I am getting ready for ibd interviews coming up in the winter time and was wondering a few things if you guys could clarify.
What are the interviews actually like at this level, and how technical do the questions get? Would I be fine knowing all the basic questions (strong answer to walk through a DCF, great understanding of statements, know equity value and enterprise value, CAPM, unlevering Beta etc. That stuff...) or is the required knowledge much higher than this? (At the SA level, not FT).
If the above is false, and you have experienced very advanced technical material, what topics do you recommend one delves into further? Dont say the guides, because those do not help my understanding of a topic.
When preparing for interviews (The technical aspect), would you suggest several weeks/months to prepare for them? What is your timeline basis for this type of stuff?
Any specific info on your SA interview experience would be appreciated.
Get the WSO guide and subscribe for BIWS Excel modeling courses. They really helped me preparing for interviews.
Yeah I have the guides. You think those are good enough? And besides the common DCF question, and maybe things about comps/transactions, have you been asked modeling questions? Also, how much time did it take you to prepare? I have slowly been prepping for the past year, but at this point, I can say that I have the "basics" down, but not the advanced stuff by any means. Especially the advanced accounting. Should I be worried?
Do you have any IB-related experience? Are you a finance major? Those will help dictate how far they will prod you.
It depends where you're interviewing and whether you've got banking experience on your résumé. Top boutiques will go into the advanced section of the guidebooks so learn them. Some of the BBs will test you up to the basics. It also depends largely on the interviewer. From what I've seen, analysts tend to ask more dick-ish/tough technicals while seniors go for personality.
People tend to stress over the technical questions when I'd argue that the fit aspect is more important. Someone with zero finance knowledge and a great personality will get the SA offer over a boring kid who knows his finance.
Stop freaking out, you have several months before interviews start.
I have two banking internships on my resume. Interned at a very small boutique over summer, and I am now doing a fall internship at another boutique. So do you think this would hurt me in that respect? I mean, it is clear when you read my resume that the things I did/do at these positions are not what real FT, or even SA's, do. I dont have any modeling listed on my resume at all.
But added to above, given that I had this experience, and I am technically a finance major (although no Finance courses yet), I would imagine the interviewer would think my knowledge is higher than most. Correct? Not saying it isnt, but I have read some technical questions on this board, and some of them are so insane that I would just get up and walk out..
I'm a nontarget. Had numerous front office internships prior to SA recruiting and my resume was very technical. They asked me some really tough questions re modeling and accounting...
If your school name doesn't mean much and your resume is moderately technical, prepare for the worst...
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