Harsh's Jobaaj Learnings Review: From B.Com Fresher to Investment Research Analyst

"During my job search, I faced multiple rejections, which was tough. But I did not give up. I kept preparing and analyzing my mistakes." — Harsh

Harsh graduated with a B.Com in 2023. He planned a Master's in Australia and did not go, then sat the CAT and did not score well enough to qualify. His fallback was to build skills instead of chasing another degree — which led him to financial modelling, an internship at ProCapitas, and eventually a role at a boutique investment research firm specialising in wealth advisory, where he had been for six months when this was recorded.

If you are searching “is Jobaaj real or fake”, “is Jobaaj Learnings genuine” or “is the investment banking course worth it”, Harsh's account is one of the more critical in this series. He says the training cost more than he expected, that the bank models were genuinely difficult, and that he faced multiple rejections before an offer. He also does not name his employer or his salary. Read it alongside the other conversations in our Interview Series and the wider feedback on the reviews page.

Who Is Harsh? A 2023 Commerce Graduate With Two Failed Plans

Harsh describes himself without embellishment: “I completed my graduation in Bachelor's of Commerce, just like any other general commerce student.” He finished in 2023.

What happened next is the part worth reading if your own plan has just collapsed:

1. Plan A — a Master's in Australia. He hit difficulties and did not feel comfortable going abroad, so he dropped it.
2. Plan B — an MBA. He sat the CAT. “My scores were not good enough, and I couldn't qualify.”
3. Plan C — skills. Following career content creators who argued for building skills rather than chasing degrees, he changed approach entirely.

How He Chose Financial Modelling

Harsh did not pick a course from an ad. He worked backwards from the industry:

"I was really interested in finance, so I researched what core skills are required in the field. I came across financial modeling as a key skill... after looking through several programs, I found that financial modeling stood out as the most important skill."

That is a reasonable method and worth copying: identify the skill the industry hires for, then find training for it — rather than finding a course and hoping it maps to a job.

The Cost: He Says It Was More Than He Expected

This is the criticism Harsh raises, and we are giving it its own section rather than burying it:

"Initially, I was hesitant due to the high cost, but I eventually took the plunge. I started by attending offline classes, which turned out to be more expensive than I had anticipated, but I felt I needed to invest in my future."

Two separate points there. He hesitated at the advertised price, and the offline format cost more than he had budgeted for. He judged it worth it in retrospect — but if you are weighing this decision, price the format you actually intend to take, not the headline figure.

The Internship at ProCapitas Was the Turning Point

Harsh is unambiguous about which part of the journey produced the job:

"My internship at ProCapitas was a turning point for me. I was able to apply all the theory I learned and work on real-world projects... during my interview, they asked me questions mainly based on my internship experience, which gave me an edge."

Note the mechanism. It was not that the internship taught him more than the course — it was that the interview was conducted about the internship. Project experience gave the conversation somewhere to go. Coursework alone does not.

What He Found Hardest: Bank Models

Harsh is specific about where the difficulty sat, which is more useful than a general statement that the course was challenging:

• The initial models were easy.
• The bank models were difficult. Banking financial models have their own structure — interest income and expense, loan books, regulatory capital — and do not behave like a standard three-statement model.
• He needed a mentor to get through it. He names Aman at ProCapitas as the person who walked him through the intricacies.
• It was frustrating. His own word. His conclusion: “the struggle helped me learn more.”

The Job Search: Multiple Rejections Before an Offer

Harsh does not describe a smooth placement, and this section stays in his words as much as possible:

"Honestly, during my job search, I faced multiple rejections, which was tough. But I did not give up. I kept preparing and analyzing my mistakes. I used ChatGPT to research more on HR questions, which gave me a better understanding of how to answer them."

What he actually did between rejections:

• Analysed his mistakes rather than simply reapplying
• Researched HR questions using AI tools to understand what answers were being looked for
• Applied broadly, including for an equity advisor role, not only for his target title
• Kept going until one converted

The Outcome: Boutique Investment Research, Six Months In

Harsh joined a boutique investment research firm specialising in wealth advisory, and had been there six months when this was recorded — long enough to judge the fit rather than describing a first week.

His verdict: “It's been six months now, and I've learned a lot. The journey was full of hard work, but I can confidently say it was worth it.”

