FT interviews vs. SA interviews: Major differences?
Super day coming up on Thursday. Spent my last summer as a summer analyst, and went through the early recruiting cycle in spring of 2018. I've decided to look at other banks instead continuing with my former firm. I've heard after you spend a summer at an IB and are interviewing with other firms, the interview experience can be quite different in terms of questions asked. Wanted to see if anybody had any insight on their experiences.
My experience was that most shops expected a lot more out of you during FT recruiting vs SA. Not being able to do a paper LBO could fly during a SA interview, but during FT it came up fairly regularly (think paper LBO practice q's from the TTS corp val guide). Was also asked a lot more multi-step accounting q's. There was much more time spent on why the specific industry (I recruited for coverage). For example, in my BB SA interviews, I was asked what verticals within tech interest me and why. In my FT BB/EB interviews, I was asked about specific verticals, recent market trends, M&A activity, my thoughts on where things were headed, etc.
I echo NorcalClassof2019's comment. When I went through SA recruiting for IB, the technicals were more touch of base with the focus on being that the firm looking to hire the SA had a genuine interest in IB and the firm itself.
For FT (with an SA background), the conversation would be more granular in terms of understanding of finance and accounting (such as multi-step accounting scenarios or running in more detail through the different valuation techniques). Interestingly, I do not recall having to do a paper LBO in my FT interviews (even though questions arose about how you could use an LBO in IB a la the football field).
It makes more sense for FT recruiting to be that way given the mix of candidates you are competing with for 2-3 spots lets say out of 20 Final Round Candidates (this was the case for me for a particular MM IB firm). I would also say anecdotally that IB interviews have become even more competitive from when I was recruiting into the field as M&I and WSO guides have become so widespread that kids in HS can now speak reasonable well on topics that I did not even know until my last few years in college. The flipside is that being personable is quite a boost when it comes to behaviorals these days.
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