Investment Analyst | CFA Level I Cleared (Nov 2025) | CFA Level II Candidate | FMVA Certified
A lot of people think about switching into finance. They read about it, research it and then wait. For the right time, the right degree, the right moment when it finally feels safe to make the move.
Mohit Khatri didn’t wait.
He was a final-year IT student at Vellore Institute of Technology. Software internship on his resume, published research in deep learning, every marker of an engineering career ahead of him. And he chose finance instead.
Today he is a placed Investment Analyst. He holds the Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA) certification from CFI, has cleared CFA Level I and is a CFA Level II candidate. He completed the Certification Program in Investment Banking at The WallStreet School and that is where the career pivot became real.
This is what the journey actually looked like.
Mohit, you’re an IT engineer. What made you seriously consider finance as a career?
Honestly, it started with genuine curiosity. I was reading about how companies are valued, how private equity funds think about returns, how a merger changes the financial picture of a business. I kept going deeper and I just realised this is what I actually want to do every day. Not write code.
Engineering teaches you to think logically and work with data. Those skills don’t disappear when you switch fields. But I knew I needed proper finance training because I had zero formal background in accounting, valuation, or financial modeling. That’s what pushed me toward structured learning and eventually toward The WallStreet School.
Did your engineering background ever feel like a disadvantage when you were learning financial modeling?
At first, yes. When I looked at a financial statement for the first time, I had no idea what I was looking at. Revenue, EBITDA, working capital, all of it was completely new to me. I had to start from scratch.
But once I got past the basics, my technical side started helping. I’m comfortable with Excel. I understand how models work logically. I can spot an error in a formula or a broken link faster than most. My engineering instincts, which once felt like a liability in a finance context, became an actual edge.
I also had Python and data pipeline experience from my internship, so financial data analysis felt familiar even when the context was completely new. The FMVA program and the Investment Banking course at The WallStreet School gave me the finance foundation and the technical background helped me build on it quickly.
Walk us through what you actually learned at The WallStreet School.
The program training was very practical. We weren’t just sitting through theory. We were building models from scratch.
I learned how to build a fully integrated three-statement model where the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement are all linked and move together when you change an assumption. That sounds simple but it takes real practice to get right. We also did scenario analysis and sensitivity analysis, which is what you actually use when you are presenting to a client or an investment committee.
On the valuation side, we covered comparable company analysis, precedent transactions, and DCF. Each methodology gives you a different angle on value and you learn when to use which one and how to reconcile them when they point in different directions.
We also built pitchbooks and sector analysis reports, which I had never done before. That was eye-opening because finance is not just about building the right model. You have to present it in a way that tells a story to the people making the decision. That’s a skill you have to learn and The WallStreet School actually teaches it.
What did the actual placement interview look like?
The technical questions were exactly what you would expect if you had prepared properly like Walk me through a DCF. What assumptions would you use for the discount rate? Which comparable companies would you pick and why?
There was a case study component where they gave me a company’s financials and asked me to flag anything unusual. That’s where the financial statement analysis training really came through. I knew what to look for, margin trends, working capital movements, cash conversion patterns. I wasn’t guessing.
They also tested M&A fundamentals. How does an accretion-dilution analysis work, what does it tell you about a deal, what happens to EPS in an all-cash versus all-stock transaction. I had built these models during my training so I wasn’t theorising. I was speaking from actually having done the work.
The softer questions were around why finance, why this role, where do I see my career going. I was honest about my engineering background and spoke about it as an advantage rather than something to apologise for. I think that framing mattered.
A lot of engineering students think they need an MBA to break into finance. What would you tell them?
See, an MBA is one path but it is not the only path, especially if your goal is an analyst role where you are doing actual financial modeling and valuation work every day.
What matters to the people hiring for those roles is whether you can do the job. Can you build a model, can you analyse a company, can you communicate your findings clearly. If you can demonstrate that through your projects, your certifications and how you speak in an interview, the degree on your transcript matters a lot less than you think.
I cleared CFA Level I in my final year of engineering. That signal alone tells an employer that you are serious, that you can handle rigorous material, and that you have the discipline to study for something that is hard on top of everything else. Combined with the practical skills from The WallStreet School, I had a story that was credible and specific.
What’s the one thing you wish someone had told you before you started?
I would say that the first month is the hardest and this is completely normal. When you are coming from a different field, you feel like everyone else knows something you don’t. Terms like WACC, terminal value, LBO returns, it all sounds like big monsters to me But every one of those concepts is learnable. None of it is as complicated as it looks from the outside.
Start with the basics. Get your accounting right before you move into modeling. Don’t rush toward the advanced stuff before the foundation is solid. And build things yourself. Don’t just watch someone else model. Open Excel, start with a blank sheet and build it. That is the only way it actually sticks.
Your Next Steps
Mohit went from zero finance background to a placed Investment Analyst role. The skills are learnable, the path is structured and the opportunity is real. If you are an engineer or a non-finance student looking to step into finance, the only way is to Start. Speak to the team at The WallStreet School and find out where you can begin.
