How to prep for Boutique IB Interview?

Hello Monkeys,

I am a first-year university student who was recently received an interview invite to attend a boutique IB firm, giving me 2 weeks to prep.


Mainly looking for advice on how to prepare well for this interview.

So far I've...:

  • Reached out to ex-interns for thoughts.

  • Using BIWS 400 Qs already.

  • Gone through the website and wiki to learn more about their history.

  • Reading through recent L'Oreal/Aesop deal to have some contextual knowledge (in the event of a question related to recent transaction of interest).


Would anyone have any other specific methods of research to make it very personal and help me learn about the company? (or any other technicals I can expect to get flamed with)


Would be really helpful to hear how people once in my position went through this.


Thank you!

 

Updated.

I worded it poorly; I meant as in for contextual knowledge of M&A (that I could use to answer questions related to recent transactions I've seen/found interesting etc.)

 
Most Helpful

1) Reach out to current members of your team so you can mention them in your interviews and discuss anything they said that stood out to you about the firm and say that this reaffirmed your desire to pursue a career at the firm

2) Come up with 5-6 interesting stories from your academic, professional or extracurriculars, that you can use to answer any of the "tell me about a time..." questions. Use the STAR technique.

3) Knowledge of what's happening in the markets - interest rates, inflation, political tensions etc

4) Be able to discuss a recent M&A deal that the boutique you are interviewing with has advised on - eg key financials and what you found interesting about the deal

5) Solid and convincing "why the firm, why investment banking and why me" answers

6) Technicals from the guide should suffice

Hope this helps!

 

Tysm, really appreciate this.

I found a few recent deals that the boutique in question advised on; I asked Bard (Google AI) to find these (as the info on their site was sparse) but couldn't produce a source. Have tried to google since to no avail. Can you recommend any websites that track smaller boutiques' activity/ or suggest any other way to go about finding the specifics of a particular deal?

Could you give me some insight into making a compelling answer "Why IB?". I'm quite interested in M&A, and have always linked it to relevant events in my life to try tell a story & showcase my interest in this particular field. But i'd love to know your approach too & see if I can improve mine.

Overall amazing advice, thank you a lot!

 

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