Wall Street Mastermind Review: Should You Hire a Coach to Get Into Investment Banking?

If you’ve read this site for a long time, you probably know that we focus on creating financial modeling courses and guides.

We still offer coaching for more experienced candidates and students with significant work experience, and I used to personally do a good number of mock interviews and resume edits, but our business model has shifted over time.

Despite that, we often get questions from students who want more personalized attention.

One name that comes up is Wall Street Mastermind (WSMM), created and led by Sam Shiah.

You’ve probably seen it in threads on Reddit, Wall Street Oasis, and other forums, which contain “mixed” information (i.e., it ranges from “somewhat helpful” to “completely wrong”).

Since I know Sam and the service, I’ve written this review/comparison article that outlines the program, who benefits from it, and how it differs from our coaching services.

The short version is that if you are the right person and can afford it, I recommend the WSMM coaching, which you can apply for here.

If you’re not sure it’s right for you or you want more details about the program, I’ll explain everything below.

But first, a quick disclaimer:

The Disclaimer

If you sign up for the WSMM coaching through my link, I will receive a small percentage of your enrollment fee as a commission.

To be clear, this is a tiny percentage of my annual income (think: well below 1%) because most of my earnings come from other sources (products, rent, investments, etc.).

So, I’m not writing this article to make money.

I’m doing it because readers and students have asked about private, 1-on-1 coaching options, and I wanted to discuss one of them here.

The TL;DR Version of Wall Street Mastermind

• The program is best if you are an ambitious undergrad, Master’s student, or MBA student with a decent GPA (> 3.0), you are very serious about winning investment banking offers, and you want a structured, personalized approach where someone explains what to do in each step and optimizes your networking strategy, resume, and answers to interview questions.
• If you are an international student applying to U.S. roles, it’s best if you have the 3-year OPT via a STEM major. But even with this, you need to start earlier because fewer banks will be open to hiring you, and the banks that are open to hiring you tend to finish recruiting earlier.
• On average, expect 50 – 60 hours of training to revamp your resume, learn key networking skills, and prepare for interviews. Many students finish in 8 – 10 weeks, but you can complete the training more quickly if you’re in a rush or started late. Some students also finish it over 1 – 2 years if they start early enough.
• You get significant personal attention: Resume/cover letter editing, help with securing relevant internships for your resume, networking strategies and advice (including options where they handle most of the grunt work for you), crafting all of your interview answers, as many mock interviews as you want (within reason), and ongoing support and Q&A through personal group chat with coaches and multiple weekly office hours until you finish recruiting.
• The price varies based on your profile and requirements, but the “average range” is between $5K and $10K USD; expect something in the 4-figure range in most cases. There are payment plans and financial aid options available on a case-by-case basis if you’re a good fit for the program but cannot afford this upfront price.
• Our coaching services are more geared toward candidates with several years of full-time work experience who need help with very specific tasks rather than ongoing recruiting processes (though we occasionally coach students with significant work experience who only need help with their resumes, pitches, etc.). Our prices are also in a much different range (average of $500 – $1000) because we don’t offer personalized support over an extended period.

If you want more details, please refer to the sections below:

The Online Controversies and the Reality of Coaching Services

Let’s start with the juicy part: You have probably seen many people on forums claim that private coaching isn’t “worth it” or that Wall Street Mastermind, specifically, is not “worth it.”

Their main arguments seem to be:

1. You can learn these skills independently, so you don’t “need” coaching. You will not learn any magical secrets that are not found in existing courses and guides.
2. While the program may improve your chances of winning IB offers, the extra boost is not “worth” the full price.

Here is the truth: No coaching program in any industry will ever teach you magical secrets you could not learn on your own.

Whether it’s fitness, nutrition, the job search, sports, or relationships, you can always use a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.

However, the real value of coaching lies in the personalization, accountability, and structure.

All the knowledge in the world means nothing if you cannot apply it to your situation and then execute it to achieve your goals.

If you are disciplined enough to complete self-study for years/months, learn everything on your own, and ask occasional questions, you may not need coaching.

On the other hand, if you have specific challenges not addressed in guides and courses or want someone to keep you on track and guide you through each step of the process, coaching could be incredibly valuable.

With this question of whether the program is “worth it,” you should think about the following:

How much is it worth to optimize your chances of success or to improve upon the offer you would have received without coaching?

For example, what if you get into IB out of undergrad instead of having to take a Big 4 job first, or you get into the M&A group without having to work in capital markets and then switch after a year?

It is subjective, but I think either of these outcomes is worth a multiple of the coaching fees.

What the Wall Street Mastermind Program Offers

The program is structured around four main pillars: Applications, networking, fit/behavioral interview questions, and technical questions.

It’s about 50 – 60 hours of work to complete, which is both positive and negative:

• Positive: It’s more concise than many courses, such as some of the combo packages we offer, so you can finish it more quickly. Because of the accelerated recruiting timeline these days, this is especially useful because you’ll likely be under time pressure.
• Negative: On the other hand, this is not enough time to learn the most advanced technical concepts or develop on-the-job skills (but the program specifically focuses on interview prep, so it’s different from modeling courses).

