Zero Finance Background to JP Morgan: The Ultimate MBA Career Pivot

Wall Street Oasis

Business

4.9 • 534 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Breaking into Investment Banking with no finance background sounds impossible - but it’s not. In this WSO Academy testimonial, Laurence shares how he went from building a $2M startup to landing an Investment Banking offer at JP Morgan. Without a traditional finance background, he had to learn the industry, build the right network, and prepare for one of the most competitive recruiting processes in finance. Chapters 00:30 Intro 02:24 Stepping Away from the Startup 03:00 The Reset Phase 04:12 The Pivot to Finance 05:44 Choosing the MBA Path 06:38 Discovering the WSO Academy 07:51 Preparing for Investment Banking Recruiting 10:29 Lessons & Career Advice 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 💪🔥 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ IS WSO ACADEMY FOR YOU? Yes, if any of the below sound like you: ✅ You want to break into investment banking but don’t know where to start ✅ You've applied to 100+ jobs and heard nothing back ✅ You’re not sure how to network effectively ✅ Your technical or behavioral answers need work ✅ You’re not from a target school or have below a 3.7 GPA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcript

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0:00.0	You put your head down, you grind, you almost don't look up and see what's going on around you
0:05.2	until you're in it. And I realized I was living and breathing this thing that I sort of felt like
0:12.0	I didn't actually identify with anymore. I wanted to dig into all this and then, well, what's the
0:16.1	outcome? What's the final? I really prepped. I really worked hard. I stayed up late. I did research and the Wall Street Oasis courses allowed me to understand the fundamentals
0:26.6	so that I didn't feel sort of rusty and uncomfortable there.
0:29.6	Anything you would have changed now?
0:31.6	I'm not giving you a perfect answer for this.
0:47.3	Hey, Lawrence, thanks so much for taking the time to join us today.
0:48.0	Really appreciate it.
0:49.2	Absolutely.
0:50.0	Thanks, Patrick.
0:53.2	It'd be great if you could give the listeners short summary bio where you're from,
0:53.8	all that good stuff.
0:58.6	Yeah, sure. So I grew up in New York City and Long Island, did my undergraduate at Baruch.
1:05.2	Studied marketing, minored in sociology, got really interested in consumers. So I joined an ad tech company.
1:11.8	They went public. I got the taste for starting things. So I founded another company, a creative ad agency off of that.
1:15.5	And when I exited, I really wanted a global experience. So for the last five years, I've been at IPG media brands and, you know, started to learn what was going on in the M&A space.
1:24.1	Got really interested.
1:25.7	So I went back to SternERN to get my MBA.
1:28.5	Nice.
1:28.9	So I wanted to dig into all this. Well, what's the outcome? What's the final hurrah? So you obviously had a great play. Sure. I did. Yeah. So recruiting was the last four, four and a half months or so. I was able to sign with J.P. Morgan. I'll be joining their business services group this summer and couldn't be more excited about the platform.
1:47.9	It's awesome. I was able to sign with JPMorgan. I'll be joining their business services group this summer
	...

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