How To Prepare For An Interview With No Finance Background
Hello Everybody, I have several upcoming phone and regular interviews at either Bulge Bracket or Elite boutique firms for a summer analyst position. I'm wondering what people think is the best way to prep for these interviews for someone who doesn't have a technical finance background. I am an econ major and have only taken one accounting class so have very little idea how to do any sort of financial modeling, etc. Is there an easy way to learn how to answer technical interview questions and get by in these interviews?
There are tons of guides out there. Would recommend studying ASAP. Hopefully it's not too late
any guides in particular you would recommend using?
WSOasis has two awesome guides on behavorial and technicals, really good stuff no BS
Rosenbaum and Pearl, WSO Guides, Vault Guide to Investment Banking, etc.
How to understand those interview questions without finance background? (Originally Posted: 12/26/2014)
I'm an economics major student, and i don't know much about accounting/finance. When I read WSO interview guide, I found out I couldn't understand the terms. What should I do? Should I read some accounting/corporate finance textbooks before reading the interview guide? Thanks
If you don't know these terms, just google them. Investopedia, wikipedia, etc. If you don't understand the terms used to describe the original terms, google them. Repeat until you do find something you understand, build on that knowledge, etc.
Depending on what career you are looking for, the terminology are used differently. I would suggest going over some basic definitions and processes first for finance and accounting. Start reading more articles about the markets and google anything you don’t understand. Pieces will start to fit together eventually. I’ve taken a lot of ECON200+ and 300+ classes (just economics not financial economics) and they are completely different than finance/accounting classes. I suggest picking up another major, minor, or concentration. Most of the people I know pick up another thing or when they graduate they move on to grad school. You can’t do much with it alone in financial industry, in my opinion.
No. Spend the extra fucking time and effort to learn some basic finance and accounting concepts instead. Otherwise you're just another non-finance major who heard how much banking pays and is suddenly "interested" in it.
I think with accounting there is a large benefit to taking an intro class or reading a textbook, because you can go pretty far just learning the basic structure of how the statements fit together and the philosophy of how the accounting system is set up. For most SA interviews, you are not going to need much beyond that basic knowledge, and it's important to know it really well vs memorizing common questions. If you want to go a step beyond, then a textbook is again probably the best method - there are tons of rules / special situations to memorize, and you won't find them in an interview guide.
For learning finance I don't think you need a textbook. I'd read a good explanation of CAPM in a textbook or elsewhere, but other than that you will be better off sticking to 'practical' sources like interview guides or macabacus.
Nobody is going to expect an undergrad to be an expert in finance but a little self-study would go a long way here. Not just for directly answering any technical questions but also to demonstrate interest. If I were interviewing you and you had seemingly made no independent effort to learn accounting/finance, I'd ding you -- not for lack of technical knowledge but for what I presume to be a fleeting interest in it. I wasn't a finance major and yet I worked hard to put myself on equal footing with them as an undergrad.
was still drunk from the night before and misread. apologies. yaaya Christmas season.
Dude -- stop fucking asking these questions and crack open some damn interweb tabs and pound the pavement -- ibankers would never hit a wall for some damn definitions and not hardnose to find a solution -- get your bootstraps on and use your brain -- I constantly hit info I dont know -- sometimes takes wikipedia, investopedia, macabacus, WSO, M&I, youtube ALL just to understand -- but the reward is I GET it -- use your resources available to you! Sorry to go hard in the beginning -- I just got tired of your questions -- easy doesnt come easy because there is no easy
I recommend changing your name and photo on here, so that no one can find those rap videos of you from 2012 or that LinkedIn profile about you going platinum by now. It would make your advice on this blog more sound.
Lulz anon100 has a point. That was way to easy to find all that info on you.
Is this really a question? I'm not a finance major, or even a STEM major, and I have two notebooks completely filled with notes on finance/valuation shit I watch on YouTube or read elsewhere on the Interwebs. It takes less than 2 seconds to CTRL+T and type a question into Google.
You should definitely take an accounting class, and after that, the info in the guide becomes easy to understand. Good luck!
Need Help for interview tomorrow with at top firm with no finance experience (Originally Posted: 02/06/2008)
I go to a top liberal arts schools and I have an interview tomorrow with a BB for sales and trade. I am a Hispanic studies and Communications major and speak fluent Spanish, yet have no finance experience at all. I’ve taken no economics or business classes, but have studied a lot of finance type information for the past two weeks. How should I approach this interview? I’m going to be honest if they tell me to pitch a stock or some other difficult finance question I won’t have any idea how to do it. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
You should let them know you've been interested in finance ever since you were (age - 2 weeks) old, just threw your resume into on-campus recruiting and are really motivated by the money and prestige.
Seriously, just read the Vault guide to finance interviews, don't try to bullshit anything you don't know and have a damn good reason why you majored in hispanic studies/communications, took no finance or even economics classes and all of a sudden (that's what it seems like to me) want to work in the capital markets.
You better know what's going on in the markets. What's the fed rate? What was the return on the DOW over the past year? What's the yield curve look like? These are questions that you can easily answer, even if you have no finance experience, if you have an interest in (and thus follow) the markets.
