When I was pressed on "why investment banking" because I had previous buy-side internships (think VC/UMM PE/HF), I panicked and said "to be candid, I like the idea of collecting deal toys" with a dead serious look on my face. The interviewer cracked a slight grin but his brows also furrowed, so I'm not sure if he got that it was a joke or if he thought I was a retard.
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It's not that funny of a joke.
And it would totally depend on the mood and the person. I can see going through to a second round, but imo it is pretty dingable. I used to and still joke when an interview is going well and see kids joke during interviews but not on "why this career?" Timing is key.
I think you may have came down with a case of the 'tism, I'd get it checked out ASAP
If you quickly transitioned to a "no but seriously." and then gave a real answer, I would just write it off as a kind of hardo attempt at a joke and not ding you for it, but if that was your only answer I would ding you for not answering the question
No one here can give you a for sure answer, but I don’t think it’s a good response. I can tell you how I would think about it if I was given the answer.
i agree with the poster above that if you immediately followed up with a ‘but seriously…’ then it’s probably fine, but absent that, it feels like you dodged the question.
Think of that question as an interviewer trying to understand if you’ve done some research about the job and you’re at least able to BS which parts of the job match with your interests. It’s a way to screen for people who actually know what they’re getting themselves into.
Sure, most everyone hates banking but to at least survive your two year analyst period I think there have to be parts of your job that you like. Maybe I’ll get pushback from this forum, but I at least like corporate finance in theory, and when I started out in restructuring there was a ton of complexity to learn.
The other thing I’ll say is that most interviewers consider this a softball/check-the-box question. I’m not expecting anyone to blow me away with their response, but a bad answer can make me question how someone couldn’t have assumed that they’d get asked this.
either way, what’s done is done, and you shouldn’t sweat a bad interview because it happens to everyone.
Ur fucked bud
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