Summer Analyst

Because my college had a very thorough campus recruiting process, the process itself was very straightforward. After deciding to pursue M&A and knowing a few alumni at Moelis, I attended an information session and subsequently got an interview through my university's online recruiting site.Coming from a liberal arts background, it took some convincing on my part to let the MD in charge know that I was interested in investment banking and that I could crank out merger models without having taken a lick of accounting. However, I've had friends gone through the process before, so I had a leg up compared to other candidates from my college -- I didn't just read the Vault guide, but spoke on the phone with the first year analysts at Moelis to get a sense of the questions that I'd receive. Also, because Moelis was prominent in the restructuring space, I also familiarized myself with potential capital structure questions -- which did come. The interviewers were definitely surprised that with my very liberal arts background, I could answer those questions, so I'm sure that was to my advantage. It's also very important to have a "sponsor" in the process -- someone who would go to bat for you when it comes time for the firm to sit down and decide on offers. I had a great MD who walked me through the process and really stood up for me. Overall -- technical questions, definitely get to talk to some people who have gone through the process, get a sponsor.