William Lorot Raphael
Current city: Toronto, Ontario
Year arrived in Canada: 2016
School: Simon Fraser University, University of Toronto
Academic programs: Honours in Economics (SFU); Master of Financial Economics (U of T)
Current occupation: Investment Banking
LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-raphael/
1. What inspired you to pursue your studies in Economics and Finance of all the academic programs that were available to you?
Engineering and Medicine are what normally stick out, but I realized those were not my taste. I opted for Economics because I used to like Developmental Economics, trying to understand why some countries are more developed than others. I thought Economics would give me more knowledge and skills to understand current global order.
The critical thinking elements in Economics were enjoyable during my undergraduate years. You tend to think about human behaviors around you from an economic rationale. In my 3rd year, I joined a student-run Impact Investment Fund and that’s when I realized Finance is one of the biggest cogs in any economy. My passion in Economic research as a career dwindled, I became very fascinated by finance. I pursued a Master’s in Financial Economics at U of T to improve my finance career prospects.
2. What are your main success factors in your academic and professional journey? Inherent intellectual aptitude goes without saying.
There are so many factors. What I would put first is grit and relentlessness in pursued of my vision. Dedication is my strongest trait. Commitment to your goals helps you stay on track when you become overwhelmed with all the happenings in life.
Secondly, my background played a role. When you reflect on how things were back home, you realize how fortunate you are to be in a country where the field is leveled. There is more meritocracy. It is not perfect, but better. You can achieve more if you put in the work. Growing up without these privileges pushes you a little bit more to capitalize on these new opportunities.
Thirdly, having great ambitious friends pushes you to aim higher. Surrounding yourself with people from different backgrounds can help you look at things differently. You get to re-evaluate your goals as you learn more and set new targets.
3. Can you tell me a bit about your career path and what led you to your current role?
In my MFE program, we went through very rigorous career Development program. Initially, I wanted to go to buy-side, pension plans and private investments. I wasn’t passionate about Investment Banking from the start, but when I started networking, I learned more about IB from mentors and alumni. They convinced me how IB is a great area to learn and develop yourself, personally and professionally. I therefore put myself out there and targeted IB internship roles. Luck played a big a part as well. To me, 95% or even 98% of it comes down to luck. You can do your best work and make the right decisions but if luck is not on your side, your career may not take off.
Regular Canadian students prepare for these jobs all their lives and we are just discovering them. They are well prepared and know exactly what they want from the get-go. I had to prepare in a very short period of time and often discovered how much more I needed to learn during interviews. I didn’t take interview failures for failures but as building blocks to learn what I can do better to be more competitive. I got a Corporate Banking role first, but I was determined to break into Investment Banking in that short period of time. For my current role, I met someone who was a director at TD. He introduced me to someone else, through whom I landed an interview, and the rests is history.
4. What are the challenges you faced trying to get to where you are today, if any?
I can list a million of them, but there are two main ones. First, having less people who went through the same journey can pose a challenge. Most of our folks are into science and engineering. There are very few in finance. Sometimes this means you have no one to look up to and learn from. During my time at U of T. I had a call with a black guy who was a VP at TD and happened to have been of African descent. Just having a conversation with him really motivated me to believe, like ‘Oh, I can do this as well’. Unconsciously. Having people to look up to is essential for success but can be a big challenge depending on your field of interest.
Secondly, confidence. Just being able to believe in yourself and not looking at your background as a burden but as a fountain of encouragement. Most of the kids here are taught to be confident and oversell themselves. Meanwhile, we are taught to be humble and not show off our capabilities. Finance involves a lot of networking, and if you don’t believe in yourself, no one will believe in you. And this will hurt your professional growth and potential in the long run.
5. What does your average workday look like?
Hypothetically, long hours, obviously. Depending on the mandate, it is mostly helping and advising clients on their Mergers & Acquisitions. We are either on the sell-side or buy-side of the mandate. If the client is trying to sell a company or buy another company, we facilitate that process. We do a lot of things, ranging from financial analysis, corporate advisory, to evaluation of the deal, to debt offerings or IPO (Initial Public Offering). The average day is spend doing one or more of these things.
6. What’s something about your line of work that would surprise the average street Joe?
In terms of experience, I think it is unique to witness such large transactions and groundbreaking deals from very up-close. It is a very underrated experience, given my background. Having an exposure to and meeting C-suite executives like CEOs of large Canadian companies is a unique opportunity. You get to think like a company executive because you get to know all the important decisions they are juggling. Transactions are a very satisfying part of an Investment Banking career.
