Investment Banking 1st Year Analyst

Harris Williams was assigned to be at our Finance Career night in September, so I reached out to several alumni at the firm in late August, in order to set up an informational interview. I obtained an phone screening interview that week, and talked to the alumni who worked in their SF office. He was very nice and courteous, and invited me to come talk to him further at the Career night in September. After talking to him and his colleague at the career night (asking questions like "why does HW have a much higher deal-pitch ratio compared to other MM firms?" "What is your typical deal team structure" etc...) I received an in person interview on campus a week later. The two alumni noted that the interview was going to be mostly behavioral, but this was NOT the case. We went through maybe two-three really basic fit and get-to-know-you questions, like Why HW, Why you, Why IBD... and then onto full-force technicals.

Q#1: Run me through a DCF - went fairly in depth on why you add/subtract a increase/decrease in NWC.

Q#2: How does a $100 Bond, with 10% coupon and 4% Paid in Kind affect the three statements. Their hardest question - even the interviewers noted that they didn't expect me to get this fully.

Q#3: Private equity questions - financial vs strategic buyers, what is an LBO, how does that valuation technique differ from traditional IBD valuations, ETC.

Private equity case study - About a company that produces storage compartments on top of cars (carrying sports equipment etc.) and which financial/strategic buyers would be interested. Asked me about industry buckets for strategic buyers (which industries/companies in these respective industries would be most interested in said company).

Afterwards, pretty basic fit questions, what you do for fun etc.

They were nice people, but kind of swindled me in the sense that I prepared all weekend for behaviorals, and they essentially laid on 45 minutes of technicals for the 1 hour interview. They notified me afterwards saying that their superday would consist mostly behaviorals.