Which Financial Modeling Bootcamp is Best?

The hands-on training you’ll get in a bootcamp is almost globally accepted as one of the most efficient methods of mastering financial modeling. However, because there are many different courses, it can be hard to pinpoint which one is right. You’ll find classes spanning a whole range of topics, from broad-spectrum financial analytics career programs to basic bootcamps covering only Excel. Additionally, there is a wide range of delivery forms to choose from, including in-person, live online, part-time, and full-time. To easily compare top financial modeling classes side by side, check out Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me tool. 

What are the most important criteria to evaluate in Financial Modeling bootcamps?

You’re unique in which particular bootcamp features will provide you the most value. That said, most students find that the following are useful points to consider when evaluating potential training programs. 

Topics Covered

No matter what you plan to do with financial modeling, you want to be sure that the bootcamp you select can actually help you achieve them. To guarantee this, choose a program (or several) that covers all the topics you want to explore. You may have big dreams of pursuing a career in finance, and to succeed, you’ll need to learn a lot more about financial modeling than someone with a smaller goal. Many financial modeling bootcamps are oriented toward a particular career role and offer comprehensive training in the skills of the trade. These bootcamps generally provide bonus perks such as career support. 

Other programs focus on just one or two skills, such as Excel, Tableau, or SQL, and aren’t usually enough on their own to prepare you for a full-scale career. These courses can still offer professional value, however, helping you fill knowledge gaps and level up where needed. 

The most common topics for financial modeling bootcamps are: 

• Excel
• Other software tools (such as Tableau)
• Financial literacy 
• Corporate finance
• Accounting
• Data analysis, visualization, and forecasting
• Financial reporting
• Budgeting
• Investing
• Coding languages (such as SQL)
• FinTech
• Professional communication

Depth or Skill Level

In addition to identifying what topics you want to study, take the time to figure out what depth you want to explore them. Financial modeling is a dense and ever-growing field, meaning that skill levels can vary wildly from course to course. To avoid ending up in a class that isn’t well suited to your aptitude, don’t overlook whether your chosen bootcamp is designed for beginners, intermediate students, or both. If your course has prerequisites, be sure to meet them before joining the class. 

Hands-on Experience

Unlike other training modalities, certificate-granting bootcamps provide interactive training that can double as professional experience. In these classes, you won’t simply get a basic lecture; you’ll get hands-on practice applying financial modeling skills to real-world projects. As you complete these projects, you can add them to a professional portfolio, increasing your chances of picking up jobs. Career-focused programs will include training in numerous skills, while less extensive bootcamps help you master one or more. 

Delivery Formats

If you’re not sure how learning a new skill can fit into your current lifestyle, keep in mind that financial modeling bootcamps come in multiple delivery formats and lengths. You can participate in accelerated training programs that operate on a full-time schedule similar to a 40-hour work week or easily add flexibility to your training by studying part-time. Length will depend on your unique program and study schedule. In general, however, financial modeling bootcamps take between a few weeks and a few months to complete. 

To suit your learning preferences, you can also choose from several delivery modalities. Most certificate-granting bootcamps are available live online, but depending on your location, you may also be able to access in-person or hybrid training. During your research, you may also come across on-demand online training programs. Although these courses seem convenient, they provide little when it comes to instructor support or hands-on training. Experts collectively regard live training as a more effective way to learn financial modeling. 

Professional Development Benefits

Some bootcamps offer professional benefits designed to help advance your career. It’s wise not to underestimate how much these extra benefits can do for you, whether you’re starting a new finance career or building up an existing one. 

Even when it’s not explicitly stated in the course benefits package, live training programs have an advantage when it comes to networking. By putting you in forced proximity with experts and like-minded peers, bootcamps can give you a headstart building your professional network. If you’re lucky, your program may even assist with job placement or access to internships. 

Many programs also offer additional training that can help you make a better impression on hiring managers. This can include professional interview training along with resume and portfolio workshops. 

Financing Options

Budget constraints are a big determinant of which bootcamps are open to you, but it’s a mistake to look at tuition as a flat rate. Despite huge price differences between financial modeling classes, you may still be able to access more expensive programs through financial aid or another financing alternative. 

In addition to offering traditional scholarships, many financial modeling bootcamps include flexible payment planning that allows you to split your tuition into small fixed-term payments. You can also take advantage of discounts if you’re bundling more than one class or participating in classes as part of a group. If you’re lucky, your employer might even be willing to sponsor your class if you’re learning financial modeling for your current job. 

No matter your budget, shelling out the cash to pay for a financial modeling bootcamp is worth it. After adding marketable skills to your resume, gaining new experience, and creating a winning portfolio, you’ll be a more compelling job candidate. Add some hard work in the field and before you know it, you’ll have earned back the money you spent.

Additional Benefits

While most financial modeling classes simply scratch the surface, bootcamps are outfitted with every resource you need to succeed. On top of in-class benefits like live instructor support, bootcamps help you thrive by setting you up to succeed before and after class. Many programs offer perks such as set-up assistance, pre-class preparation materials, and free workbooks. If you need to skip class, live online bootcamps will allow you to catch up on missed material by watching a recorded version of the class. Similarly, classes like the ones available at Noble Desktop offer free retakes. 

The best bootcamps also provide one-on-one help outside of class. For example, Noble Desktop’s financial modeling bootcamps pair you up with a mentor for one-on-one bonus training. These meetings enable you to ask questions that didn’t get covered in class or work through skills that stump you. In a similar fashion, other programs provide tutoring or coaching sessions that offer equivalent benefits. 

To help you succeed in a career environment, most bootcamps also bestow certificates of completion that can be added to your resume or LinkedIn profile. 

What are the Top Financial Modeling Bootcamps?

Because there are many different reasons to learn financial modeling (for example, gaining a clearer understanding of your financial habits or preparing for a new career), there are many different bootcamps with unique training styles and topics of focus. In general, however, experts concede that live bootcamps provide more effective financial modeling training than on-demand training programs. 

Noble Desktop offers several top-rated programs in financial modeling, including a Financial Analyst Training Program that can give you a multifaceted professional skill set even if you start with no experience. Work hands-on with a real business generating complex DSF and three-statement financial models that you can insert into your portfolio to score an entry-level job. The active learning assignments you’ll engage with in this course offer broad-spectrum training in accounting, Excel, financial reporting, market forecasting, and valuation. Throughout the course, you’ll work closely with both experts and peers who will help you grow through challenges and prepare for career success. 

If you’re looking for a less-intensive bootcamp that offers training in one skill predominantly, NYC Career Centers offers single-topic courses like the Excel Bootcamp. With classes like these, you don’t need to learn a hundred separate skills to ground yourself in a firm financial modeling foundation. By learning this user-friendly, commonplace office software, you gain a versatile set of tools that you can use to create budgets, analyze numerical data, and generate financial models. By mastering this simple tool, you also enhance your capacity to learn additional financial skills in the future. 

To create a holistic training plan, you can easily stack the Excel Bootcamp alongside classes like NYIM Training’s Financial Modeling Bootcamp. As long as you enter the course with a pre-existing knowledge of Excel, you can save yourself the expense of repeating your beginner training and focus instead on more challenging skills. Guided by an expert, you’ll learn how to mix advanced Excel techniques with corporate finance. As you generate elaborate financial models, you’ll gain the experience and skills necessary to start a career as a Financial Analyst. In addition, you’ll widen your financial literacy as you learn to apply concepts like accrual versus cash accounting, enterprise value, and market capitalization to your work. 

While the other courses listed here offer training both in-person and online, Wall Street Prep specializes in live online courses that focus on niche topics. Designed for aspiring Investment Bankers and corporate finance professionals, their Financial And Valuation Modeling course covers Excel-based financial modeling. Instructors walk participants through real-world case studies to teach them how to build three commonly-used models. In addition to building a classic three-statement model, students in the class, get comfortable navigating DCF and merger models. 

Enrolling in a Financial Modeling Bootcamp Part-Time or Full-Time

Your training schedule can affect how quickly you learn financial modeling while also influencing the flow of your day-to-day routine. While neither part-time nor full-time training is qualitatively better than the other, each has distinct benefits that are worth considering in light of your needs. 

Before you do anything else, think about how fast you’d like to learn financial modeling. If you’d like to start your finance career as soon as possible, joining a full-time financial modeling bootcamp may be in your best interest. On a full-time schedule, however, you’ll be expected to give more time to your training, making full-time study a no-go for some people. Part-time bootcamps make it possible to fit training around your full-time job, parenting, or other sizable time commitments. 

Because of heightened exposure to financial modeling skills, full-time training offers a highly immersive training experience that can prepare you for a career in mere weeks. In contrast, flexible part-time training can help you manage burnout and give you more time to spend practicing each skill as you learn it. 

Part-time and full-time training both come with disadvantages as well as advantages. If you’re someone who likes to take time to learn new skills, the quick pace of full-time training can feel overwhelming. In this training format, you’ll also have less time to devote to each skill before quickly moving on to the next thing. In comparison, longer part-time bootcamps can mean putting off your career launch for additional time, making them a poor choice where professional deadlines are involved. Finally, full-time bootcamps can cost more than part-time programs.

You may find that you need to compromise on some program benefits to keep others. As long as you prioritize the features that are most valuable to you, you’ll have a ball learning financial modeling at a bootcamp. 

Enrolling in a Financial Modeling Bootcamp In-Person or Online

Figuring out whether online or in-person financial modeling training is better suited to you is a lot easier when you understand the major features of each. From there, making a personalized pros and cons list is easy. 

In-Person vs. Online: What’s the Difference?

In an in-person bootcamp, you’ll learn financial modeling at a physical meeting place that enables you to connect with your classmates and instructors face-to-face. Live online bootcamps provide similarly interactive training through video conferencing software such as Zoom. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Live Online Bootcamps

Since you won’t need to commute to a classroom to participate in a live online bootcamp, these classes are incredibly flexible. As a result, live online classes can save a tremendous amount of time and energy if you find your access limited by rural living, childcare, or a disability. Because there are no classroom or travel expenses associated with live online financial modeling bootcamps, they are often more cost-effective than in-person programs. 

In contrast to local in-person classes, live online classes can allow you to connect with students from around the globe, allowing for a more diverse professional network. 

There aren’t many downsides to live online training, but the few that exist are important to consider. In particular, students who struggle to stay focused at home (or without social pressure) may find that online learning is less effective. Although live online classes offer real-time interaction, some learners also find it more difficult to connect with others in a digital space where reactions are harder to gauge and technical problems are a real reality. Students who regularly deal with inclement weather or unsteady Internet connection are especially likely to face technical challenges. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of In-Person Bootcamps

As the most social class style available, in-person bootcamps provide the perfect setting to make like-minded friends and build a professional network. At the same time, if you’re looking to build a broad and diverse network, online training may be a better fit as in-person courses are generally limited to a local pool of students.

Connections aren’t the only benefit of meetings face-to-face, however. Because social accountability is highly motivating, the companionable environment that in-person classes provide can help you stay focused on your studies. In addition, getting help from your instructor is that much easier when you can flag their attention without technology getting in the way. If you’re lacking in resources, joining an in-person class can also be a useful way to access free equipment and software. 

The main drawbacks to in-person bootcamps are centered around travel and time commitments. When considering classes, think about how far (or if) you’d be willing to commute for a financial modeling class. Since in-person classes tend to require a larger time commitment, you’ll also find it useful to consider what availability you have in your schedule for class and travel. 

Do You Want to Start a New Career Using Your Financial Modeling Training?

To make the most of your training, you want to pick a program that fits your long-term goals—especially if they involve professional finance. Even though most bootcamps are designed for vocational preparation, some programs only provide training in a few of the skills needed for a career. For example, an Excel bootcamp that only covers Excel won’t adequately prepare you for a professional finance job. To succeed in your desired specialty, you need to add additional job-specific skills such as corporate finance, financial literacy, and coding. 

When looking for a career-oriented class, you can quickly weed out shorter classes with fewer skills in favor of more comprehensive programs. In general, the best vocational courses are intended to prepare you for a specific career (such as an Investment Banker or Financial Analyst) and include thorough training in multiple skills. For instance, Noble Desktop’s Financial Analyst Training Program offers practical training in financial modeling and corporate finance skills. In this course, you’ll work with real businesses to build intricate financial models, gaining professional experience and compiling your portfolio in one fell swoop. In your downtime, you’ll also benefit from one-on-one mentorship sessions and other class resources designed to set your career up for success.

Which Financial Modeling Bootcamp is Best For Me?

Finding the perfect financial modeling bootcamp is just as much about recognizing your needs and prioritizing them effectively as it is about having the means (financial or otherwise). As you compare programs, use the following questions to identify what class features are most important to you.

What skills do you want to learn? 

Double-check that your course includes all the training you need to meet your goals. With no two bootcamps being exactly alike, knowing which skills you want to learn beforehand can ensure you don’t end up in a course that offers inadequate training.

Not looking to become a finance professional? You may be able to get by with training from a less intensive financial modeling course. If you’re interested in learning financial modeling skills in a less stressful environment, joining a cheaper, shorter course may be the perfect alternative. 

What is your learning style? 

Visual, audio, and kinesthetic aren’t the only preferences to consider when it comes to your learning style. Also, consider traits like distractibility along with the impacts of disability. Think about how you most like to receive feedback and whether you learn more effectively alone or in a group setting. 

Which career benefits are must-haves? 

Consider benefits such as one-on-one mentorship, portfolio feedback, interview training, and free class retakes, and make a list of absolutes. From there, pare down your list to exclude features that are merely nice to have. In accordance with your goals, you’ll likely have a unique list. 

What’s your availability? 

The time you have to commit to learning each week will help you figure out whether you want to attend a full-time or part-time bootcamp. 

How do you feel about traveling? 

If commuting is impossible or likely to present challenges, you might prefer online classes.