Interviews with MDs
I am interviewing at a boutique bank. The interview structure is a little unusual. Through networking, I have 3 first round interviews. Basically I had a connection high up at this bank and sent them an email to ask if I could set up a time to call them to talk more about their experiences and banking. They replied by setting up 3 meetings/interviews. I'm not even sure if they have an internship, but my contact at the bank said she had set up interviews for me.
I have 3 30 min. interviews with different MDs at the bank. One interview is with MDs from the Ibanking divsion, one is with an MD from the internal private equity fund, and one is with an MD in asset managment.
When interviewing, should I be behaving differently or asking different types of questions with the MDs as apposed to interviews with analysts?
I also have a lunch meeting with one of the VPs, so any other suggestions would be appreciated.





Interviewing with senior
Interviewing with senior guys is usually much more fun than analysts or associates... essentially you don't have to worry about somebody a year or two out of undergrad/bschool busting your balls and trying to make themselves feel important (which they aren't).
Know what youre interested in and why youre interested in it. Everything else will probably be pretty low key and friendly. Its usually cool to get them going about their clients, recent deals theyve done, and even where they went to college, maybe they played sport, etc- senior bankers talk for a living, so once they get started talking about themselves you may not get another word in... Their experiences dwindle those of the analysts (whom you should go out of your way to meet while youre in the office) that havent left their bullpen since graduation.
Actually this applies even to
Actually this applies even to buyside interviews - I had way more fun interviewing with the Partners at these firms than with the Associates (most of whom still hate their lives and are bitter).
In general MDs are much more focused on the big picture rather than small details... it would be highly unusual for an MD to ask you to do a DCF, for example. Focus more on your story, background and the bigger questions of why you want to do this job and where you see yourself going.
Also try to ask a lot of questions of them, again focusing on larger questions like why they're doing it, vision for themselves/the firm etc., senior guys love to talk about that kind of stuff.
Is it OK to ask them more
Is it OK to ask them more technical questions also. For example, why they choose to issue x bonds instead of y bonds in a specific deal.
I wouldn't recommend going
I wouldn't recommend going into that level of detail mwgr5. However, I'd bet everything I own that they would have an answer for you without missing a beat. To be honest, that level of detail wouldn't mean to someone who wasn't on the deal and didn't get to see the dynamics of the deal. Take advantage of your Q&A session to get good, useful information out of the person interviewing you.
CompBanker