BY DRAKE DETTORE, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
At the end of my junior year here at St. Bonaventure University, I felt hopelessly unprepared when considering the next steps in my professional endeavors. I had recently been promoted to general manager of Students In Money Management and the realization I was graduating in just a years’ time began to weigh on me. I did not believe I had the necessary skills or knowledge to lead the club and I had no idea what I wanted to do professionally post-graduation. I began frantically searching for an internship or mentorship to try and fill these gaps and provide me with some sort of guidance. It was during this frantic search that I stumbled upon Romero Mentoring.
Romero Mentoring is a start-up EdTech company focused on providing education to students interested in the world of business. Their mission is to use education as a means to provide equality and make the world a better place. Their focus is mostly on those interested in the world of corporate finance, buy-side and sell-side financial services. I was not completely sold on the program until I received a response to my application, which was a financial modeling exercise that included a video lecture to walk me through how to forecast each financial statement. I thought, “Wow, this is pretty serious.This is definitely something I want to be a part of.”
After completing the worksheet, I continued along the interviewing process which included a phone call with an alumnus from the program and a Zoom meeting with the founder, Luis Romero. I should mention the alumnus who interviewed me was a sophomore at the time, and our ten-minute conversation was extremely humbling. Not only was he very well spoken but his financial knowledge far surpassed my own. A few days after the last interview I received a call from the co-founder, Paige Truong. She informed me that I had not only been accepted into the Analyst Prep Program (their main undergraduate program), but I had also received a scholarship to help me afford the program (an issue I had expressed earlier in the interviewing process).
Upon receiving this news, I was ecstatic, but nervous. It was obvious this program was not going to be a walk in the park, and I was going to have to put forth significant effort to complete it. The program was broken up into three phases. The first phase was a series of training modules, which included accompanying textbook readings diving deeper into the training material. The modules flowed perfectly one right into the other, starting with simple accounting principles, financial theories and excel practices, and continuing into corporate valuation methodologies, technical analysis, mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyout analysis. Throughout phase one I was given the opportunity to meet with Luis and other mentors to discuss what was covered and ask questions on topics I was struggling with. Their knowledge and experience was pronounced in their ability to explain difficult topics in a way that was easy to understand.
Phase two consisted of multiple case studies to practice what I had learned in phase one. It also contained videos which provided career guidance, resume building, rebranding techniques and interview preparation, as well as significant guidance on what jobs were available in the world of corporate finance and how to get those jobs. Finally, phase three was an internship opportunity for those who had completed phases one and two. During my internship, I performed multiple company valuations and a strategic consideration on DraftKings’ acquisition of GNOG. The internship was extremely rewarding and could only be replicated in the professional world if you were actually working as an equity research analyst. There is a page in the beginning of the book required in phase one of the program, which states “For those who believe in the virtues of hard work and just need someone to turn on the lights.” In my opinion, this quote perfectly describes Romero Mentoring. It is not easy, it takes effort and time, but the rewards are exponential. I am a more involved student, more confident speaker and a more experienced professional. I believe everyone reaches a point where they can look back and pinpoint all the major decisions which made them a better person. I can say without hesitation that Romero Mentoring was one of those decisions for me. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is feeling lost or unprepared when they think about the next steps in their professional career.
