Training app from $9/mo · Playbook + tracker from $19/mo, or $99 once for everything

The 2027 class was
full by January.

Most sophomores found out in March. 2028 applications open in December. This is how you're ready before they open. 845 real interview questions you can start drilling tonight, free, plus the tracker and the playbook.

Start here: Street Level, a free 8-minute quiz that scores you across seven areas of finance, names the profile you fit, and builds a 12-week plan for the seat you actually want.

Find your Street Level → Free · 8 minutes · no card, no account. Your plan is on the screen before you enter an email.

Or start with the free chapter of the Playbook

You're in.

Check your inbox for the free chapter. If it's not there in 5 minutes, check spam.

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See What's Inside ↓
THE Front Office The Complete Playbook for Breaking Into Finance 72 PAGES RECRUITING TRACKER Network Apps Offers Comp Timeline Contact Firm Status Follow Up REPLIED MEETING SENT REPLIED MEETING SENT 7 SHEETS • 50+ TRACKABLE FIELDS

Built at Villanova during my own recruiting. Whether your school has on-campus recruiting or you're building your own pipeline, the timeline, the drills, and the scripts are the same.

Why I built this

Three mistakes nearly cost me my recruiting timeline.

Over two years I cold-emailed hundreds of bankers, reached final rounds in three of the five tracks, and got cut from plenty of processes along the way. Each of these mistakes is the reason a part of Front Office exists.

1

I missed early deadlines because I didn't know they existed.

Sophomore programs and the first summer analyst postings open months before most students start looking. The sophomore-program calendar lists every one I could find, with dates and a source for each, so you see a window before it closes.

2

I bombed a coffee chat because I asked the wrong questions.

The playbook's coffee-chat chapter is the question list I wish I'd had going into that call: what to ask, in what order, and how to end by asking who else on the team you should talk to.

3

My cold emails went unopened because the subject lines were wrong.

The tracker holds 50 templates sorted by scenario. Each one has a subject line, the best time to send it, and notes on what to change for your school and the person you're writing to.

Start here

Start with the drills.
Free.

845 interview questions with an explanation behind every answer, free to start, no card. The playbook and the tracker come with Pro and Lifetime. Every paid plan is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Interview Training App LIVE

845 technical questions across investment banking, private equity, real estate, securitized products, and more - adaptive drills, timed mock exams, and an explanation behind every answer. Free to start, on any device.

Try it free →

Core

The full training app: all 845 questions across every sector, adaptive drills, timed mock exams, and spaced-repetition review. Cancel anytime.

$9/mo →

Pro

Everything in Core, plus the 72-page Playbook and the Excel recruiting tracker. The whole system, one subscription.

$19/mo →

Lifetime

Everything in Pro for one payment. No subscription, yours through every recruiting season, all future sectors included.

$99 once →

Start free in the app: your first 30 questions in every sector cost nothing, no card required.

Charging Bull, Wall Street

Every mistake taught me something,
and I wrote it all down.Ethan Beagle, in the playbook’s introduction

Then the system

Then the tracker
and the playbook.

The drills get you through the interview. These get you into it: the calendar, the emails, and the tracker I ran my own cycle on. WSO is a forum and WSP teaches you to model; this is the part neither sells.

7-Sheet Workbook

The Tracker

Built from the spreadsheets I used to track hundreds of contacts.

  • Recruiting Timeline: A semester-by-semester roadmap from freshman orientation through senior offer. Shows you what happens when, why it matters, and what goes wrong if you skip it.
  • Comp Benchmarks: 2025-26 salary and bonus ranges for every track and firm tier. IB analyst at a BB vs. EB vs. MM. PE associate at a mega fund vs. mid-market. HF discretionary vs. multi-manager pod. You'll know the range before you negotiate.
  • Networking Log: 19 tracked fields per contact: firm, title, outreach date, method, response status, coffee chat date, referral received, follow-up due. Color-coded alerts flag contacts that have gone cold or follow-ups that are overdue, so nothing slips during a 60-email week.
  • Offer Comparison: Input up to 4 offers side by side. Rate culture, deal flow, exit ops, location, and prestige on a 1-10 scale. Assign your own weights. The sheet scores each offer by the weights you set.
  • Application Tracker: Every firm, every stage, one view. Color-coded from "Not Started" through "Offer." Tracks HireVue deadlines, superday dates, and offer expiration, so a firm calling to expedite doesn't catch you off guard.
  • 50 Cold Email Templates: Built into the tracker itself. Pre-written, copy-paste ready, sorted by scenario: cold alumni outreach, warm intro follow-up, post-event reconnect, non-target school pitch, pre-application networking. Fill in the bracketed fields and send.
72-Page Guide

The Playbook

The system I actually used, written down.