The firm is not named and no salary is given, so the outcome cannot be independently checked the way it can in the accounts here that name an employer.

Pros and Cons, Based on Harsh's Account

What worked:

• Financial modelling as a deliberately chosen, industry-relevant skill
• An internship that produced project work his interviews were actually built around
• A named mentor who got him through the material he could not crack alone
• A finance role within roughly a year of two failed academic plans

What he says was difficult:

• The cost. He hesitated at the price, and the offline classes cost more than he anticipated.
• Bank models. Difficult enough to be frustrating and to need one-to-one guidance.
• Multiple rejections during the job search, which he describes as tough.
• He did his own interview prep for HR rounds, using AI tools, rather than relying entirely on the programme.

Finance Interview Questions to Prepare For

How did your internship help your career development?

Model answer: It gave me hands-on work rather than exercises — building financial models, analysing data, and understanding what a client actually needs from the output. The feedback from mentors sharpened the work, and the projects themselves became the thing interviews were conducted about.

What skills matter most in investment banking?

Model answer: Financial modelling, data analysis, structured problem-solving and communication, on top of a real understanding of financial statements and market context. The underrated half is temperament — resilience, adaptability and working accurately under time pressure.

Tell us about solving a complex problem.

Model answer: Building a financial model for a new product launch where the data was incomplete. I gathered what existed, consulted senior analysts on the gaps, and used defensible statistical methods to fill the rest — documenting every assumption so the model could be challenged rather than just believed.

What is financial modelling, and why does it matter?

Model answer: It is a mathematical representation of a company's financial performance — historical data plus assumptions plus forecasts, projecting the future health of a business. It matters because it turns opinion into something testable: valuations, scenario analysis, and whether a company is worth investing in or acquiring.

Given a set of financial data, how would you analyse it?

Model answer: Clean it first — inconsistencies and errors invalidate everything downstream. Then read the three statements together to assess financial health, and calculate the ratios that matter: profitability (gross and operating margin), liquidity (current ratio) and solvency (debt-to-equity). Benchmark against the industry, because a ratio in isolation says nothing, then convert the findings into recommendations rather than observations.

What finance skills have you acquired, and how will you apply them?

Model answer: A foundation in financial analysis, accounting principles and market basics from the degree — balance sheets, P&L, ratio interpretation — and practical modelling, budgeting and forecasting learned separately, outside the curriculum. In this role that means building and analysing models to support investment decisions and turning them into insights a decision-maker can act on.

Harsh's Advice

• Never stop learning. His first point, and the through-line of his account.
• Build the skills the industry actually hires for. He researched that before spending anything — the sequence matters.
• Don't be afraid of rejection. “Learn from it, and keep improving.” He analysed each rejection rather than just applying again.
• Curiosity and determination are the differentiators. His words, from a candidate whose first two plans both fell through.
• Get project experience you can be interviewed about. Implied by his own account — the internship, not the coursework, is what the interviews were about.

Full Podcast Transcript

The complete conversation, unedited.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Jobaaj Learnings genuine, or is it fake?

This page documents one recorded case: Harsh, a 2023 B.Com graduate whose Australia and CAT plans both fell through, who learned financial modelling, interned at ProCapitas, faced multiple rejections, and was hired by a boutique investment research firm. He criticises the cost and the difficulty on camera, which is not the shape of a scripted testimonial. He does not name his employer. See the wider review set on the reviews page.

Is the course expensive?

Harsh says he hesitated because of the cost, and that the offline classes turned out more expensive than he had anticipated. He concluded it was worth it, but the price was a genuine obstacle for him. Price the specific format you plan to take.

What's the hardest part of a financial modelling course?

For Harsh, the bank models. He found the early models easy and the banking ones difficult enough to be frustrating — and needed one-to-one mentoring to get through them.

Can you get into finance without an MBA?

Harsh did, after failing to qualify through CAT. His route was a deliberately chosen technical skill — financial modelling — plus an internship that gave him project work to be interviewed about.

How many rejections should I expect?

He says “multiple” without giving a number, and describes it as tough. What he did differently between attempts was analyse his own mistakes and research HR questions, rather than simply reapplying.

Why did the internship matter more than the course?

Because of what interviewers asked about. In his words, they asked questions “mainly based on my internship experience” — the projects gave the interview substance that coursework alone would not have.