falls
(11:19):
on you. You need to make sure you're
placing yourself in a different environment.
And when it comes to dealing with just just in general, the
competitive nature, I think it comes back down to being a bit
more down to earth about what you want out of university.
And this is something, again, I learned on my gap year, and this
might just be a massive gap yearselling program, right this
entire episode. But one thing I learned about my
gap year was when it came to LSEI, initially, I felt like I
(11:42):
committed myself to something because of expectation.
You know, when you get an LSE offer, it's like, OK, pack your
bags to go into London. I felt like I was committing
something due to expectation andnot because of something that
I'm interested in or something that's conducive to what I want
to do in the future. And when I stepped back and
assessed whether I wanted to go back to LSE, that was the first
(12:02):
time I'd really felt like I'd even thought about it, right?
Like I'm going to university, I'm going to be, have to do XYZ.
And even now, you know, we're, we're in, we're in the depths of
the recruitment cycle. I feel, you know, it's already
started. When you are putting yourself
forward for opportunities, I think it's definitely worth
thinking, is this something I want to do?
And this is something that I've kind of taken on personally as
(12:24):
well to deal with the environment.
LSE is that, you know, when you're applying to an internship
or a job, you don't take it seriously.
This is something you're puttingyourself forward for.
And if you're not sure if you want to do it, you're not going
to thrive at it. And I think that's the most
important thing when you're in ahigh pressure environment, you,
you almost have to learn to be true to yourself more than
you've ever done so before, because otherwise you're just
(12:45):
going to place yourself into a pipeline, you know, potentially
for the rest of your life where you're trying to measure up to
other people's expectations and not your own, right.
And I think it's extremely important and I try to do it at
every level in my own life. Is that when I apply to
something, you know, I'm thinking, is this something I
want to do? And if it is, I will 100% put my
(13:06):
foot forward. But if it's not, there is no
pressure to put your foot forward.
And I think that's something that people really need to
realize when they are a high pressure university is that
ultimately you're going to live your life.
So think about what you're doingnow to shape that future.
Yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
But I I wonder then with, you know, the students on campus,
(13:29):
you know, that that quote, I must pursue banking consulting.
Like there's, there's only a handful, it seems of roles that
people seem to talk about on campus.
So I'm sure not everyone has that, that ability to step out
of the noise and have convictionbehind backing themselves.
(13:49):
Is it like you said you had that, that peer, that role model
or that person that you can findin it can talk to you honestly?
Was that what unlocks the ability to have someone to
bounce off to? Then maybe it was your sister,
like for example, who you said you've also mentioned.
Do you need that? Is that the necessary ingredient
to be able where you've been quite safe all through your
(14:11):
academic 18 years, now you're going to have to stand on your
own 2 feet as an adult and make a decision?
That's a very interesting, I'd say definitely yes.
I think something that not enough people understand, you
know, it goes back to saying, you know, no man is a giant,
right? We all sit on the shoulders of
giants, right? You need to find your giant
(14:32):
effectively, right? You need a mentor.
I I don't think you can go through a process alone.
You need to find your mentor andyou need to find people who can
help guide you, right? And when you're talking about
the pressures to pursue, you know, you know, the big careers,
you know, you're banking, you'reconsulting, you know, I think
first of all, you need to find amentor who's lived that
experience, right? I think something that very
(14:56):
much. And yeah, I have no, no problem
in saying this. I'm applying to banking, right?
And for me, the kind of tipping point to decide that, OK, I want
to pursue banking and block out all the noise as to, you know,
oh, seems like everyone's applying to it.
Let me just do this is when I had these mentors who have lived
the experience and told me that their own experiences,
(15:16):
opportunities they gained and what they honestly thought, what
they honestly thought of the job, what teams they enjoyed
being on, what teams they didn'tenjoy being on.
And I think, you know, having someone like that, it only
benefits you because first of all, I think #1 is going to make
you a stronger applicant, right?Let's talk pure practical terms.
If you have a mentor who's livedthe experience and they can tell
(15:38):
you, makes you a much stronger applicant.
We interview for AIC, right? And occasionally we will, you
know, drop the question like youdon't.
What do you know about alternative investments?
What do you know about alternative finance?
Do you know what private equity is?
And you'll be surprised as to the amount of people who get it
wrong, considering these are probably the same people who are
saying, yeah, I want to do investment banking for two
(16:00):
years, then exit to private equity, right?
I think if you have that mental,first of all, you're going to
understand what is it you're getting yourself into?
Are you actually going to be interested in this?
