Investment banking & corporate development
The analyst job changed. The way people prepare for it hasn't.
Banks used to hire potential and train it. That trade is over — the work potential used to pay for is automated, classes are shrinking, and first-years are expected to contribute judgment from day one.
Career Gecko is a live, one-on-one program that tests whether you can.
What used to get you hired
What it's worth now
What's scarce is knowing what a number should look like before you build it. Catching an output that's wrong. Understanding why the client cares. Holding your ground when a VP pushes on your assumptions. You can't absorb that from a video. It has to be practised against someone who pushes back.
What this is
A live, adversarial evaluation — scored against a real bar.
You bring work. It gets pressure-tested by someone who reviews this exact work product professionally. Six dimensions, weighted the way the job weights them.
You're scored at entry and again at exit. You'll see the delta, and you'll get an honest read on whether you're ready — including if the answer is no.
What this isn't
What comes with it.
Structured materials
Fundamentals laid out clearly, plus practice models to build against, so you're not assembling a curriculum from scratch or guessing whether a YouTube series is any good.
Session time on your work
You're capable of learning the fundamentals yourself — you've been doing exactly that your whole life, and AI will explain any concept you're stuck on at 2am. So live sessions go to the thing only live sessions can do: your model, your memo, your reasoning, corrected as we go.
Measurable movement
You're scored at entry and again at exit against the same rubric, so improvement is a number you can see. Complete every deliverable and if that number hasn't moved, you get your money back.
How it works
Assessment first. Everything after is a decision you make once you've seen the work.
Assessment
A 90-minute working session. You're scored across all six dimensions and told plainly where you sit relative to the bar. Some people are told not to continue. That's a legitimate outcome, and it's the point.
The program
Six sessions over six to eight weeks, built around three deliverables you produce and then defend. Plus direct access to me between sessions, through the end of your recruiting cycle.
Exit read
Rescored at the end against the same rubric. You see the movement, and you get a direct read on your readiness heading into recruiting.
Inside the program
Three things you build. Three things you have to defend.
Every deliverable runs the same loop: you build it alone, I take it apart line by line, you rebuild it, then you defend the rebuilt version under pressure. Two sessions each. The second one is the one that changes you.
Deliverable one
A full operating model
Built by you, unassisted, from real filings. Then torn apart: circular references, hardcodes buried in formulas, a growth rate you can't source, an exit multiple you picked because it looked reasonable. You'll rebuild it and walk me through every assumption.
Deliverable two
A written investment memo
Marked the way a VP marks one — for what you left out, what you buried, and where you hedged when you should have taken a position. Most students have never had someone read their writing this closely. It's uncomfortable, and it tends to be the fastest improvement in the program.
Deliverable three
A live pitch
You pitch a company out loud, on the clock, and then hold your ground while I attack the thesis. Three levels deep on every challenge. This is the 25% of the scorecard that decides whether the rest of it matters.
Between sessions
Direct access between sessions.
Recruiting doesn't happen on your session schedule. When a concept isn't landing the night before a first round, or a recruiter asks something you weren't ready for, you message me and get an answer within 24 hours.
This runs for the length of the program and through the end of your recruiting cycle, covering concepts, prep, and how to handle whatever's in front of you. You'll still build your own work — that's where the learning happens — but you won't be stuck on something for three days waiting for a session.
Fit
This works for a specific person.
Who this is for
- Students recruiting for investment banking, corporate development, or comparable seats
- People who've done the free work and want to know if it's enough
- People who would rather hear a hard answer in October than in a superday
Who it isn't for
- Anyone starting from zero who needs the basics taught before they can build anything
- Anyone who wants encouragement more than an accurate read
- Anyone who can't commit six to eight weeks during recruiting
Who's evaluating you
Someone who reviews this work every week.
I recruited into finance from a non-target school and had to grind through a process that wasn't built for me. Today I'm a Corporate Development Director at a large company, where a meaningful part of my job is reviewing the work product analysts produce — the models, the memos, the pages.
That means you're calibrated against what actually makes an analyst useful right now, by someone whose seat is the exit most of these students are aiming at.
Questions
The things worth asking before you spend anything.
How much is it?
The assessment is $300 and stands alone. You can take it, get your scorecard and an honest read, and stop there. Some people should.
If we continue, the program is staged rather than paid upfront, so every commitment comes after you've seen the work. You'll have the full structure and the numbers before you decide anything.
Do you guarantee a job?
No, and you should be skeptical of anyone who implies otherwise. Nobody controls a hiring committee.
What I do instead: I only take students I believe can get there, which means turning down money rather than selling false hope. And I guarantee the process — complete every deliverable, and if I can't show measurable movement between your entry and exit scorecard, you get your money back. That's the part I control, so it's the part I'm willing to stand behind.
My child asked me to pay for this. How do I evaluate it?
Start with the $300 assessment and nothing else. It produces a written scorecard against six weighted dimensions and a reasoned read on whether your child is realistically positioned for these roles. Some assessments end with a recommendation not to continue.
That document is useful whether or not anything follows it. It's the cheapest honest answer available, and the structure is deliberate: you're not asked for a larger commitment before you've seen what you'd be buying.
How long is the program, and how much of your time do I get?
Six sessions across six to eight weeks — the range is deliberate, because recruiting timelines compress and slip and the schedule should follow yours, not the other way around. Weekly is the default; every other week works if your term is heavy.
Between sessions you have direct access to me, with a reply inside 24 hours, running through the end of your recruiting cycle. If you need more sessions than six, we add them. I'd rather extend than pretend six was always enough.
What do I need to have done before session one?
Accounting and valuation fundamentals — the three statements and how they link, DCF and comparable company mechanics. I'll send you structured material and a practice model to build, so you're not hunting for it.
Work through it on your own time. This is the most learnable part of the whole process and you don't need me for it — the material has never been clearer and AI will walk you through anything that doesn't land. If something turns out to be shaky once we're into your model, we sort it out then.
Isn't AI going to make all of this obsolete anyway?
It already made half of it obsolete — the half most prep programs still sell. Learning the technicals is free and always available now, which is exactly why it stopped carrying weight in a recruiting process.
What survived is judgment under pressure: catching a wrong output, knowing what a number should look like before you build it, defending an assumption to someone senior who is testing you. That's the premise of this program, and it's the part that got more valuable, not less.
Start here
Find out where you actually stand.
A 90-minute assessment, scored across six weighted dimensions, with a written read on your readiness. $300, and it stands alone — there's no obligation to continue, and sometimes I'll advise against it.
Apply for an assessmentA few short answers is all I need. I reply within one day.
or email hayk@careergecko.io