From a CA to an Investment banker – My success Story | CA Ashim Dhingra

Ashim Dhingra comes from Hissar, a beautiful division in the state of Haryana.

In May 2013, he passed his HSC with flying colors and cleared CPT in his first attempt. He moved to Delhi to pursue his graduation in commerce (B.Com honours) at Kirori Mal college, University of Delhi , which he dropped out very soon. He’s Now working as an investment Banker at Duff & Phelps

How did he get the job in Investment Banking?

He got placed after successfully completing 6 weeks Investment banking course from The Wallstreet School , through their dedicated placement cell. He came to know about this course while surfing through an article on the internet. Read on to know about the challenges that he faced , reasons for making the switch and his review for this course.

Here is a transcript of his interview with us :-

Why Did you drop your College? What Struggles did you face before getting through CA?

Once CPT was done, I had managed to do college with IPCC considerably fine. But, I didn’t have any time at all for anything. During my graduation, I had several subjects, marketing, finance, human resource etc. Then I took the most important decision of my life and I left college to completely focus on CA.

I started preparing for IPCC with full incitement and cleared it in my First attempt and joined articleship at S.S. Kothari & Co. After some experience, I switched to a taxation profile.

Meanwhile, I started preparing for CA-FINAL. However, I couldn’t clear it.

Set aback, I took a plunge to start my own venture called carming.in, developed with the whole concept of Eco-friendly car wash with the main purpose of delivering high standard car detailing with reducing water consumption.

How Did you switch to investment banking from Audit & taxation? Why did you make this switch?

Pertaining to my mindset and aspirations, I wanted to take up a profile which is more analytical in terms of core tasks – something which involves “analysing” the numbers on the balance sheet, and drawing conclusions out of them.

In August I came across an article about investment banking and financial modeling on the Internet by The Wallstreet School and I went through their Placement page. I thereafter connected with Himanshu Jain ( owner of Wall Street school) over a call. Needless to say, that call was a game changer for me!
He briefed me about the Investment banking training course and offered to join it, after a round of Eligibility interview.
In October 2018, I joined The Wallstreet School. It was a 6 weeks course and I started getting interview calls in the last week through their dedicated placement cell. Profiles for which I was receiving calls ranged from Business Valuation, Equity Research, Financial Modeling etc.
In training program, I found many Chartered Accountants like me, who successfully switched from taxation and auditing to Investment banking. 

How was your experience at The Wallstreet School?

During the course, I learnt extensive valuation models in such detail that I could have never thought of before.
After few weeks, I actually had profound knowledge about “how does an investment banker works” and “What Goes Inside an investment bank”
My major reason for joining this course was getting a placement in an elite core Finance profile, which is very difficult unless you have Great Contacts in the industry.
At the end of workshop in January, I had 4 offers through their placement network only.
Best offer was from Duff & Phelps, India in restructuring domain. It was also the toughest one to get into. Fortunately, I got through the interviews and bagged my desired Job profile.

To Connect with Ashim, you may Directly Contact The Wallstreet School