Also, in terms of personal and professional growth, it is a very ideal compared to other careers. There is too much pressure, you learn how to work with people, talk to people, sell things to people. You learn how to put your ego aside; you learn how to be disciplined and efficient with your time. Those skills stay with you the rests of your life even if you drop out and start selling mandazi on the roadside.
7. What’s your favorite thing about your job or industry? In other words, what fuels your enthusiasm and helps you get out of bed on a winter Monday morning?
The transactions. It is a lifetime experience to work with companies to do transformational work like M&A, IPOs or subsequent share-offerings.
Finance is a large facet of an economy. You tend to be up to date with everything happening in the economy, from interest rates to unemployment rates. You learn things that you can apply to your own portfolio and investments. You can use the same financial literacy and techniques that you use to value and evaluate companies when making your own investment decisions or savings.
8. Most people don’t last in Investment Banking. I see 2-3 years is the norm before people move to other finance sectors or industries. Why is there so much burnout in Investment Banking?
I did my 8 months internship at TD. Within those 8 months, it felt like I lost so much hair. There is a lot of work to be done. In a different world, you are like a Real Estate agent, you charge fees for every transaction that goes through. So, there is an incentive to do as many deals as possible to generate as much revenue as possible for the bank. The average day in most of these IB firms is about 16hrs+ of constant work that involves no simple admin stuff. The intense workflow wears people out, depending on the volume of deals each season. It is getting better now though. Covid has changed things a bit, people are more conscious of their work-life balance. Job seekers are pickier and keener about a company’s work culture. There has been an exodus from IB, so firms are doing more to retain their best people because it takes up to 6 months to replace and bring someone new up to speed.
9. Do you have a mentor? If so, how have they helped you in your academic or professional career?
I have many mentors; I tend to reach out to people whenever I need help, especially when I have key decisions to make. When I was in undergrad, I used to have genuine conversations with my mentors on my weaknesses that I needed to work on. For example, not being confident enough to speak in front of many people was one of my goals. They would encourage and uplift me.
I have been very privileged with many mentors at my MFE program. Right now, I have about 5 or 6 main mentors that I reach out to whenever I have career decisions to make. Mentorship is a big part of learning and personal growth. No one knows it all. Make it a habit of running your ideas through someone with more experience and different perspectives. Talk to people at your level and see their solutions to common challenges in your program or at your workplace.
10. Is your racial profile helping or hindering your professional growth? That is, if race is a factor at all.
It will be rude for me to say that my race has not been a factor. Sometimes its systematic, especially when you are trying to enter rooms where no one looks like you. Psychologically, it impacts how you see yourself and the goals you set for yourself.
11. What do you know now that you wished you had known before you enrolled in first year of university?
I wish I knew there was a field called Investment Banking. In Canada, everything is possible. Still, it is unfair that we must work harder for years to climb to levels where others can just get to with a single step. If you can rely on people around you to steepen your learning curve and accelerate the transitional period that it takes to specialize, you will be golden. You can be more lessor focused and work on the key things that are necessary to break into your industry, volunteering, networking etc.
The other thing that I underestimated is the recruitment and interview process in Canada. Every meaningful firm has a very high pedigree, they will look for a missing or misplaced coma to dump your resume. They receive high volumes of resumes, so they must cut down the list to get to a manageable number. In some cases, you can spend more time working on your resume and preparing for interviews than you spend studying.
12. If you can reflect on your personal journey, were your aspirations met? What would you do differently if you were to start over again in Canada?
Looking back and seeing all the different trajectories I would have followed; I have exceeded my own expectations given where I am right now. I hope to get better & better and grow professionally. Given all the challenges we must overcome, I cannot be too hard on myself. Comparatively, if I didn’t pursue this path, I would probably be working in a warehouse or being a security guard right now.
13. From your experience transitioning to Canadian life and culture, do you have any advice for new students?
I don’t want to adopt a holier than thou attitude and make recommendations that, ‘you should do this and do that to get to where I am’. But the first thing that they must do is get themselves out there and learn. Befriend people from different backgrounds. That’s how you learn about Canada faster and become socio-culturally competent. You will become aware of different career paths through networking. You need to fasten how much you learn about Canada so that you can make better and well-informed academic and career decisions.
The other thing is to remember to not overburden yourself with family responsibilities. When we come here, the expectations are high, and we tend to bend to that pressure and support the whole clan. When you do that, your grades get sacrificed. Sometimes people end up stuck in these manual labor jobs at the expense of school and career development. As time passes by, the opportunity cost goes up. Be mindful of that.
