Senior Associate

I get this opportunity through a connection of mine at my other gig at a Brand Aggregator (VC style e-Commerce Portfolio Company). In general the Japanese Bankers were mainly concerned about technical skills and networking skills.
For the technical skills I received questions about how I usually approach financial analysis and valuation model walkthroughs. Some interesting questions were he asked me on how I usually approach calculating WACC in my models (which BETA do i used, the government bonds and my reasoning in doing so.). I made sure that I answered with sufficient display of technical knowledge but not too overboard as every firm may have their own internal policies in doing these things. Another one is he asked me why minority interest is included in EV calculations, my answer was as the Income Statement considers revenue and income of the minority held subsidiaries, this factor should also be adjusted into the EV.

Next is he asked me whether I have experiences in deal originations or deal management. This is rather uncommon for an associate, but as the team size is small, this turns out to be an important skill down the line. I just answered with my several experiences in managing my previous teams pipelines and my gigs as a freelance financial analyst during my Masters degree.

Afterwards, I had several background interviews with Japanese representatives. The whole process took ~1-2 months

Note: manners and punctuality is crucial for Japanese firms.