And then #2 with having a mentoris you almost have the ability
to keep yourself grounded at alltimes because I think you know,
and I think Anthony, Amplify Me is great for this.
(16:22):
And a massive shout out to Amplify Me because I know people
personally who have leveraged opportunities through Amplify
Me, which I've actually lead to summer internships and concrete
offers. It helps keep your boots on the
ground because you're going to face so much rejection.
So much rejection. I remember I think I had one of
the roughest spring week cycles of all time.
I was faced rejection after rejection after rejection.
(16:44):
But if it wasn't for my mentors and people who supported me and
helped me understand where I wasgoing wrong, I wouldn't have
had, you know, the, the relatively small amount of
success I have had. So I think it's ultimately
really important to have a mentor, not only to help
yourself and better yourself foryour application cycles, but
also just to keep yourself grounded and understand your
experience is not unique. Everyone has rejections,
(17:07):
everyone has these things, but what is unique is how you deal
with it. I think having a mentor has
helped me infinitely, and I think absolutely any small
amount of success I've had, any advice I now give.
It's the back of the it's off the back of those mentors.
No, nothing I'm saying is unique.
It's just simply what I've learned and what I've had
success with because of the countless generous people who
(17:28):
have given me time. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
And one thing I was thinking as you were describing it was I was
thinking the likelihood is that a lot of people who are at LSE
have come from a certain probably academic background.
So probably a lot different frommy own, my own, you know, for a
(17:50):
large profit single parent, no interest at all about how I did
at school. I would assume at LSE it's the
opposite where there's a lot of ex parental expectation.
And I just wondered then, for any of those listening who are
in that early part of their academic journey, how do you
manage parental expectation? So we've talked a lot about, you
(18:12):
know, your own expectations, peer group assessment or
benchmarking. What about coming from above
from your folks? Yeah, I think I'm very fortunate
and perhaps similar to you in this, Anthony.
My parents, I absolutely love them to love them to bits.
And it's because I can hand on heart say their only policy with
(18:34):
me was work hard and just do something that makes you happy.
They would never pressure me in terms of studying, in terms of
the getting the grades that I get.
In fact, I think my earliest memory of, you know, kind of
primary going into secondary wasI genuinely thought I was going
to end up in competitive gaming.You know, I was so good at video
games. I love video games more than
anything. And it's been, you know, it's
(18:55):
been a painful detached for me to not play them as much
anymore. But I spent an absurd amount of
times of video games and my parents definitely weren't as
involved. But I empathize a lot because I
know a lot of people whose parents, you know, might already
be in kind of at the end of the cycle they eventually want to
get to, right. So they've already lived that.
They got very good grades at school.
They went to a good university. I mean, neither my parents went
(19:17):
to university, right? So I think the expectation
definitely isn't there. And I absolutely love them for
it because it's a great environment.
I I don't like the pressure fromabove anyways, but I understand
and completely empathize with the fact that there were
definitely hundreds of people atLSE whose parents are probably
lived exactly what they want to top grades, top university, high
(19:37):
flying career. And then I'll reaping the
benefits by being able to support their child to, I can
imagine, hopefully do a similar or same thing because they've
seen the kind of lifestyle can provide.
And I think actually one of my best friends, right, is I could
say that he's got he doesn't want to go to finance.
His name's Yash. One of the biggest piece of
advice he gave me whenever I would define my parents, sorry,
(20:00):
mum and dad, when I define my parents is he always said to me,
he's like, look, as long as you're not doing something
wrong, right, as long as you're not, you know, doing the obvious
wrong things in life. If you simply want to take want
to take a different path, you have to understand your parents
are going to love you regardless, right?
Your parents love is largely unconditional.
So I think if you are in a position where you feel you have
(20:24):
to commit to something because of your parents, I think it's
time you sit down with your parents and have a discussion.
And I understand, you know, I can never understand because
again, my parents are so lazy. I feel like I can talk to my
parents like they're my friends,right?
I think I can talk to my parentslike they're my friends.
I think my parents are some of my best friends.
So I don't really have this pressure, but I can imagine that
(20:46):
it all stems from communication,right?
If your parents don't even know you're unhappy, it's
unreasonable to expect them to do something or to think about
it a different way. So it all comes down to
communication and just in wider life as well, you know, if
you're unhappy with something, you have to voice it.
And if you have parental pressure, the only way to get
rid of it is to voice it. Yeah, yeah, the, the biggest way
(21:08):
is to do what's going to make you feel probably most
uncomfortable, which is perhaps in the first time in your life.
