Sawaya Segalas Interview Questions

10 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (90%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

3.9
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (87%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

2.9
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult

Interviews at Sawaya Segalas

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Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Intern
Year 2022
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2019
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2018
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2018
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Mergers and Acquisitions
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Student / Prospective Monkey
Year 2018
Job Title Student / Prospective Monkey
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2017
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2014
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
N/A
Year 2014
Job Title N/A
Group/Division Consumer - Retail
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2012
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2012
Job Title Intern
Group/Division
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Easy

Interview Questions & Answers - Sawaya Segalas Examples

Summer Analyst Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: October 2022
Date Submitted: Oct 07, 2022
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Typical first round with an analyst. Started with walk me through resume, why IB, and basic technicals about financial statements, valuations, and M&A process. Overall pretty smooth experience.
Interview Questions
Describe the sell-side M&A process from start to finish
Sample Answer

Intern Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: June 2019
Date Submitted: Aug 12, 2019
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Applied via handshake from a target school, got an email from an associate a couple weeks later, rounds of interviews led to superday in office
Interview Questions
Standard discounted cash flow/leveraged buy out questions under different assumptions, parameters etc.
Looking into wacc and IRR specifically
Draw out a paper LBO under conditions that interviewer provided
Answer questions about the markets, the consumer sector specifically, deals that the firm did, the firm might be looking into
Identify trends in the consumer market, why consumer, what deals interest you the most in consumer sector
Have a good reason for why sawaya and why consumer, asked that every round
Sample Answer

Summer Analyst Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: September 2018
Date Submitted: Sep 28, 2018
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Applied on career portal, got contacted for a first round a few weeks later, then was invited to a Superday a few weeks later. heard back 1-2 days after
Interview Questions
There weren't too many unexpected questions, but I had to answer why they should pick me over the other candidates even though I had no previous technical experience. Asked a lot of formula questions (gordon growth method, WACC etc). Overall it wasn't as bad on technicals as I had expected. There were no LBO or M&A acc/dil questions which was nice.

The other thing they were looking for was demonstrated interest in the particular industry they covered and why I wanted to be a part of that industry.
Sample Answer

Sawaya Partners Interview - Mergers and Acquisitions

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: September 2018
Date Submitted: Sep 25, 2018
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Phone interview then superday, got the interviews through contacting current analyst and associates by emailing
Interview Questions
-Tell me about a deal the firm worked on and why it's interesting
-Tell me about a consumer deal you're interested in
-If I were to tell you to put together a list of disruptive companies, how would you start to put together the list and how would you identify the the most important companies after completing the list to bring to the table in a discussion with the senior people?
-How would you calculate the cost of debt for a company if you're in a hurry and you don't have time to go into depth and can't look at comparable companies
Sample Answer

1st year analyst Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: July 2018
Date Submitted: Aug 20, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Submitted resume through OCR career site and reached out to a current analyst. Quickly had a phone interview scheduled.
Interview Questions
Nothing difficult. Prepped by looking at all the questions previously asked by Sawaya. 1. Typical resume walk through. 2. Why IB. 3. Difference between product vs coverage groups and where Sawaya is different. 3. Depreciation through all the statements. 4. Why is cash affected on the balance sheet if depreciation is a non cash expense. 5. Walk through DCF. 6. How to find FCF. 7. How to find discount rate. 8. What other way to find discount rate. Overall a pretty easy interview with very standard technical questions.
Sample Answer

Sawaya Segalas Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: September 2017
Date Submitted: Oct 14, 2017
Outcome
Declined Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
Fairly simple recruitment process. One-on-one interview over the phone and then a superday with the NYC office.
Interview Questions
Why Sawaya Segalas? How did you hear about Sawaya Segalas? Who do you know at the firm? Why did you chose your university/college? What are your biggest weaknesses? What are three ways to value a company? How do the 3 financial statements linked? Can you talk about your previous deal experience? Why consumer? Why New York City? Why boutique? How else are you interviewing with? Do you have offers at any of those places mentioned? What is something that's not on your resume that I should know about?
Sample Answer

Investment Banking Summer Analyst Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: December 2014
Date Submitted: Mar 02, 2015
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
I reached out to a high school alumnus who was an associate with the company, and he pushed my resume through resulting in a phone interview the following week. The Monday after my phone interview, I received a callback from the admin for an in-person interview which consisted of 6 interviews over 3 hours with 1 of the interviews being an interview with 2 associates.

During my in-person interview when I first got there, I filled out a formal hardcopy application that was sort of odd. I got a tour of the office then was placed in a conference room where I remained the rest of the afternoon. I started with 2 associates then 3 analysts and finished with 2 VPs.

I heard back the next week after they interviewed a few other candidates. I liked everyone I met with. The office was great
Interview Questions
My phone interview was almost strictly technicals outside the walk me through your resume. After I walked my interview through a DCF, he picked into pieces like why use unlevered FCF vs levered and what is the difference between the two. Defining WACC and calculating, ranking the valuation methods and explaining the discrepancies, why cost of equity is more than cost of debt.
My in-person interviews were all very similar. My interviews all consisted of walk me through your resume, why IB, why Sawaya, why consumer. I have prior IB experience so probably half of each interview was spent talking about my past experience and the deal I worked on there. The deal specific questions were actually really difficult and thought I could have performed better here.

For deal specific questions, they focused on the deal process, how we pitched and how we positioned them, what analytics I did, what the multiples were and why we chose those multiples.
Sample Answer

Summer Analyst Interview - Consumer - Retail

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: January 2014
Date Submitted: Feb 16, 2015
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Had a phone call with an associate, then another phone call with another associate. Phone calls had a brief introduction of your resume, why investment banking, why a boutique, etc. followed by a session of technical questions. Pretty straightforward interview, but weighted heavily on the technical side.
Interview Questions
What are some valuation techniques? The three main ways to value a company are DCF, precedent transactions and comparable company multiples.
Sample Answer

Summer Analst Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: February 2012
Date Submitted: Mar 16, 2014
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Interview
First got a phone screen which then progressed to a super day of 5 interviews. Know your technnicals like valuation and DCF. I didn't receive the offer but they did sent a letter expressing thanks for interviewing, I though it was very cordial.
Interview Questions
What is a DCF?
Why are you interested in consumer and Sawaya?
How do you calculate EV? Why do you add Minority Interest?
Why did you go to NYU?
Why are you interested in banking?
What happens when depreciation goes up $10?
Sample Answer

investment banking summer analyst Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: 2012
Date Submitted: Mar 05, 2012
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
Interview
Phone interview which consisted of technical questions, no fit besides walk me through your resume. Followed by a super day at the company with about 5 2 on 1 interviews. Most of the interviews were fit, with a couple of technicals.
Interview Questions
Walk me through an LBO analysis. Can Beta be negative. What is the Beta of a person playing a game at a casino.
Sample Answer