About the author
Surojit Chakraverti
Every guide on this site is written by one person, who sat the processes it describes as a candidate and then spent years on the other side of the table: reviewing analysts’ models, sitting on interview panels, and deciding which candidates got offers.
Who runs this
Been through these processes. Then sat on the other side of the table. Now trains the people who run them.
Spring weeks at Citi, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch — he has sat where you are applying to sit, then went back to Citi full time.
Fourteen M&A and capital markets transactions on the sell side, then seven years investing in the same sectors from the buy side — the same companies, judged both ways.
2010
Spring weeks at Citi, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch
The programmes this site tracks, sat as a first-year. Then back to Citi for the summer internship, and the full-time offer that followed it.
2012 to 2015
Citi, investment banking analyst, EMEA Industrials
Three-statement and DCF conventions learned as house style. Sat on the reviewing side of analyst models and on interview panels for the next intake.
2015 to 2018
Rothschild & Co, M&A associate, Healthcare
Sell-side and buy-side advisory. Fourteen transactions across both banks are where the M&A, accretion/dilution and process material comes from.
2018 to 2019
Redline Capital, investment analyst, healthcare public equities
The same sector, judged from the buy side.
2019 to now
Founder & CIO, Third Wave Capital
A long-short healthcare and technology equities fund. The stock work behind the pitch and research guides is the work of running this book.
Alongside
Trainer to banks, funds and finance teams; Director, Nelson Advisors
Modelling and valuation training at investment banks, private equity firms, corporate finance teams and asset managers, and healthcare technology M&A advisory.
Spring weeks · Citi · Morgan Stanley · Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Worked at
Over 1,000 candidates coached through banking, private equity, hedge fund and technology processes. Firm names and logos belong to their owners and indicate the record above, not an endorsement.
Why L3VLUP exists
Make competitive careers in finance and technology easier to find, understand and earn.
L3VLUP brings live opportunities, practitioner insight and proof-of-skill tools into one place, helping candidates discover the right roles, prepare properly and get recognised for what they can actually do.
Where the guides come from
Two things shape what is written here. The first is having been on the hiring side: reviewing analyst work, sitting on interview panels, and deciding which candidates got offers. Most recruiting advice online is written by people who went through a process once. The view from the other chair is different, and it is more useful, because it is the view that decides the outcome.
The second is that the technical work is current rather than remembered. The modelling training runs at investment banks, private equity firms and asset managers now, against the conventions those firms use now. The stock work behind the research and pitch material is the work of running a long-short book, not an exercise built for teaching.
That is also the limit worth stating. Where these guides describe a process, it is described as it has been observed, and firms change their processes. Anything time-sensitive carries the date it was last checked, and a deadline on this site is either sourced from the firm or marked as unconfirmed. Nothing here is worth reading if it is wrong.
Over 1,000 candidates have been coached through banking, private equity, hedge fund and technology processes. The patterns in these guides are the ones that came up often enough to be worth writing down.