And this is the transition into adulthood, which is this time to
like step up and, you know, havethe elephant in the room
conversations for your for everyone's benefit.
Managing expectations is the keyto really a harmonious
relationship and being transparent.
(21:30):
So absolutely, Lola, let's move on to maybe 2 practical tips.
Now, this mini series, I know from your colleagues, AIC is
going to be packed with much more targeted strategic ways to
help build build students up to get hired and achieve success.
But from your side, two things. One, looking back, what's one
thing you wish you knew earlier about applying to financial
(21:53):
institutions? And secondly, did you make any
mistakes along the way that others could learn from?
Yeah, the second one, I made loads of mistakes.
I made made plenty of mistakes. And again, I think before I say
anything, I want to definitely put out there, I'm not an
expert. I'm going into my second year of
university. Everything I say take with a
(22:15):
pinch of salt because people have varying degrees of success
and everyone has their own unique strategy and different
things work for different people.
But from the limited success I've had and the opportunities I
managed to gain, I'd say my understanding of applying to
financial institutions, something that greatly helps.
I think whenever you get asked, you know, why do you want to
(22:36):
work here? What is it about this role that
interests you? Having a very concrete
understanding of the role and being able to summarize it in a
simplified way is so important. I think if you're able to
explain the role and what you'regoing to be doing to a 5 year
old, you probably got it right. And I think this goes from, you
(22:59):
know, my broader piece of adviceand kind of the interviews I've
been successful in. I feel like it's the ones where
I was most concise and targeted.When you, when you speak with
brevity, when you're able to keep your responses short, but
short, I think that's the most effective way to get a final
institution to look twice at youand think, OK, this is someone
(23:21):
who we can imagine having. Because I think at the end of
the day, right, we often see it from our side, right?
Like, Oh my God, I thought my CDwas so strong.
And you know, it's massive bang suddenly kicked it to the curb.
What's happening, right? And I, I find myself in that
cycle as well. Of course, it's natural to feel
that way, but you have to understand from their
perspective as well, right? They're receiving an
unprecedented amount of applications.
(23:44):
So when you speak to employees or speak to these financial
solutions, if you're lucky enough to get an interview, I
think the mistakes I've made in the interviews I haven't been
successful at is when my answerswere long winded and I wasn't
straight to the point. You know, I remember in a spring
week telephone interview, I didn't, I was unsuccessful in, I
got asked, oh, is there a team, you know, within the firm that
(24:05):
you really look to? And this was something I hadn't
prepped for, right? I didn't know if there was a
team. And in hindsight, I feel like
the best answer to give there was, you know, I haven't
actually had experience within investment banking.
Therefore I don't think I can comment on a team that I'm in.
But something I've read in the news recently that's interested
me and maybe I want to go to this team is this.
(24:27):
But instead I tried to pretend like I knew a lot about a
certain team and instead it justended up in this long winded
answer which went nowhere. And now looking back on that, I
can see exactly why they rejected the right.
So I think brevity is your friend and I think kind of
moving more into mistakes I madewas one being definitely too
long ridden in my answers and #2not actually engaging with the
(24:49):
technical side of finance at spring week level.
Of course, you're not. You're not going to be expected
to know your technicals too much.
I don't think they're going to expect much from you in time the
way of technicals. But you should definitely be
able to verse yourself technically to a very basic
degree at the very minimum. And I've even spoken to a lot of
my friends who are fortunate enough to do investment banking
(25:10):
summers, you know, elite boutiques, bold rackets and
things of that nature. And all of them said to me, you
know, none of their interviews were were crazy, crazy
technical, right? You have the odd interview where
it's like, OK, I just got peppered about accounting for 45
minutes. But a lot of them had this
communal experience where the interviews weren't crazy
technical. But one thing I've noticed about
(25:31):
all my friends who were successful in their cycles was
when they talk about a deal, when they talk about something
that interested in the news, youknow, they can speak like a
banker, right? And I think one of my friends
who was incredibly successful incycle got this summer Ali
Boutique. Whenever I speak to him and I
get advice from him about applying to a certain company or
anything like that, you can justtell his language and you know,
(25:55):
he he points to valuation multiples when he's talking
about deals. He uses, you know, words like
tailwinds, headwinds and all these sorts of things and they
seem very small, but it's a direct indicator that you know
what you're talking about and you could be a banker.
And I think I definitely did absolutely none of that this
spring cycle when I talked abouta deal, I didn't bring up any
valuation multiples. I I just wasn't thinking or
(26:18):
speaking like a banker. And I can exactly see why firms
didn't perhaps see that potential in me.