  • Part I: Build Your System: Before you send a single email, you need a strategy. I show you which firms to target based on your school type, when your window opens, and how I built a Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3 target list that kept pipelines open all year.
  • Part II: Network Like a Professional: The cold email scripts, the coffee-chat questions I didn't know to ask, and a LinkedIn approach that gets you noticed before you apply. Chapter 7 also covers the one thing not to do on a first call: ask for a referral.
  • Part III: Technical Prep by Track: IB wants DCF, M&A, and LBO logic. PE wants a paper LBO in 3 minutes. HF wants a stock pitch. AM wants portfolio construction. PRE wants cap rates and NOI. Each track gets its own section, so you prep for the interview you'll face.
  • Part IV: Own the Interview Room: The nine behavioral questions that come up most, how to use the STAR framework, and a full two-minute “walk me through your resume” answer you can adapt. Technical Q&A by role, and a superday chapter for the day itself.
  • Part V: Close the Deal: How to handle exploding offers without burning bridges. What to say when Firm A calls while you're still in Firm B's process. The exact scripts for asking for deadline extensions, comparing competing offers, and reneging professionally when you have to.
  • Part VI: Real Estate Investment (Standalone Track): This is the track I signed in, so it gets its own part. REPE, REITs, and debt funds each interview differently: NOI, cap rates, DSCR, IRR waterfalls, and the underwriting logic behind them.
BONUS: 50 plug-and-play cold email templates (15 in the playbook, all 50 in the tracker), plus the 2-minute "Walk Me Through Your Resume" sample answer you can adapt to your own story.
NYSE trading floor

THE SOPHOMORE-PROGRAM CALENDAR

Thirty-four programs that open before junior recruiting does.
Every date has a source.

Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, Citi, Evercore, and the rest, with who each one is for and when it opens. See the calendar →

Start with Week 1: Free.

The first chapter of the playbook, free: how to build your target list, set your timeline, and send your first cold email. If it isn't useful, you'll know in ten minutes.

You're in.

Check your inbox for the free chapter. If it's not there in 5 minutes, check spam.

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Compared with what I used

Where WSO and WSP stop.

I bought the courses and read the threads too. They teach you how a DCF works, but not how to get the interview where someone asks you about one.

Front Office WSO WSP
Full recruiting strategy ✓ ✗ ✗
Week-by-week timeline ✓ ✗ ✗
Networking scripts & templates ✓ Partial ✗
Technical prep by track ✓ ✓ ✓
Live Excel tracker ✓ ✗ ✗
Offer comparison tool ✓ ✗ ✗
Comp benchmarks ✓ ✓ ✗

Comparison reflects WSO's and WSP's core products as observed in September 2026 and may change; trademarks belong to their owners. Front Office is independent and not affiliated with either.

About the author

Built by someone
who went through it.

I'm Ethan, Villanova '26. I recruited for IB, PE, hedge funds, asset management, and private real estate as an undergrad, went deepest in IB, PE, and real estate, and signed one offer, in private real estate. I built this because nobody would tell me exactly what to do, when to do it, and what to say.

This is the calendar and the scripts I wish I'd had in August.

Questions about your own situation? Reply to any email you get from me with your school, your year, and your top three firms. I read every one, and you can also find me on LinkedIn.

Ethan Beagle

Ethan Beagle, Villanova '26

FAQ

Questions students ask me

Yes. Chapter 21 is the Non-Target Playbook: how to work out your school's tier, a 12-week framework for building your own pipeline, off-cycle and lateral pathways, and how much geography matters when recruiting doesn't come to your campus.
Yes, for three of the four pieces. The timeline and the sophomore-program calendar are the same whether recruiting comes to your campus or not; the drills are the questions every bank asks everyone; and the tracker is how you keep forty conversations straight when on-campus recruiting hands you forty at once. The non-target chapter is the one part you can skip. What the playbook adds for you is the part your career office won't say out loud: how early the classes actually fill, and how to work the alumni network before the info sessions start.
Start with the Late Start Playbook in Chapter 2, then Off-Cycle and Lateral Pathways in Chapter 21. Between them they cover boutiques, off-cycle roles, and the postings that open after the first wave.
No. The playbook covers five tracks: investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, asset management, and real estate investment. Each has its own technical prep section, timeline, and networking approach. I recruited across all five, and Chapter 1 compares them on eight dimensions if you're still choosing.
It's the spreadsheet I ran my own cycle on, cleaned up. Enter your contacts, applications, and offers, and it color-codes each stage and flags overdue follow-ups. Comp benchmarks and an offer comparison sheet are built in.
Yes. Every purchase is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don't think it's worth it, you get your money back.
Yes. Reply to any email you get from me with your school, your year, and the three firms at the top of your list. I read every reply and I'll tell you which chapter to start with. If you'd rather not use email, message me on LinkedIn.

2028 applications open in December.
Start tonight, free.

Read the free chapter and your target list exists before the portals open.

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