Excel Questions in Interviews?

Should you know Excel cold for your interviews? How much do they expect you to know? Do they ask you specific questions within Excel, how do you do so and so function on Excel, etc? Just want to know how much of Excel do you have to know to get by your full time interviews?

 

My friend told me of a small MM firm which gave all candidates a computer based Excel test after the interview. Most people failed, so from what he told me, they used it mainly in conjunction with the interview to highlight exceptional candidates.

 

I've heard about people getting quizzed on pivot tables too. It's most likely the same scenario as anything else in the interview; if you claim any sort of proficiency on it, they won't hesitate to fire up the Foreman.

 

some of the elite teams at some banks give you a modeling interview - you are put in front of a station, given a set of assumptions and have to build a dcf model in two hours. as long as you haven't claimed you are a pro they won't expect you to do anything too complex.

 

If you haven't dealt with excel much, say so. Even if you have, don't think you know as much as you think. Nothing pisses me off more than interviewees saying they have experience building models (as an undergrad). You don't have shit and if you do, I'll make sure to grill you to put you in your place.

 

I was asked how well I knew Excel in an interview once. In the same interview I was also asked how bankers help society at large and what were my thoughts on off shore outsourcing. I'm guessing the interviewer was just being an prick as LB Banker was saying.

 

I said I had spent two summers making models (valuation and contract pricing) on Excel at a large utility company. Of course I was asked about the models (generally how I'd approached them because I had no experience before, how they were laid out and how they worked). Was also asked about how to reach FCF, because I said I knew how to find it. And the interviewer kept asking, "Are you sure? Are you sure?" to see how sure I was. But no excel-specific questions, because I didn't claim to be an excel expert. I'd taught myself on the job, so I'm not great, but it worked for me.

Like everyone else says, if you say you have experience, you better know you're talking about. Just to make sure I could still do it (after 9 months of doing no finance at all), I did a quick FCF calculation on my laptop in my hotel room before my interview.

 

Oh, and I was asked how I had estimated CAPEX for certain industrial companies. I said that I'd made the model as a freshman, with no financial experience, and I wasn't concerned with estamating numbers. My job was to make the model. I knew what CAPEX was, but it was my boss and his boss and his boss that would pull numbers out of the hat. I just put in HUGE RED NUMBERS in any model to show that I'd just put a random value to ensure the model worked.

He then asked how I'd use depreciations to estimate CAPEX. I didn't know, but I did, however, make a argument for how it could be used. It was a decent answer, but definitely not what the interviewer was looking for. He then told me the answer, we talked about it for a bit, and that was that. I got the job in the end, and I learned something in the interview.

 

"I'm comfortable using Excel, as I've used it for a lot of our projects in school and at some past internships, but I understand that an analyst works in Excel the majority of the time, and has an intimate working knowledge of the program, much more so than I could claim to have at this point. However, I am confident that I will be able to climb up the learning curve quickly once I start."

Something along those lines..

 

Streetluck - that is some good B.S. I could've used that line on the interview I had last week......I interviewed for a lev-fin position and had listed on my resume that I'd developed financial models. I'm in Corporate Finance at "The World's Local Bank." Training program was mediocre, credit culture is conservative, but unsophisticated. I got drilled on excel and modelling (past experience did not prep me for LBO Models). Needless to say, did not get an offer. I would've been better offer using a modified (since I'm not in school) version of your answer.

 
Best Response

I wouldn't worry too much about the excel if this is entry level...though could be wrongs. Just say you have a strong base in excel and will get better with practice. not sure on this.

Make sure you have an opinion on what's attractive. High yield vs investment grade vs treasuries vs munis vs mbs vs short duration vs long duration. Know that yellen just hinted at not raising rates for 2 more fed meetings. Know what the possible implications of the fed raising rates mid next year are. Know that most bond managers have been wrong in holding shorter duration for the past few years. Have a view on foreign bonds and emerging market bonds. Have an opinion on oil prices and high yield debt, oil companies make up ~17% of the high yield market. We saw high yield spreads widen as oil has gotten real low, is this a buying op as the spread got over 550 bps? Though now i believe it has come in a little.

Know this stuff. Be familiar with where spreads are at. Show you understand the fixed income market. Definitely know what kind of fixed income shop you are interviewing at and read everything recent from the PM / strategist. Be able to explain what duration is and the inputs used in calculating it. Be prepared to be asked about the yield curve, flattening vs steepening.

I haven't worked in fixed income, but rather wealth management, so this is my best guess and what you would want to know at a minimum.

 

I'll echo the above -- for many Asset Management skills they are more concerned with your handle on the markets and your thought where opportunities lie vs if you can do vloookup. Unless you're gonna be a security analyst drilling down into a balance sheet you should be fine. I'm a client portfolio strategist type on a uhnw team and most complex things I do are making formulas that pull from factset etc

 

Agree with other posters, I don't know what area of the bond market the team you're interviewing with focuses on: gov't, corporates, agencies... but always have an opinion if they ask you a macro/specific market question, has issuance been light? what part of the curve looks overvalued/why and should it be, explain how convexity influences duration... With what's going on in FI there are dozens of timely things you could bring up (highly levered shale plays and crude vol blowing out high yield spreads..). As for excel, I don't think you have to buy the VBA crash course manual but I would be comfortable with vlookups, index/match, offset... nothing insanely difficult. If you already know some VBA I would assume rudimentary excel functions aren't an issue for you. Best of luck with the interview.

"Go for a business that any idiot can run – because sooner or later, any idiot is probably going to run it." - Peter Lynch
 

...I've never been asked excel questions in interviews.

If you're looking to improve though you could just use excel to do some things you'd do anyway, or think up projects you'd be interested in modeling. For instance, I used excel to automate my personal budget, set up a calendar, and made a model of the NFL season to see if I could spot any interesting trends. You'll get more comfortable in general, and while it's not advanced financial modeling, it is a good bit more interesting

 

Agreed. You will very quickly become an expert in excel on the job. It is hardly a basis for hiring decisions.

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

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