And I think the number one mistake I made was not engaging
with technicals fast enough. And soon as I engaged with
technicals, I was able to connect with the firm and I did
some work for them over the summer.
And it all stemmed from the factthat, you know, I could verse
myself, you know, in what an LBOis, what's the rationale behind
(26:41):
it and all these sorts of things.
So engaging with technicals on avery basic level is so
important. And off the back of that as
well, practical advice, there are so many resources online to
get with technicals. And I remember answering, we, we
had a conversation about this where I felt one of the
advantages of going to a top university was everyone just
(27:01):
seems to have these resources ontheir laptop Willy nilly, right?
It's just seems that I've got a massive folder on my laptop
with, you know, investment banking resources where it's
every technical guide you could imagine.
And to anyone who listens to this, you have my name.
Connect me with me on LinkedIn if you want the guy, if you want
the folder, please let me know. I'm more than happy to.
I might just stick it in a Google Drive and put it on my
LinkedIn. But yeah, there's plenty of
(27:25):
resources out there. Find them and take the time,
self educate because yeah, that is sorry, I'm just reflecting
now. That is the biggest mistake I
made this cycle for Springs was,you know, I wasn't talking like
a banker. So engage with technicals, keep
your answers brief, be sharp andbe interested, right?
Don't lose yourself. We interview AIC and I think one
(27:46):
of the most unfortunate things is when we have a personal vouch
where we think, OK, we should bring this guy in for an
interview. I kind of know this person.
I thought that they would be a good fit.
And then the interview, they just act like a completely
different person, right? And it's, it's almost
unrecognizable. It's like, OK, who am I talking
to now? So be yourself, you know, be
brief, be sharp and engage with some technical knowledge and
(28:10):
think like whatever the role is you want to go into.
That's great, good practical tips and there are a lot more
coming. So again, don't forget to
subscribe to here Raul's colleagues who are going to drop
some of those in the coming weeks.
But maybe to close then two things.
One, this series, I know you, you initially came to me with
(28:30):
this idea and we kind of brainstormed before.
What is it that ultimately is your motivation for doing this?
Like, like I said, I feel like LSE in history has always been a
bit of a black box of intelligence with these shared
files, as you said. Shout out to Favour, who's an
absolute legend in LSE folklore for for putting together a guide
(28:52):
as well that he's done in the past.
But what? What's driving this series in
your mind, and why did you want to do it?
Yeah. So it's a good question.
I think, I think ultimately it'sprobably my own experience.
You know, I came not knowing much about finance, how to
navigate, you know, these, you know, these high flying careers
(29:14):
to having opportunities, you know, I could have couldn't even
imagine in my gap here, right? I follow my gap here and I have
absolutely no shame in the beingthis.
I felt like I was really down and out.
I had these degree apprenticeship authors.
But I definitely think it was one of the hardest times of my
life because I went from, you know, Raul, who did really well
at his secondary school, you know, deputy head boy to meant
(29:36):
to go to LSE but didn't quite last.
And I think for me personally, it was, you know, again, the
people I connected with through AIC, through university and all
the generous, generous people inmy life who uplifted me and
helped me get to the place I am.And I just think, you know,
(29:57):
especially within the the AIC team, there is so much good
advice, so many interesting stories to hear about that I
thought we should definitely be sharing this with the world.
And I think there is, there is so much knowledge out there
that, you know, even if you don't take the practical tips
(30:17):
away, maybe you are an LSE student listening to this, maybe
you are an Oxford student and you already know everything
that's going to be said in this next few episodes, right?
But it's, it's more just hearingpeople's story is extremely
helpful because I think we, we tend to live in a bubble where
it's survivorship bias, right? You scroll and LinkedIn, you're
obviously going to see the person who, you know, he's going
to JP Morgan, right? You're obviously going to see
(30:39):
the person who's, you know, trading a citadel, but you're
not going to see the story of those people who, yeah, they
might be at that place now, but they had an extremely hard run
up to it, you know? And I think I don't want to give
away some of the next few episodes, but we definitely have
a few where, you know, even the most conventionally strong
people I know were unable to getsomething in a certain cycle,
(31:01):
and they bounced back and were able to get something bigger
than they could have imagined inthe next 1.
And I think it's so important totell stories about setbacks, you
know, failures, if you will, right?
If you're unlabeled that failure, setbacks, whatever you
want to call it. I think when you when you're in
a bubble of prestige, high flying people, people who
achieve everything, it's so important to have boots on the
(31:22):
ground and realize that, you know, life's not this bubble,
you're going to have setbacks. I think hearing it from people
who are now in positions you want to be in is so incredibly
important. And I think that's what mainly
motivated me reaching out to start this miniseries.
