From 100+ Rejections to Investment Banking — Nikita's Story

Wall Street Oasis

Business

4.9 • 534 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From 100+ rejections to landing an Investment Banking role in London — this is the real story of how one student broke into IB with zero connections and no roadmap. Nikita shares his journey from Bocconi and ESSEC to securing a full-time Investment Banking offer, including the struggles, internship experience, networking strategy, and key lessons that helped him succeed. Check out WSO Academy — the prep that has helped thousands break into high finance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 👇👇👇 Land A High Finance Career: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/academy 🚀💼📈 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT IS WSO ACADEMY? It's a 12-week program to dramatically increase your odds of landing a 6-figure+ role in high finance... What’s included? 💥 GUARANTEED offer in high finance 🎓 Full course library for life (over $4k+ of content) 👥 Direct access to 1,300+ top mentors across banks & funds 📚 Tons of live training bootcamps (IB, PE, VC, Excel, etc.) 📄 Full resume rewrite + LinkedIn review (human + AI) 🧠 1:1 work with Head Mentors on TMAY + behavioral questions 🗣️ 6–10+ mock interviews, HireVue prep, Excel + logic assessments 🏢 Internship with WSO for resume branding 📬 Proven networking strategy & outreach software 🧭 Accountability coach & progress matrix 💬 Lifetime access to the exclusive alum Slack community 👉 JOIN WAITLIST HERE: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/academy 💪🔥

Transcript

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0:00.0	I didn't even know what investment banking is to be started. I didn't really think about going into finance.
0:05.5	I need some structure. I need somebody to prepare me and to give me personalized advice.
0:11.7	And yeah, essentially this is what WSO did specifically for me. I had a very steep learning curve.
0:17.4	And I think this is an experience that really made me sure that I want to go
0:22.7	into IB. Any kind of final words of wisdom to the listeners? I would say that the core is to be. Okay, Nikita, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today.
0:41.1	Thank you for inviting.
0:42.6	So it would be great if you could just give listeners a short summary bio where you're from
0:46.0	and then where you were going to school and all that.
0:48.3	Yeah, sure.
0:48.8	So I was born and raised in Moscow.
0:50.8	For my bachelor's, I went to Italy, to Bacconi University. I did international
0:56.6	economics and finance for three years there. After finalizing with my bachelor's, I decided to go
1:02.9	to a sec business school in France to pursue master in finance. Currently, I'm in my second year
1:08.2	and I'm finishing in spring with regards to the relevant work experience that is relevant to today's podcast,
1:16.5	I have been doing a six-month MNA internship in Austria as part of my two-year
1:22.9	mastering finance program at the SEC because it was a mandatory requirement to do an internship there.
1:27.1	And it has been, let's say, a start to my real path towards IB. And yeah, why I'm here is because
1:33.7	I landed a full-time analyst one job position in investment banking in Augusta, which is in London.
1:40.3	Nice, awesome. Super congrats. Obviously a great outcome. You've been with us for a while. So like the path has not been like an immediate thing. I'd love to. And I can see you leverage a lot of the mentors and a lot of the resources over the years or over the year and a half or so you've been with us. So let's start just kind of from the beginning of the decision to go to Bocconi. Obviously, it's a target
2:01.7	school. It's great. But like, what even were you thinking finance from your secondary education
2:07.0	like in Moscow? And were you thinking like, hey, this is just a no-brainer? Or tell me a little
2:11.7	about that decision to go to Italy? Yeah. So really my path was not targeted towards IB from the beginning.
	...

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