Analyst - Syndicated and Leveraged Finance

Applied online for a lateral position as SunTrust is really beefing up its IB franchise. HR reached out to me for an initial screen on what my current bank was like, why ATL was attractive vs. another financial hub and whether there would be compensation upside with the move. She liked what she heard and put me in contact for another phone screen with an associate in the Lev Fin group. That call was also very easy going and we mentioned that we had some overlap with his wife/myself as far as alma mater, basic questions about the type of work I did in my current role, why ATL and a tacked on greatest weakness/strength question.

After that I was given a call by an admin assitant to set up a time and day to fly out for a superday. It was pretty expedited and everyone was great coordinating and generally being kind.

As for the Superday I met with 4 associates and one VP, all in different industry verticals under the Lev FIn umbrella, each for 30 minutes. They definitely had a sheet/template that some referred to as they wrote notes for their debrief but some went off script a bit and those were the better interviews. Pretty typical interview beginning with CV walk through with a focus on why SunTrust, why ATL, why now, etc. There were a few technical hurdles some interviewers threw at me but they were Lev Fin focused but not too deep. They included:

1: What factors go in to determining whether or not you would lend to a specific company - looking for focus on cash flows, debt ratios, etc. as well as more qualitative things such as management team, fit in a particular industry, etc.
2. Given two balance sheets and knowing one is a manufacturer and the other retail, how would you determine which is which and why? What could you expect from each of them, e.g. large depreciation on PP&E, inventory, etc.
3. What does that depreciation do/how does it flow to the income statement
4. Some specific personal transaction experience and how it fits into their group (I did a buy-side M&A engagement that was mezzanine debt financed, nuances particular to that deal were led by interviewer).

Overall the interviewers were hit or miss. Some were happy to be there, others not so much and slightly standoffish about their own background and only read from the template provided them.

Office was like a trading floor style - open and busy/high energy. Down to Earth people with a tie to the South that were excited about the future of SunTrust as a domestic player.

Advice - be punchy and have a good reason to want to be in ATL. They were looking for the airport test and not a deep technical background.