Investment Banking Analyst

Very rigorous interview process, but also a great experience. I networked with the company (had previous relevant experience) and landed a first round interview with a senior associate. Consisted of a fairly standard interview - behavioals followed by basic valuation, accounting, and previous experience discussion. Very soon after I received a second round interview with another senior associate. The interview was, almost from start to finish, a discussion about M&A activity, healthcare trends, and my market outlook. Solid 45 minutes of conversing; it was obvious that they were looking for people who not only have memorized the guides but pay attention to markets. Got called back for a superday a week later. It was a great process, though quite long, from 11 or so to 5 in the afternoon. There were 10 or so candidates for the analyst position. Started with a management presentation, then in to interview. Interviews were with mostly 2 on 1's with managing directors. They asked pretty thoughtful questions and clearly wanted thoughtful people working at the company. Also asked valuation and behaviorals, but again, a lot of healthcare and M&A discussion as well (how might you value a hospital differently from a small pharma?) Midway through there was an hour long excel test that was essentially quickly building a DCF given a page and a half long case study and some financial data. Wasn't super difficult if you know your stuff and are good at excel; I have advanced excel proficiency so I believe that my model was pretty good - very easy way to stand out if you do it well! I also formatted everything correctly, added borders, proper font colors, etc. After the excel test, an associate came in and reviewed my model with me - he asked a lot of advanced valuation questions, but it was also a discussion of the company's financials. He was looking to see if I not only understood how to get to free cash flow and discount it, but what the numbers meant for the specific company. I think what helped to stand out here was asking questions specifically about the company (i.e. is 25% revenue growth really sustainable? Is this a current industry trend?) After, more interviews with MDs. Overall, really, really good experience. Great company with incredibly intelligent individuals, but they are clearly looking for very qualified individuals, as well as people who already understand markets, M&A, and healthcare. One of the MDs said "we aren't a bulge bracket, we don't have the capacity, time, or resources to take an analyst who needs to learn finance 101."