From Non-Target to Rothschild: How She Landed UBS & Lazard Offers

Wall Street Oasis

Business

4.9 • 534 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Breaking into investment banking from a non-target university isn’t easy — especially after 150+ applications, months of rejection, and zero connections. In this student testimonial, Kitty shares how she went from studying politics at the University of Birmingham to landing offers from UBS, Lazard, and Rothschild. From struggling with confidence to facing non-target fears head-on, this is the real story behind breaking into investment banking as a student. Segments 01:19 – Music vs Finance 03:04 – Why University of Birmingham? 03:34 – Switching from Politics to Finance 04:05 – When Banking Became Real 05:27 – Why She Joined Academy 06:55 – Networking Strategy 07:45 – 150+ Applications 08:33 – First Interview Breakthrough 10:44 – Offers from UBS, Lazard & Rothschild 11:58 – Advice to Students 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	Coming from a very low-income background, I wasn't sure that I wanted to kind of be using my passion to pay for my food.
0:07.7	I really struggled to make the decision, and it can feel pretty awful where you get rejection after rejection, ghosting after ghosting.
0:15.7	But having the knowledge from the courses was like just what I needed to go in with actual confidence.
0:22.6	Anything you would have like done differently or any advice you'd give to kind of your younger self.
0:26.6	Don't reply for jobs you don't actually want to do because.
0:29.6	Okay. Okay, Kitty, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today.
0:44.3	Of course. It's really nice to be here.
0:46.5	So it would be awesome if you could just give the listeners kind of short summary bio where you're from, all the good stuff.
0:51.2	Yeah, sure. So I'm from London in the United Kingdom.
0:55.0	I go to the University of Birmingham.
0:57.0	I'm studying finance.
0:59.0	I am going to be a summer intern in Ross Charlene Coe as an M&A analyst.
1:07.0	Congratulations.
1:08.0	That's an amazing outcome.
1:10.0	I know Rothschild is considered a, what, an elite boutique
1:13.3	in London, so it's a very tough role to land. So obviously, awesome outcome. Let's start. Just like,
1:19.5	I noticed you're a musician. So I want to hear a little bit about the decision or like, I know you
1:24.1	played a lot through secondary school or high school. And then the decision to go study finance was that something that was like new or something you discovered later on you're interested in?
1:34.4	To be honest, it was kind of sort of flow.
1:37.2	Like I didn't actually have a point where I decided like that was not what I was going to do and I was going to move into something else.
1:43.2	Like I really struggled to make the decision and when I left school, I applied to conservators, I applied to
1:48.4	US colleges, I applied to British universities and then I ended up taking a gap here and working
	...

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