Yeah, I know. Look, credit, credit to you.
(31:43):
That is exactly the type of mission I want to champion and
use this platform for. So very happy indeed to have you
and the others with us. Maybe to close then how can
anyone listening engage with AIC?
What is AIC in the conference format?
When's it happening? How can anyone get involved in
or outside of LSC? Yeah, of course.
(32:05):
So AIC is, I'm going to go into kind of the the pitch here,
right? So AIC is the world's largest
student run investment conference.
So with a particular focus on alternative investment,
slabbing, private equity, hedge funds and venture capital.
We hold it in February of every year and this year will be
February 2026. And we invite some of the
(32:26):
world's most global firms. A lot of household names, I'm
not going to name drop them. You can go to the website and
have a look. There's loads of plenty of
household names there. And then also a lot of
interesting firms as well, whichyou may not have heard from.
And to get involved, we take an intake of 350 attendees or
delegates every single year. The application process is done
through Dartmouth Partners. They're just a financial
(32:47):
recruiting firm and all it is, is ACV and you're, you put your,
put your best foot forward effectively.
So when it comes in the way of, you know, if you want to attend,
what advice can I give? It's just generally to have a
well formatted, strong CV, just get a double check, make sure
you know, you haven't got any inconsistencies on it.
And the conference itself, it's an opportunity to connect with
(33:10):
some of the C-Suite executives are some of the biggest firms.
You get to hear from them in keynotes.
You get to sit in on panel talkswhere they're talking about
what's happening in the market, talking about their outlook for
the market. It's extremely helpful if you're
going to be applying to, you know, application cycles and
things like that because now you're not getting it from an
article that you have to interpret, you're getting it
straight from the source. And then we also have workshops
(33:31):
as well where firms take on, youknow, a much smaller delegate
class of around 20 to 30 people and they'll walk you through
either a case study, that business model for anything they
really want to. And we also have an opportunity
program. So if you're listening to this
and you think, you know, I don'tthink I could even afford to
come down to London and, you know, pay a ticket price to
(33:51):
attend this event. We have an opportunity program.
We're trying very hard to expandit this year.
And this is also done at the generosity of our sponsors.
So a massive shout out to all the firms who sponsor us because
they're the ones who give up notonly their time, but their money
to help sponsor delegates who otherwise wouldn't be able to
come. So even if you feel like you're
in that position, there is always a place for your AIC and
(34:13):
it's an incredible opportunity. I know fans who have directly
recruited from the pool of people they've met AIC because
they've really liked someone, made a connection.
And you know, these are definitely, definitely great,
great firms, great people. And I can't sell it enough just
based on community, you know, the people you meet, AIC,
genuinely friends for life. I still meet with alumni that,
(34:36):
you know, I didn't have a connection with through my time
at LFC, but it's just such a generous, generous organization.
And I think if you ever do want to connect with AIC more
informally again, just reach outto any of us on LinkedIn.
We will absolutely get back to you as fast as we can.
And, you know, I've had people reach out and just, you know,
just ask on a phone call, what is AIC about?
(34:57):
Do you have any tips? I'm going into my first year of
university. What are mistakes you made that
I can learn from? And I've had like, you know,
three or four of these calls andI think I speak for the team
when, you know, we don't mind doing these calls.
The whole purpose of this is to put on an event for the
delegates. And it's it's a service based
business. You know, I think I get to take
a lot of the kudos and stand there and give a cool speech or
(35:19):
I get a few professional photos taken.
But ultimately this is a servicebusiness.
This does not work without the incredible team we have under us
who works so hard to put this conference on so big shouts the
executive management and later on subcommittee who will come in
and help us put this on and generous sponsor firms.
But above all else, everyone whoapplies to AIC puts their foot
(35:41):
forward, attends the conference and get something out of it.
That is what it's all about, right?
That is ultimately how this entire things works.
So to engage with AIC, apply to AIC, attend the conference,
reach out informally. But yeah, it's, it's an
organization for the people. AIC is a service and we want to
make sure we keep it that way for as long as it's alive.
(36:02):
It's. Great.
And what I'll do is I'm going toadd the link to all of not just
this, but future episodes that we do with you, you and your
team so people can just easily access that and anywhere we
share this podcast. So Raul, great to get the series
up and running. Thank you so much for for
sharing your your story and yourjourney and your practical tips.
(36:23):
And yeah, looking forward to it.Thank you so much for having me
on today.
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