A curated starting point for recruiting prep, organized by what you're working on. Not exhaustive, just the resources actually worth your time.
Technical Prep
Accounting, valuation, and modeling
Investment Banking: Valuation, LBOs, M&A, and IPOs
By Joshua Rosenbaum and Joshua Pearl. The standard technical reference most recruiters expect you to have worked through at least once, covering comps, precedents, DCF, LBOs, and M&A analysis.
Book
Breaking Into Wall Street
Paid modeling courses covering financial statement modeling, valuation, and LBO modeling, built specifically around interview and on-the-job scenarios.
Course
Wall Street Prep
Similar modeling-focused courses, often used as a supplement to a finance curriculum, with a strong reputation for LBO and M&A modeling specifically.
Course
Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)
Free and paid modules covering financial modeling fundamentals, useful as a lighter-weight starting point before committing to a paid course.
Free / Paid
Banking at UVA Flashcards
Our own free flashcard set, covering accounting, valuation, M&A, LBO, markets, and behavioral questions, organized by category.
Free
Behavioral & Networking
Fit, story, and outreach
Wall Street Oasis (WSO)
A large community forum with interview experience threads, compensation reports, and firm-specific recruiting insight. Useful for pattern-matching what to expect at specific banks, though treat individual anecdotes with some skepticism.
Community
Vault Guide to Investment Banking
An industry overview covering firm cultures, group structures, and the day-to-day of the job, useful groundwork before networking calls so your questions sound informed.
Guide
LinkedIn alumni search
Filtering LinkedIn by your school and target firms is still one of the highest-yield ways to build a networking list. Pair it with a short, specific outreach message rather than a generic template.
Tool
Markets Awareness
Staying current
The Wall Street Journal
Daily reading habit worth building early. Interviewers regularly ask about a recent deal or market development, and a specific, informed answer stands out.
News
Banking at UVA Deal Library
Our own breakdown of real, recent M&A transactions, structured the way you'd actually discuss a deal in an interview.
Free
SEC EDGAR
The source for real 10-K and 10-Q filings. Reading one filing closely for a company you're interested in gives you more useful, specific knowledge than reading dozens of summaries.
Tool
How to use this list: you don't need every resource on this page. Pick one technical resource and go deep, use WSO and alumni outreach to understand specific firms, and build a daily habit of markets reading. Depth in a few places beats breadth across all of them.
Get Involved
Want structured support instead?
Join Banking at UVA for weekly training, alumni access, and mentorship through the whole process.