 Hello and welcome I'm joined by Dylan Hood who is a former summer analyst trainee that we had back in 2021 and I've kindly asked him to join me on the call just to catch up really and understand what Dylan's been up to. I know Dylan just you're still studying at the moment so so I guess to kick this off. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from, where you're studying at the moment. So yeah, I'm my name is Dylan as anti mentioned, and I'm currently in my second year at Loughborough University, and I study politics and economics. And I think kind of, maybe the best way to start off is just to explain kind of a bit of why I chose that course and why I kind of how it's led me to where I am now. So, originally it was, I wanted to go down a kind of professional sport route. And that's why I kind of came to Loughborough University, and I came to the uni kind of in the midst of COVID. And that was where I kind of really found a bit of a passion for markets that sounds a bit cliche. It's kind of the volatility and stuff I kept seeing kind of news articles on the FT, etc. And that's when I kind of became involved and from there, I, yeah, I just, I kind of took steps to build my interest in markets and a few kind of work related opportunities and I saw Amplify I thought that looked kind of a great way to spend my my first year summer, because I knew I'd be applying for internships. And yeah, I was went through the vigorous application process and was lucky to land a placement with a firm called Lazard. And I'm kind of where I am now. Why don't we go back to Amplify? What was it, if there was like just one or two things that you found that were most kind of beneficial for you, particularly then the path you ended up going down with Lazard. Was there anything that particularly resonates now that was useful? I think the biggest thing that I took away was definitely kind of what I learned in some of the group exercises. So I'm very interested in what I'm going into is M&A. And a lot of the group exercises where we were kind of creating pitch decks was something that I found really interesting. And there are a few people on the course who had a little bit more experience than I did. And it was great to kind of learn from those people and implement small changes. And yeah, kind of build some some great pitch decks and then pitch those to obviously the 60 or 70 other people I was on the course with, which was a really great experience. And definitely some of the more technical things. So building the DCF and the LBO models is kind of an essential thing that you need to know how to do for the kind of technical side of interviews. So having real step by step kind of walkthroughs of those from Eddie was really great. And was definitely something I talked about in interviews. And I know just just before this call you were mentioning about you're doing a you're going to be doing a placement year and I know doing a placement year that probably the opportunities are fewer just because most people just do a summer internship to securing that 12 months placement is quite unique. So how was that process for you I mean certainly landing a role at Lazard as well. Yeah, I mean it was a it was a it was a very kind of similar process I think to the summer internship applications. But I think if anything it was it was perhaps kind of slightly less on the technical side because I think when you're there for 12 months they can kind of they can afford to teach you kind of early on some of the stuff. Some of the more technical things you need to know. So I think it was, you know, it had all the kind of standard interview stages where it was very kind of interpersonal I think, and kind of again going back to some of the experiences that I had from Hamplify, just kind of working within like different teams, around different teams, speaking to different people. I think again that's something I kind of tangible experience of doing that was definitely something I could kind of take into the incident to the assessment centres. I kind of made myself stand out a bit. I remember you and I having a couple of chats along the way. And I know that for everyone that you know securing that that placement is never an easy thing. How was that in terms of for you personally going through that because I'm assuming that there were rejections as well as the role that you got right. Yeah, yeah, although there were plenty of rejections. Yeah, of course, I think that's kind of something everyone goes through kind of through applying and it is. I remember one firm I did a kind of a two hour maths and English test and it took ages to get through. Like 10 minutes later I got an email saying sorry you rejected the role and there are kind of a lot of moments like that which are really. Yeah, they can kind of quite easily get you down and maybe think is it is it worth it but it's um I don't know it's just sounds cliche but it's just like seeing the positives in those things it's like right. I didn't get through that, but these are like XYZ skills I've been able to learn I've been able to forward, I can then use for the kind of next application. And I think by the end of it, it had kind of got to the stage where I kind of done a certain amount where I just have those skills I could just pass from one straight on to the other. So I think definitely it's is a bit of a kind of numbers game, but it does really help you to have done lots of applications and kind of have that experience. I think on your LinkedIn that you, you're quite actively writing blogs. I saw one for Motley Fallen which is like, yeah, financial blog sites in the world. So how did that come about and what what benefit have you got out of doing that. So that's something that I've been doing for kind of quite some time now. And it was kind of initially something I did in my first year. I applied for and kind of through keeping up with the markets, it just kind of made sense to kind of do that work alongside my uni work. And but that but that's something that's definitely really helped me because kind of having those articles which I which I write really forces me to keep up with everything that's going on in the markets. And then obviously going into kind of that world. I think that really helped me a few of the kind of technical questions about how to value stocks and kind of based on other stocks and financial ratios and things like that just keeping up with those and just kind of trying those on a regular basis is something which definitely really helps me. And plus it's just it is something I'm really