Prepping for RX Consulting / TRS Co. Interviews
Based on what I’ve seen in this forum, there’s a lot of info going around on RX / TRS consulting, but not a whole lot about actual recruiting recommendations, which I think is weird bc what’s the point of learning about the benefits if you have no clue how to get the role.
I'm posting my take on RX interviews below, based on my understanding when I went through them, and connections who spent time in the industry. This is in no way comprehensive or reflective of all firms, I'm just hoping it will be somewhat useful as a resource for people down the line.
1. General Info: RX Co has a different org structure from IB; it more closely resembles PE. Meaning, IB is often said to have a pyramid structure, in which there are a lot of juniors, and it narrows out the higher you go (MD etc). RX co, on the other hand, has a diamond or kite shaped org structure, where there are a lot less junior hires, and more mid-senior level hires. As a result, there's a very limited amount of internship / analyst spots (around 50-60 intern spots, and around 100 or less FT spots, with most being converted interns), and I'd guess application numbers in the 5 figure range. I'm not sure how this will change in the future, there's a strong likelihood that the openings will stay the same and competition will increase, but there's also a chance that firms will hire more juniors, thus reducing competitiveness.
2. Recommendations: TRS co., has a very unique makeup, and the way I thought about it, and the way you're recommended to think about it is as it having two (or two and a half) separate parts: a banking part and a consulting part, and a partial legal part. That's unique because off the top of my head, I can't really think of any other finance career that combines two almost polar opposites.
The consulting part: this is the side of RX that trips up most finance-first candidates. It’s not just about building models or analyzing financials. It’s structured problem solving in chaotic, high-stakes situations. You're stepping into companies that are bleeding cash, have zero clarity on next steps, and where internal stakeholders are pointing fingers. Think more McKinsey-in-distress than a classic sell-side process.
You'll be asked to quickly diagnose what’s wrong: is this a liquidity issue or a broken business model? Can it be fixed operationally, or does the cap stack need a full reset? You’ll run quick margin analyses, segment-level P&Ls, vendor reviews, customer retention diagnostics; whatever gets you a clear story fast. Then you’ll need to frame that in a deck, not a model.
In interviews, they’re testing how you think in ambiguity, prioritize, and communicate. It’s way less “walk me through a DCF” and way more “what do you do when everything’s on fire and no one agrees why.”
Given how open ended these types of questions can be, your best bet is to think about potential solutions that are non capital intensive but result in the company being on safer shores (prioritizing profitable areas, finding inefficiencies etc). Basically like a trad consulting case but focused on distressed sits
Sample question: A sponsor-backed specialty retailer has 10 days of liquidity left, a revolver draw due Friday, and CFO/COO just quit. Sales are down 30% YoY and vendors are pulling terms. Walk me through your 24-hour plan.
The IB part: This is the engine room of RX. When you're not working on operational fixes, you're deep in the capital structure, figuring out how to keep the business alive financially. It’s not about pitching healthy companies on strategic deals. It’s about understanding who gets paid, who takes a haircut, and how to make the math and the politics work when everyone’s underwater. Usually more creditor leaning.
The technical work is complex and messy. You’ll be building liquidity models on a 13-week basis, structuring DIP facilities, modeling recovery scenarios across multiple tranches of debt, and stress-testing the outcomes. You have to think like a distressed lender, a buyer, and a CFO all at once—and you rarely have the luxury of clean inputs.
There’s also a strong need for traditional RX banking knowledge. You’ll be negotiating with lenders, working through intercreditor agreements, valuing distressed businesses under tight constraints, and mapping out legal recovery waterfalls. On smaller deals especially, RX consultants step into the role of the banker, running negotiations and driving execution directly.
Sample Question: A company has a $250M term loan, a $100M revolver (fully drawn), and $75M of unsecured notes. They project $30M of EBITDA next year. You think $20M is more realistic. Build a capital structure that clears at 7x and walk through who eats the loss.
Best bet for prep is to study traditional RX IB resources (moyer, rosenbaum, any other resources), and be ready for similar questions. Also make sure your accounting knowledge and corp finc / 13 wk cash flow knowledge is strong.
Final notes: Culture is a really big thing as well, and these firms are good at figuring out who you really are. You could crush everything, but if you're not a good fit, you're out. Also, the interview process is less structured than IB / PE, so it depends a lot on your interviewer. You could get someone that asks easy question etc, or someone that absolutely eats you alive.
Hope this helps, and again, this isn't comprehensive.
Was wondering about the question types, thanks
First off, thank you so much for this. This may be the first post I’ve seen on rx co explicitly highlighting what and where to look for prep. Second, to add some more color, they all have very firm-dependent and unique processes and technical focuses. I hope i’m not repeating what OP covered, but for RX co, there is much less a focus on traditional valuation (dcf, comps, wacc, capm, rf, beta, EV) concepts and more of a focus on formulating business plans, understanding the benefits and drawbacks of the chapter 11 process(comp gets access to financing, temporary freedom from creditors, time to focus on core business ops but has to formulate POR to exit-understand details of a POR-it will be industry specific, etc) understanding distressed cap structure, being able to identify red flags of a distressed company (this is where top-line/margin analysis come into play), and knowing, in detail, the intricacies of each piece of the cap structure, being able to provide recommendations to rectify the insolvency issues (stretching DPO, selling off unprofitable segments, cash to pik, amend and extend, refinancing, drop down transactions (risky), tightening DSO, consolidating vendors, lease reorgs, etc.-goal is OOC restructuring, not ch 11), obv. Knowing how to model 13 wk cf/3 statement(most difficult part is building dynamic revolver for dip fin), knowing recent corp. restructurings, understanding the ins and outs of revolving credit facilities, knowing why debt security trading say 40/50 c on the dollar, knowing about the fulcrum and why it matters to distressed inv, understanding how to oversee and actually implement the plans you’ve created, what expenses are crucial to a business and which ones can be reduced, understanding what “trapped cash”(money is escrow for ex) is and why its important in rx, read through creditor agreements and understand different default provisions. I would highly recommend reading through moyer, rosenbaum, distressed Investment banking by kaufman, HL RX case study, caesars palace coup and taking the WSP courses on rx modeling, understanding corp rx, and the 13 wk cf modeling course. Lastly, but most importantly, be friendly and positive but confident.
Be able to hold a conversation about something outside of work but when it’s time for the case or technicals, be confident and have conviction in your answers.
The difference between the ib and co interviews could be summed up by saying that RX IB was more “how much do you know” about the high level “fin 101” concepts (valuation, leverage and coverage ratios, bond pricing, accretive/dilutive and pro forma analysis, which comps to use for a distressed company, etc.) + distressed financial concepts like knowing where each tranche of debt trades when only a portion is asset backed, how to normalize ebitda for a distressed company, altman z score, liquidation vs. going concern analysis, etc while rx co interviews are a mix of those same distressed fin concepts + the ability to think very critically, identify the red flags of the company, and develop a root cause analysis methodology while simultaneously constructing strategies to stop the bleeding. Another difference I noticed was that the IB RX interviews are very much the pinnacle of your classic “wall street” selection process like quickly throwing out every resume that doesn’t begin with HYPS before your MD (with a bach. from Harvard and a J.D./MBA from UPenn) sees the first round stack and emails you “your lack of attention to detail will be reflected in your bonus” while the RX CO interviews were less focused on the prestige of each individual and more focused on 1. Intelligence and intellectual curiosity of candidates 2. Willingness and interest to do the work and learn the technical skills 3. Ability to work well and get along with the team during difficult situations & in high pressure environments. The IB superdays typically had 0-1 case studies and the rest were traditional technical/behavioral rounds while the rx co interviews were typically 4-5 rnds of cases, 1-2 rounds of technical/behavioral qs, an excel test, and a team dinner or lunch. I know I probably repeated some of the concepts covered but hope this helps anyone looking to recruit for RX CO/IB in the near future.
This is incredibly helpful thank you so much! Could I ask how you learned all that stuff for RX CO interviews? All the information I find online just doesn't seem to be as relevant and I have no idea how to go about actually learning about what rx consultants do on a daily basis and what that means.
Very helpful
Could anyone give a quick walkthrough on how to solve the second sample question that OP posted, the one with the 250 mil term loan? I can't figure it out
Nice, that's an interesting question, and I'll take a shot at it. Someone else could point out if I made any mistakes.
Current Cap Structure:
EV that clears at 7x:
7 * 20mm = 140mm EV
Losses and Priority:
Pre RX claims = 425mm
Post-RX EV = 140mm
we've gotta allocate 285mm of losses, cram down the cap structure to 140mm
Allocate 140mm recovery by priority
As far as who eats the loss, revolvers are fully recovered, term's got a major impairment (see above), unsecured's are screwed :(
If someone's wondering if the unsecureds are the same as UCC, not really. All unsecured notes are unsecured creditors, but not all unsecured creditors (in the UCC) are unsecured noteholders.
Solid summary.
To add marginal color - In this scenario, the under-secured portion of the Term Loan ($210MM) would receive the same treatment in Ch.11 as the Unsecured Notes ($75MM).
What is the timeline for RX Consulting FT interviews and process. current rising senior
bump
Not too sure about FT recruiting, I do know that there's less of that given the extremely limited amount of junior seats, and the fact that a lot of those are filled by converted interns. A&M for example has had years where they haven't recruited FT at all
Can anyone recommend any case study sources other than the McKinsey guide for the CO side of things?
Rocketblocks, CaseCoach, Big 4 and the other two MBBs have their own case studies as well. Of course, none of them will be a perfect match bc RX co is more about distressed sits than the stuff MBB does, but it'll atleast help build that mental muscle
Right. It’s unfortunate there’s not any RX specific casebooks.
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