
Michael Neal
5.0
(6)
Centerview Tech | Prep Founder & Author | The West Coast Authority
4,755 min coached
41 followers
Studied at Chicago Booth
Worked at Centerview Partners
Successful clients at
Available Tuesday at 1:30 AM UTC
Usually responds within 9 hours
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Michael's Coaching Offerings
Custom hourly · $150/hr
Get help with Technical Interview Prep, Mergers & Acquisitions, and .
Michael’s Investment Banking Qualifications
Experience level: Associate
10+ people coached for Investment Banking
Michael has helped clients get into these companies:
The candidates who don't get offers typically aren't underprepared — they're overprepared on the wrong things. The pattern I see over and over: candidates who memorized 500 technicals but have a generic "Why Banking." Who can nail the DCF walkthrough but can't actually talk about a deal or a trend with any conviction. Technical accuracy doesn't create separation. Delivery does. I've guided hundreds of candidates to offers at Centerview, Goldman, Qatalyst, and more — through one-on-one coaching and the prep platform I built from scratch. What separated them was understanding that getting the answer right is only 10% of the interview. ——— BEHAVIORALS The hardest part is knowing when your story isn't working. Every candidate has a "Why IB" answer. Very few are memorable. We rebuild your TMAY, your "Why's," and your scenarios from the ground up. I'll interview you, figure out what actually makes you different, and build a narrative around it. The goal: a story that is genuinely yours and impossible to mistake for anyone else's. ——— TECHNICALS Most candidates who fail actually knew the material. They just couldn't deliver it under pressure. I wrote the open-access textbook on IB technicals. I'll identify your blind spots, teach you to structure answers like a senior banker, and show you how to play defense when you're unsure. We turn a "pass" into a "top bucket." ——— MARKET This is where preparation becomes differentiation. Bankers are looking for colleagues, not students — and they can tell the difference between someone who follows markets and someone who's cramming for an interview. Most candidates treat market knowledge like a homework assignment. Bankers can tell. They're looking for the start of a real point of view. We'll carve out your sector niche so you speak with the conviction of someone who's been covering the space for years. This is the section that gets you the callback.
Michael can help with:
Technical Interview Prep
Mergers & Acquisitions
Behavioral Interview Prep
General Exploration
Networking Strategy
About Michael
I walked out of my Centerview superday knowing I had the offer — not because I was the smartest candidate, but because I had figured out what actually mattered in the room. That became the foundation for everything I've built since. I led UChicago's Investment Banking Group as Technical Lead and helped dozens of candidates land offers before founding OFFERGOBLIN, the adaptive prep platform with 5,000+ verified interview questions from every major bank. I wrote the industry's open-access textbook on IB technicals. My full-time job — my only job — is figuring out what gets people offers and building systems around it.
Why do I coach?
Most coaches fit sessions in between deal work or their day job. This is all I do. No busy season. No distractions. I've seen every failure mode, I know exactly where the bar is, and my only focus is getting you over it.
Work Experience
Summer Associate
Centerview Partners
June 2025 - August 2025
Technology Group

Consultant
Deloitte
November 2020 - September 2024
Cloud Strategy / Tech coverage
Head Teaching Assistant
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
August 2018 - August 2020
Operations engineer
KATERRA
May 2019 - August 2019
Education

Chicago Booth
MBA & MS CS
2024 - 2026
Activities and societies: Investment Banking Group — Technical Lead; Quantum @ Booth — Founder
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BS + MS, Civil Engineering
2016 - 2020
6 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Knowledge
5.0
Value
5.0
Responsiveness
5.0
Supportiveness
5.0
Michael has helped clients get into these companies:



