What the work involves

You work in three modes, often on the same task. You create reference artifacts — a three-statement-linked DCF with a defensible WACC build, a trading comps sheet with calendarized and adjusted metrics, an LBO with a working debt schedule and cash sweep, a credit memo that reaches a rating recommendation. You evaluate model-generated versions of the same, marking where the output is wrong, where it is merely unconvincing, and where it would fail a real IC. And you refine — rewriting the output into something you would actually send, with an explanation of what changed and why.

Tasks arrive as prompts with source material: filings, CIMs, credit agreements, trailing financials. Deliverables are real files — Excel workbooks, PowerPoint decks, Word memos — not chat text. Formula integrity, cell hygiene, footnoted assumptions, and slide logic all count. A model output that arrives at roughly the right enterprise value through a hardcoded terminal value is a failure, and your written rationale needs to say exactly that.

What the screen is looking for

  • Direct ownership, not exposure. Ethos probes whether you built the model or reviewed someone else's — expect follow-ups on specific mechanics: mid-year convention, stub periods, net debt bridges, how you treat operating leases post-ASC 842.
  • Credit depth as a distinct skill from valuation. Covenant math, incurrence versus maintenance, EBITDA add-back scrutiny, and what you actually did when a borrower tripped a fixed-charge coverage test.
  • Evaluation judgment: the ability to separate a defensible assumption you disagree with from an error, and to rank failures by severity rather than listing every nit.
  • Written communication under institutional norms — the ability to write the two-paragraph recommendation that a committee reads first.

Logistics

Fully remote and asynchronous. Commitment is genuinely flexible at 5–20 hours per week, with more available to contributors who want volume. Most people fit it around a full-time seat or consulting work. Pay is observed at $100/hour on this engagement — Ethos sets rates per project, so treat that as the current band rather than a guarantee. The process includes an AI voice screen before any task work begins; it is conversational, follow-up heavy, and moves quickly from what you did to how you did it.