interested in so you know we've got the kind of everything going on in the world right now. It really directly filters kind of into markets and it's interesting to kind of keep up with everything so yeah it's been a really great experience definitely. So with with the writing that you've been doing for a while then you did have five spirits and now doing the placement you will be going on. It seems like you were fairly sure in the area because there seems to be a lot of equity based research type activities and then M&A IBD was that always quite clear to you or was it not always like that. I think I think it's for me it kind of has it has always been quite clear. I actually did a I mean when I like I said when I first came to uni I thought I wanted to pursue professional sport and it was through speaking to a flatmate who had he done a years placement in asset management. I was my first kind of like flavor into what a bank is how it works and he could kind of explain the different the different divisions in the bank, and just through kind of going away having a bit of general research and I just think like M&A from what I could kind of see really suited my kind of interest and my skill set almost because I don't know as kind of sad as it may sound but I do really enjoy putting decks together that kind of I don't know more. Perhaps my slightly more creative side of it of kind of putting stuff together coupled with kind of you know speaking to people kind of client facing role. As well as the technical stuff which I mentioned, and it kind of seemed to like knit all of those things together. And again, I had some experience through doing an M&A competition with Loughborough Finance and Investment Society, and that kind of gave me more insight, and I guess just kind of all the experiences that I've done kind of came together. And yeah, I just I kind of decided that this is what I want to do. Let's try and build some skills to really make myself stand out in the interview process and it kind of went from there. But Loughborough now I know just generally the ranking wise it's gone up and up and up over time. Yeah, when I went to university. So how how has that been for you because I know obviously it's a top unit it's not a traditional catchment one like an LSE, UCL. Has that ever been a thing that's come up or you found a challenge or I think kind of I think for a few I did kind of apply and just get like a straight rejection and I think a few of the firms still do have that traditional the kind of you said the catchment of like LSE, UCL, your kind of big finance units. I think kind of the industry more broadly now is definitely moving towards kind of realizing that people from loads of different backgrounds actually have some kind of really great skills to offer. I think kind of more broadly that's something which I was wary of because my degree is predominantly politics based. So I think that's again, perhaps not like a traditional kind of route into investment banking. In a way it can almost like make me stand out because I have, I've kind of I keep up with the finance side of it outside of uni. But I can kind of build maybe some other kind of writing analytical skills throughout throughout my degree. And yeah, like you said Loughborough is kind of climbing the rankings at the moment which is, which is great as well. I guess it's kind of trying to have that mindset of, okay, maybe this can maybe stand out as opposed to like hold me back. You mentioned sport a few times. Yeah, sport. Well, so I was going to say that that was, I mean, that's the only, I mean, Loughborough is a great union. It was a great choice to come to Loughborough, but it was predominantly for the sport that I came. I swam kind of from like 10 all the way up until I was 19 to kind of a national international level represented represented England. And then I in my gap year actually before university I switched over to rowing. I was kind of landed a landed a position. I'm going to go into finance, finance lingo. Yeah, I basically went on to a program of a GB rowing program. I did that for about a year and a half, which was again kind of at that high elite level of sport but it was a kind of combination of the pandemic and not being able to train and kind of again it was finding this passion for markets and finance and then kind of seeing the whole world that I'd never really considered before. And yeah, it was just a kind of natural decision that I thought actually, you know, this is why this is what I want to do, instead of the professional sport and yeah, that's kind of led me to where I am now. So having had like 10 years of what sounds like elite level sport. I think at least at the tail end of that what's being like a transferable you think skills of you, you're able to apply now in the finance world sense, if any. Yeah, so I think definitely for me the biggest thing is just kind of being able to manage workloads. Because I've kind of since, yeah, since about 12 or 13 I've probably done going on about 30 hours a week of sport and training. So kind of now having someone say I have an extra 30 hours a week to kind of do all of my stuff outside of uni. Aside from that is definitely time management. That was the big one that I kind of got across and all of my interviews because it was a question that did come up. It was kind of how how can you use your sport transferable skills. But I think definitely the time management is a big one and kind of creating plans, being diligent, kind of getting stuff down to a T. And that's that's something personally which really works to me really helps me get tasks done is definitely the kind of creating a plan and the time management side of things. So I think that's probably the big one. Aside from, yeah, just just general commitment and kind of hard work ethic. Yeah. Cool. Well, look, I really appreciate you taking the time out to talk with me and you start in August. Is that right at Lazare? Yes. Yeah, late August. Yeah. Okay. Well, cool. Keep us keep us posted how that goes. I'm sure staying contact and I'm sure if anyone wants to reach out to you. They can reach you on LinkedIn. Is that okay. Yeah. Yeah. LinkedIn is. Yeah. LinkedIn is perfect. So just still a note on LinkedIn. Yeah. If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out. Cool. All the best for the placement and and not forgetting your studies as well. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Still got to get the job done. Exactly. Exactly. Good stuff. All right, Dylan. Good to catch up and take care. Nice to speak to you. Cheers.