Wall Street Diaries

On this episode, Max talks with Emilie Carrel, UK CEO of Edge Skills and a former investment banker in London. Emilie has personally helped more than 100 students land offers at banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, working alongside mentors from firms including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Perella.

This episode talks about how UK investment banking recruiting works, why spring weeks set off a domino effect for the rest of your career, what happens inside a UK assessment center, why acceptance rates can fall below one percent, and why networking might matter even more in London than it does on Wall Street.

0:00 Trailer
1:47 Meet Emilie Carrel
2:19 The Three Phases of UK Recruiting
7:29 What Is a Spring Week
11:53 Inside the UK Assessment Center
16:14 Why Networking Matters in the UK
25:32 US vs UK Behavioral Interviews
28:57 UK Technical Interviews and Modeling Tests
31:38 Compensation and Lifestyle in London
35:27 The UK Bank Landscape
42:31 What Edge Skills Does
46:35 Advice for US Students Targeting London
49:36 Conclusion

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On this episode, Max talks with Sam Morell, senior production analyst on CBRE's Debt and Structured Finance team in Nashville, closing over $1B in loan volume across 50+ transactions a year.

Sam's path wasn't traditional--after stints in tech, venture capital, and structured real estate debt at Chatham Financial, he built his own deal models on his own time to prove himself before the interviews even started.

They get into how commercial real estate debt brokerage actually works, what defeasance is, why Nashville is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country, and how proof-of-work and relentless networking can get you hired from a non-target school.

0:00 Trailer
1:16 Meet Sam Morell
3:02 What CBRE's Debt Team Does
6:41 Inside The Billion-Dollar Pipeline
11:06 Finding Real Estate At Chatham
18:45 What Is Defeasance?
26:33 From Chatham To CBRE
39:03 Breaking In From A Non-Target School
41:46 Rapid Fire

✉️ Connect with me
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LinkedIn: / maxbradleyadams
Book a call ☎️ https://wallstmastermind.com/apply/?h...
Website https://wallstmastermind.com/?hts=you...

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below ⬇️

On this episode, Max talks with Michael Paretzky, co-founder and CEO of Podstock, an analytics and operations platform used by some of the biggest names in podcasting. Michael left M&A consulting after testing the podcast industry for 20 hours a week on the side, then built Podstock after stints at Odyssey, Cadence13, and Stanford GSB.

They get into how to actually test a career pivot before quitting, what makes a good cofounder, and why podcasting is still dramatically undermonetized despite its reach.

0:00 Trailer
1:44 Meet Michael Paretzky
2:39 Life In M&A Consulting
9:48 Testing Podcasting On The Side
10:40 Joining Odyssey
14:02 Making A Big Leap
19:04 Path To Stanford GSB
22:10 Finding A Cofounder
26:04 Business Of Podcasting
32:00 A Podcast Superfan
34:50 Going International
38:03 Breaking Into Media
39:11 Recap

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#WallStreetDiaries #WallStreetMastermind #PodcastBusiness #CareerPivot #StartupFounder #StanfordGSB #MandAConsulting #Entrepreneurship #PodcastIndustry #CareerAdvice

Veronica Shay went from internal audit in Eastern Europe to product manager at a fintech startup to AVP at Aeon Group in Manhattan — with no target school, no legacy connections, and no traditional finance background.

In this episode, she breaks down how she sent 4,000- 5,000 cold emails to land her first US role, why she chose a talent-based green card over the work visa lottery, what it's really like being the only woman at every firm she's worked at, and where she sees the best opportunities in fintech, healthcare, and blockchain right now.

00:00 Trailer: Cold Emails and Grit
00:52 Intro: Meet Veronica Shay
02:26 Building a Finance Career From Scratch
06:49 Breaking Into the US With No Network
09:08 5,000 Cold Emails and 200 Calls
11:17 Do Credentials Actually Matter?
12:34 Visa Lottery vs. Talent Visa
15:52 Inside Aeon Group: Secondaries and SPACs
18:36 Early-Stage vs. Late-Stage Investing
20:57 Hottest Sectors and AI's Impact
26:15 What VC Actually Looks Like
27:40 Why Cross-Border M&A Is Hard
29:56 Product Manager to Banker
32:27 Being the Only Woman, Honestly
38:26 Resilience, Mistakes, and Becoming a Founder
43:27 Final Advice and Rapid Fire Questions

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Matt Winterholler didn't take the traditional path into finance. He completed ten internships before landing his first offer, broke into banking from a non target school, and eventually left Mizuho to join a fast growing tech company willing to trade banking hours for a four-day work week.

In this episode, Matt walks Max through what corporate development actually looks like day to day, how he made the leap from Mizuho TMT to PDQ and eventually to Governor Solutions in GovTech, and why he believes his career is more luck than skill. He also breaks down the cold email mistakes that got him corrected by an MD, and what actually separates people who level up fast from those who plateau.

0:00 Intro
5:55 Inside Corporate Development
16:06 His Career Trajectory
21:19 His Take on AI
23:41 Why He Skipped the Safe Route
28:04 Landing the Governor Opportunity
30:59 What Is GovTech
33:05 Moving to the Operating Side
35:23 Trading Banking Perks for a 4 Day Week
37:21 Inside the Actual Deals
40:29 What He Wishes He'd Known
42:08 Breaking In From a Non Target School
50:56 Balancing 10 Internships
53:06 What Actually Worked Breaking In
56:41 Giving Back and Mentoring
58:19 Cold Emails and Confidence
1:01:59 What Separates Fast Growers From the Rest
1:03:21 Recap and Rapid Fire

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Website https://tinyurl.com/c3advtcv

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#investmentbanking #corporatedevelopment #privateequity #wallstreet #financecareers #mergersandacquisitions #financerecruiting #ibanalyst