Just starting out with IB interview prep. Tips please
Hey guys. I’m just getting started with interview prep and need some advice on the interview guides/prep resources, since there are way too many out there (e.g. wall street oasis (lol this website), biws, etc.). I don’t want to waste time on the not-so-useful ones, so if you could give me a list of several interview guides and pros and cons for each, I’d be super grateful. Thanks!
If it’s your literal first time with finance interviews and if you have enough time (at least 2 months), then I recommend you…
1. Study each of the topics (e.g. accounting, valuation, LBO, etc.) in depth using the Breaking into Wallstreet pdf file. It’s about 30-40-page long for each section. Peruse each of the sections carefully, making sure that you understand all of the concepts.
2. Study the 400 essential questions by Breaking into Wallstreet
3. But since this guide is quite old, I also advise you to study the most recent questions drawn from actual interviews. There’s this guide from the Wall Street Masters I found recently, which holds a couple hundred questions, only ones that were asked during actual interviews.
I really liked this guide because it only held the most important questions vs. many other guides that have way too many questions that actually have little to no chance of coming up in interviews.
Can you send the link to that Wall Street Masters guide please?
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Great answer for technicals above.
I’d add, do not overlook behavioral questions. You need to be able to speak about every bullet on your resume, have a good answer to “why IB, why should we hire you, why did you pick finance, etc.”
Technical questions will never really “get you the job,” but they can absolutely can lose you it. They are often times an easy way to compare candidates, but standing out behaviorally while nailing technicals = highly successful candidates.
Remember that the people interviewing you are looking for someone who they can see themselves spending a lot of time with(70+ hour weeks together), driven, took the time to prep, sharp, and again…someone they can see themselves spending a lot of time with.
For technicals, give them no reason to tell you no.
For behaviorals, know yourself, know your why, and be friendly and humble.
You need to be able to pass both the technical & behavioral parts of the interviews. For technicals, know the answers to what’s being asked (ask upperclassmen, browse wso etc). I just got done with summer 2024 recruiting, and the questions I got the most were valuation related, resume related (because I listed doing valuation work in my past internships), dcf in depth, and market related (what’s the 3 most important things happening in the market rn etc).
Technicals are just a checkbox. Behaviorals, in my case, were even more important than technicals and I got to the final rounds with some banks with only 1 or 2 technicals asked in the prior rounds.
For behavioral, practice mocks with people who went through recruiting. Heck, even practice with bankers - some bankers who knew I wouldn’t cut their bank’s process helped me mock interview, which was honestly a great prep for the banks I was progressing with.
Be able to tell a story about why banking, but have an interesting non-finance hobby/interest to speak about as you close your why banking statement. Have “informational chats” with as many people that you can find a mutual interest with (alumni, same hometown etc).
Good luck, mate.
Great advice I wish I had known when I was recruiting
most helpful for me in my BB & EB interviews was looking at liquidityshark's question bank after I had learned the concepts so I could practice with real interview questions used in the past/current cycle.
Everything said here is mostly accurate and the conceptual learning should come first. Once you have some experience though, take a look at a question bank of some of the real questions asked in the last cycles. WSO has lots of this, i also used liquidityshark for some more engaged/difficult questions asked at the EBs & BBs
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