The main value, though, is that you do not just learn these topics via online training.

Instead, you also get:

• Resume/CV and Cover Letter Editing – You can go back and forth until you get the documents you’re happy with.
• Networking Strategy and Email Review – They will help you craft your overall strategy and implement best practice to improve your conversion rate, even down to reviewing specific networking emails and giving feedback, edits, and suggestions.
• Mock Interviews – You can set up mock interviews for behavioral or technical questions and get feedback on your performance and answers.
• Community & Ongoing Support – Once you’re done with the program, you can keep asking questions and interacting with other students. Many students make friends with others in the program and kickstart their professional networks like that.

Requirements and the Ideal WSMM Candidate

OK, so are you the right type of person to benefit from this coaching?

I’d summarize the ideal student profile as follows:

• School: You should be in an undergraduate degree program, a Master’s of Finance program, or an MBA program. If you’re in university, it can be a target or non-target school, but at the MBA level, you should be in a target program (the chances are just too low outside the top ~20 MBAs in the U.S.).
• Work Experience: You do not need any previous internships if you join early in undergrad. If you join later, previous internships are more important. If you have already graduated, you can potentially complete the coaching for lateral roles in IB, but you need to be in a job that is at least somewhat finance-related. Also, you should expect a trickier and more time-consuming process.
• Timing: Because of the crazy accelerated recruiting schedule, the earlier you start, the better. You should target summer internships because it is very difficult to win full-time offers without converting a summer internship. If you join as a senior in university, there may still be options, but you most likely won’t win offers at the top banks and may have to target lower-middle-market and regional-boutique firms.
• Grades: You need at least a 3.0 GPA to join the program; the higher, the better. If your GPA is below 3.0, you will face too many upfront rejections at banks, so you should consider non-IB options for now.
• U.S. Work Authorization Status: If you are applying for roles in the U.S., it is best if you are a U.S. citizen or green card holder, but the 3-year OPT program via a STEM major could also work (it’s much better than the 1-year option). Also, you must start by the end of your sophomore year if you are international because the pool of firms that will sponsor you decreases the longer you wait.
• Desire to Break In: Investment banking should be your dream job, not just a “nice to have” option. This is not for you if you’d also be perfectly fine with a corporate banking or FP&A job offer.

Does It Work? Is It Worth It?

There are plenty of student testimonials you can check out on the site itself or Trust Pilot.

But my general answer to this question is that the right coaching is effective if you put in the time and effort.

Even if you assume the program only gives you a modest “bump” – something like winning an M&A or tech banking offer rather than ECM – that’s a huge win.

You won’t have to spend a year in a less desirable group just to move elsewhere to interview for better roles.

Wall Street Mastermind also offers a money-back guarantee if you complete the training but do not receive any offers. But note that this is not offered to everyone; it’s there if you have good qualifications and put in significant time and effort, but still come up short.

How Our Coaching Services and Courses Differ

Our courses are in a completely different price category because they’re self-study with some support included (e.g., answers to occasional technical questions).

As our BIWS page explains, they are known as the most detailed and advanced training on the market, but they are not appropriate if you want a 2-hour prep plan.

But if you are disciplined, you can commit to self-study, and you’re serious about IB/PE roles, they can work quite well.

Our coaching differs from the Wall Street Mastermind services in the following ways:

• Candidates: Most people who sign up for our coaching have at least a few years of full-time work experience (and sometimes more than that). We still coach university students occasionally, but only if they have significant work experience, such as several solid finance internships, and they need help with specific aspects of their candidacy.
• Scope: Our coaching focuses on solving specific problems, such as how to spin your resume and pitch yourself and your work experience for New Job X or how to network for New Industry Y. Also, it comes with a 60-day service period, so it’s designed for short-term challenges.
• Services Provided: Both services offer resume/CV and cover letter editing, LinkedIn edits, and help with your pitch, networking, and behavioral questions. However, we do not offer technical mock interviews. Also, we don’t have a 50-60-hour curriculum to follow because the services are targeted at candidates who already know the fundamentals of the job search, networking, and interview questions.

Final Thoughts on Wall Street Mastermind

I think you need to ask yourself three main questions before applying for the WSMM coaching:

1. Are you the right person? Do you meet the requirements in the section above regarding academics, work experience, timing, desire/motivation, and work authorization?
2. Do you want structure, accountability, and personalization? These factors help you optimize your outcome, but not everyone cares about them. Students can still win offers without coaching, but they get better outcomes with proper coaching.
3. Can you afford it? Like all private coaching, it is in a much different price range than online courses and guides. There are payment plans and financial aid options in some cases, but you should not expect to pay $100 for the full curriculum, mock interviews, and resume editing. If that is your expectation, stick to courses and guides.

If I were still a university student 100% set on investment banking, I would definitely consider this type of coaching service.

I’m good at self-study and independent preparation, but there’s a big difference between “winning an offer” and “winning the best offer in an optimal way.”

And that’s what Wall Street Mastermind offers you.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.