Diwakar Singh always had one foot in the world of numbers and markets, even while working a steady job in Finance & Accounts. A civil engineering graduate who later completed his PGDM, Diwakar spent his early career managing transactions, reconciliations and financial reporting at Blacklead Infratech. But somewhere along the way, his long standing interest in the stock market started pulling him in a different direction.
That pull eventually led him to The WallStreet School’s Investment Banking and Financial Modeling program. What followed was months of building models from scratch, learning to read businesses the way analysts do and slowly shifting his own understanding of what finance actually means beyond reports and reconciliations.
Today, Diwakar is placed as an Analyst – Investment Banking at Sparrow Advisory.
Here’s his journey, in his own words:
1.Take us back to the beginning. What made you decide to join The WallStreet School’s Financial Modeling course?
I was working in F&A at that time and I was doing my job well, but somewhere deep down I knew that this was not where I wanted to stay for the long term. I had always been interested in the stock market and I used to follow it on my own in whatever free time I got and I had also done a small internship earlier that was related to that space. So at some point I told myself that if I am genuinely interested in this, then I should learn it properly instead of just picking up bits and pieces here and there. And that is really how I ended up joining The WallStreet School.
2. What was your first impression once you started the course? Did it match what you expected?
Honestly, it did not match what I expected at all. I thought it was going to be a lot of theory, maybe some PowerPoint presentations, that sort of learning. But from the very first week, we were already working on Excel and actually building things. It was a bit of a shock in the beginning, because I realized this was going to require real effort and real work, but I actually liked that about it.
3. Walk us through your learning experience. What did a typical week of classes and practice look like for you?
We had classes on fixed days every week and after every single class, I made it a point to sit down and practice whatever had been taught that day, because otherwise I knew I would forget it. There were some topics that took me two or three attempts before I actually felt comfortable with them. And my weekends were mostly spent catching up on anything I had missed and going back to revise the older topics that I was not fully confident about yet.
4. How was your experience with the faculty? Was there a particular mentor or instructor who made a real difference in your understanding?
The faculty was genuinely very approachable and that is something I can say with full confidence. There were times when I asked the same doubt again and again and they never once made me feel bad about it. And what I really appreciated was that they did not just teach us the steps, like do this and then do that. They actually explained the reasoning behind why we do something a certain way in a model and that helped me remember and understand it much better in the long run.
5. The course covers building fully integrated financial models, DCF valuation and relative valuation through trading and deal comps. Which of these did you enjoy learning the most and why?
For me, it was relative valuation, so trading comps and deal comps specifically. I already had some background in finance, so working with numbers was not new to me. But this whole idea of valuing a company by comparing it to similar companies in the market, that was something I had never really looked at closely before and I found it genuinely fascinating.
6. You also worked on company profiles, sector analysis and competitive benchmarking as part of the course. How did that shape the way you look at businesses today?
It has honestly changed the way I read the news now. Earlier, if I saw a company’s name in an article, I would just read it and move on. But now, my mind automatically starts thinking about which sector that company belongs to, who its competitors are and how it is positioned in the market compared to them. It might sound like a small shift, but it has really stayed with me.
7. Tell us about a specific model or project you built during the course that you’re really proud of.
There was one project where we had to build a complete model from scratch, a fully integrated model with sensitivities built in. I remember it kept breaking at different points and I had to keep going back and tracing exactly where things were going wrong. But when it finally worked properly, when I changed one single assumption and watched it flow through the entire model correctly, that felt like a real achievement to me. It might seem like a small thing to someone else, but I was genuinely proud of it.
8 .Was there a point during the course where something felt difficult or overwhelming? How did you push through it?
Yes, honestly there were a couple of weeks where I felt like I was falling behind everyone else, especially when some of the valuation concepts just were not clicking for me no matter how many times I went over them. During that time, I would just reach out with my doubts and the faculty would always respond and help clear them up and that is really what kept me from getting completely stuck.
9. Now let’s talk about the placement. How did the placement team support you through the process, right up to landing the Analyst role at Sparrow Advisory?
The placement team kept me updated on openings as they came in and before my interview, they genuinely helped me prepare for it. They told me what kind of questions to expect and how to talk about everything I had learned during the course in a confident and clear way. That preparation really helped me when I actually sat for the interview at Sparrow Advisory.
10. What did it feel like when you actually got the offer from Sparrow Advisory?
Honestly, it felt like all those late nights spent on Excel had actually meant something. When you are in the middle of a course like this, there are weeks where you are tired and you start doubting yourself, wondering if this is really going to lead anywhere. So when the offer finally came, it was not just a job for me, it felt like proof that all that effort had actually been worth it.
11. Looking back at your entire journey, from Day 1 to placement, what would you say was the single biggest takeaway?
I would say the biggest takeaway for me is realizing that learning financial modeling is not just about Excel and formulas, it is really about understanding the business first, before you even open Excel. That is something I still carry with me in my work today. And honestly, when I think about this whole journey, from joining without really knowing where it would take me, to now sitting as an Analyst at Sparrow Advisory, it genuinely feels like a full circle moment for me.