I would exploit the spanish and show that learning new things like that interests you. I feel like bankers think they have some sort of secret language between each other that must be learned and if you show that you can easily pick up a language that could help.
Be able to NAIL, "Why do you want to do IB?". Like someone else said, it seems like you suddenly developed an interest in finance and you better have a good reason why.
Emphasize that you really want to learn as much as possible. If you don't know something don't bullshit, but do know the basics. Not being a finance major is not an excuse for not knowing something, because you will need to prove that you are interested in the field.
IB Interview without studying Finance/Business (Originally Posted: 02/05/2016)
Hi,
As the title says, I am not studying anything business/finance related. I am majoring in political science with a minor in economics.
However I want to apply to investment banks for SA for my next semester holidays and I am not sure what to expect in the interviews.
Does anyone has experience with ib interviews for people without business backgrounds? What kind of questions can I expect, anything less technical or the normal interviews everybody does?
I know basic accounting and all, but I am not sure I could answer anything technical in IB interviews.
Thanks in advance!
Start with the investment banking interview guide that WSO offers (see Interviews tab at the top).
Expect fit questions and some brainteasers. I barely got any technical questions, and even so, they managed to phrase them in a way which would be accessible for non-finance majors.
My advice? Get a prep course and run through the accounting exercise. There's some excellent free courses on places like Coursera.
Some people will actually be tougher on you because of it. I just had a meeting that turned into a first year director coming to meet me, then saying he wanted to ask me some technical questions since I didn't have a business background before drilling into me aggressively with hard questions. In my case I think it ended up helping me because he wasn't expecting someone with only one semester of MBA courses to be able to handle the level of technicals I got asked.
Think about it from their perspective: they feel safe assuming that a top 30 finance major knows how to discount or how an LBO works, but you can't make the same assumption about a Poly Sci major.
Buy guides and read them cover to cover. I would argue that someone who works very hard and studies interview guides for ~2 months will be more prepared than someone who holds a finance degree.
Non-finance major, interview w/ BBs , could use an inner tube, fellows (Originally Posted: 04/28/2011)
Hi Everyone,
I was fortunate enough to land some prelim phone interviews with some BBs. I'm not a finance major and only became very passionate about finance starting last september.
Having never done an I-Banking interview before, I was hoping to soak up as much information and insight from everyone as I can.
I'm quite confident with behaviourals, but outside of the fundamentals of accounting/valuations I've learned at a few workshops for kids trying to break into IB, my technicals are rather weak.
Is there anything I should look out for with specific firm attitudes (such as GS stressing teamwork, etc.)?
If theres anything, a general tip, videos of mock interviews, walk throughs, crash course for technicals, sample questions, ANYTHING, it would be much appreciated.
Thank you, -Primo
Sorry to be so vague, anonymity seems to be the theme on WSO after all.
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/wso-technical-interview-guide
The Vault interview guide is pretty weak IMHO.
I have the Vault guide, it seems a bit skeleton to me as well, thanks for the suggestions so far!
You can look at the technical guide WSO has. Also, look at each firm's website. It becomes pretty clear what traits they pride themselves on and how they articulate it, if you're able to absorb that and create a coherent response to 'why this firm' questions, you'll be fine. Don't sweat technicals too much, you'll rarely get those over the phone for IBD. Trading, especially prop shops, yeah, but banking, nope.
Kinda confused by this,... to me every company website seems exactly the same. We pride ourselves in our teamwork, meritocracy, and innovation. Or variations of some sort. Then in employee profiles, they'll say "why did you choose ___ firm? Because of the culture and the people. Its unique sitatuion where my ideas are heard".
It seems they all emphasize the same traits (at least the BB)
^^agreed, for example, I know GS emphasizes teamwork, so what about MS or Barclays?
^^ It doesn't matter, GS might put that bs on their career page, but every bank values teamwork, you work in deal teams at all of them.
Definitely seem very passionate about this. By chance did your passion coincide with jr/sr recruiting season coupled with discovery of BB compensation practices for entry-level analysts?
Thanks again for the advice guys.
http://www.glassdoor.com Make an account and you can look for reviews, interviews, salaries, etc. by company/postion. It's not always accurate (I find that the reviews are either glowing or terrible) but the interview tips are useful.
I'm sorry, never meant to offer someone misleading advice. I've done BB first and second round interviews for IBD and S&T over the phone and in person, and on-site superdays as well. My experience was that technicals rarely crop up over the phone, but that may be an isolated exception for all I know.
I banking interview questions, non finance background (Originally Posted: 04/11/2012)
Cliffs:
I have ib interview coming up, but I'm an economics major and haven't taken any accounting classes. What are some accounting basics that I should know? Also will I be asked finance interview questions about stuff traders talk about like the t bill yields and commodity futures, etc? or is it mostly fit since its corporate advisory?
This WSO guide is really helpful:
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/wso-technical-interview-guide
just fucking buy the wso guides...
I just bought the M&I guide before you posted lol, is that any good? I got it since its more basic and easier to understand plus I'm clueless
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