Low financial modelling exposure - need to speed up fast

Question

Hey guys,

I have almost 2.5 years of experience on a tier 2 strategy consulting firm with deep experience in financial services. However, for one way or the other, my exposure to financial modelling has been reduced so far.

I will now enter a quant-heavy project (although still only requiring excel) and I would like to use 2 days off to improve my quant acumen. I am aware that if I was a consultant it would be fine to be “weak” at modelling but given my seniority an extra knowledge is already expected.

Do you guys recommend any online course on modelling which features similar skills as those needed in consulting, e.g., receive 40,000 rows of client data and be able to quickly summarize them and extract main insights, build a business plan/ financial projections, etc?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi there,

To be honest, I don't think there is shortcut and 2 days is rather short.

I'd encourage you to rather see how you can reposition your experience when discussing with the manager. There's not much point in overselling your abilities and then disappointing expectations. Rather see how you'd be able to use your spikes in this engagement while using the project as an opportunity to develop the modelling skills on the side (perhaps owning a smaller side workstream that contains some modelling).

Answer 2

Hi there,

If you like, there are some exercises I run with my candidates based off of real datasets - quite similar to what you're currently describing.

Feel free to reach out if you'd like coaching in this area! (best way to ramp up quickly)

In terms of online courses, it'll be hard to ramp up in just 2 days. If you're committed to that approach though, google is your friend!

Answer 3

Hello!

I agree, unfortunately two days doesn´t give you that much of an advantage.

In any case, if you stil want to give it a go, there are million excel courses you can buy online.

In McK, however, we had an internal platform for knowledge sharing where you had courses and docs. If you have something similar, I guess they will have a crash course on this

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara