Are the guides sufficient?
I’ve heard from some that the guides are sufficient for interview prep, but I’ve also heard that some banks (EBs, etc) go beyond the guides. Do you have any recommendations, and should I spend money on any resources?
Also, how many hours does studying for technicals take, assuming I know basic accounting info? Is 100 hours enough?
thanks!
For my interview prep, I stuck with the 400 M&I guide. Furthermore, I only used the basic sections for technicals - the advanced are probably not as relevant for summer analyst recruiting. Context: I interviewed at MMs and in between banks. The guide covered basically everything to be honest. I studied it very hard so I probably put in 100 hours over the course of the entire recruiting process - I would review it each time before interviews. That being said, I have heard that some EBs ask some really obscure behavioral questions and advanced technicals that the guide might not cover. I would check out the interview database for those banks on this website. You could also take an actual financial modeling course if you really want to understand the technicals.
bump
I personally read through Rosenbaum and Pearl for a deeper view of valuation methods. The guides aren’t perfect because your interviewers don’t have to stick to just those questions.
If you do all the BIWS guides (BIWS 400, EV, merger models, accounting, and DCF in particular) and make sure to understand the concepts than that's more than enough. Did that and received offer at one of the EBs I think is known for harder interviews (EVR/CVP/PJT). Best way to check preparedness is to have a friend to prep with who you can practice questions with, then just start interviewing. Getting grilled live is the best way to improve after a certain point.
Nvm
ibvine.io is a great resource for more advanced / “out of the guide” technicals
First time coming across this - thanks for sharing
For the most part yes. Some guys will ask you frankly dickish questions at times which serve to check you aren't just memorizing answers but rather understand the underlying accounting/valuation/modeling topic at hand.
This is a tricky balance so I'll give you how I did things as a liberal arts major with zero finance classes. Prior to prepping from the guides etc, I first did the corpfin 101/financial accounting classes offered for free by MIT Sloane with careful repetition and practice questions to make sure I had the core fundamentals down. Then, given my time constraints, I studied off the guides and backed into understanding the actual concepts at a fairly high level for the internship interviews. Tbh I wasn't thrown any curveballs during these interviews (other than one from JPM where the guy asked me how I'd flow and structure interest expense in an LBO in excel) so I fared better than I maybe should have. Then to prepare for my internship / when I wasn't sure I'd get a return offer for a few weeks, I dug into the Rosenbaum book and built out the models from scratch including the linking etc so that I'd wire my mind to associate the appropriate concepts w the practical application. Can't speak to actual hours but I think starting with developing a plan of attack can help you gauge how many focused hours you will require for mastery / some level of interview comfort
Got it. How long did this take you? Would winter break be enough to do all this considering I’m focused?
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