Difference Between IBD and Capital Markets Interviews

I think the biggest thing to take away is how each operates. In the most basic sense (pretty much just building on what ChicagoIBD said):

Coverage groups pitch, maintain relationships, and typically see the deal process all the way through in a given industry or sector.

Product groups are going to essentially be adding value along the way to each potential "deal" by assisting in various parts of the deal (i.e. LevFin structuring leveraged deals, Syndications determine the hold amount in the deal/bringing in other banks when leading the deal, and Loan S&T to eventually price the deal on the market).

To the OP, I realize you understand how the groups breakout, but I figured I'd give some perspective because there is a ton of misconception in general about how capital markets work. At a recent career fair we hired at, it was mind-boggling how mis-informed a significant portion of the student body was about investment banking in general. While the contributors/users on this site are definitely in the know, a lot of people unfortunately aren't so instead of talking resumes and seeing what candidates are really about we end up spending 80% of the time telling people how it all breaks out.

I think you should focus on a number of different things:

1) As I mentioned briefly above, understand the deal process and what happens during a deal. A good example would be that Term Loan A's typically get priced in for Investment Grade companies, while you will see TL B's for leveraged deals based on the length of the loan. For someone who has work experience in the industry, this should be pretty easy, but do your DD if that is not the case. 2) You definitely want to do some digging and see how banks break out their IBD in general, because you will see different layouts at a number of different banks (especially with DCM). 3) Be aware of what's going on in the market and know how deals are pricing. Its a little bit trickier when you don't have a lot of the news/database software that most bankers have on hand, but if you can put in your two cents about how the Go Daddy deal just priced (random example, but they just priced recently and are still current/should be comparable to some deals coming out of the pipeline relatively soon), you will definitely help yourself out.

Other than that, be passionate about it. If its purely for a CM generalist position, talk about how you want to gain expertise and knowledge on parts of the deal process and use that to build a foundation around whatever you end up doing going forward (you can bullshit from here but its a good starting point).