I did a search search here, but I couldn't really find what I was looking for.
I had an interview over the phone with a senior associate form a MM ( Moelis/Evercore/Houlihan) for an entry level analyst position. He told me he would like to set up a face to face interview and conduct a quick model test for me.
I was wondering if any of you guys know what to expect? I've taken some self modeling courses, so I'm not completely clueless in regards to what to do. Am I going to have to build a model from scratch? or will I be given a simple template from the firm?. Aside from 3 statements, DCF, spreading the comp, accretion/dilution, simple LBO, am I missing anything too important here?
Advices are greatly appreciated!
Only thing I'd say is that those are elite boutiques, not necessarily MM banks per se.
I wouldn't call Moelis and Evercore "middle-market" firms as both play on the world's premier stage and regularly compete with bulge-brackets. They are boutiques, and elite ones at that. If you called them MM firms in your interview, expect your application to be killed on the spot! Except winning capital market mandates, Moelis and Evercore definitely plays against the big boys in terms of advisory work. They are on Lazard and Greenhill's level and are banks I would take over UBS and Citigroup.
Houlihan Lokey is a MM though its restructuring division is tops on the street. Banks like HH, BMO and RBC are not on the Moelie and Evercore level so your test is highly dependent on which bank it actually is. Moelis, for example, hires absolute quality so expect to fight against elite candidates taking very difficult tests. If you are vying for HH, I expect the test to be a lot easier.
I only know of HL doing a test like this (although mine was at the analyst level). If you get the same test as I did, it would be relatively simple. There were about 8 questions. The first one would give you a list of transactions and some data and ask you to build the 3 financial statements (if you've done this in B-school, you shouldn't have a problem). The rest were mostly conceptual finance questions (Discount Rates, M&M rule etc).
Hope this helps.
this.......
Sounds like you are interviewing with Houlihan. As your post reads like a guy asking about a Ivy League/Middlebury interview. Yeah, if you describe it that way often enough, people might start to believe it on message boards.
Moelis and Evercore are not really middle market firms. Sure, I bet HL would like to think of them as their peers, but that is sort of like the local JR College pretending that they could play football with the big ten if only they could get on the scheduled.
Ok my mistake for the mis-classification I'm actually not interviewing with Houlihan, rather the other 2 I mentioned.
any insights in regards to modeling test with them? or just overall modeling test in general?
moelis really isn't that top notch. honestly, it's hiring standards are way down. it used to be crazy good, and the la office is still awesome, but from what i've seen of the new york office, by no means are they going for quality. i mean they are taking like 100 analysts and associates or something. i forgot the exact number. full-time interviews were basically just 2 30 minute interviews with a 30 minute first round.
Hey guts I won't dispute your comments on moelis since I'm still in school but thought I'd chime in on its hiring since one of my close friends is joining their LA office for the summer. I know that LA is taking 6 analysts and NY is 12-13 I believe. Aside from those London is taking 10-12 and their other US offices are each taking one or two. Associates for the summer are less than 10 total.
Again I won't comment on the firm (and no I don't work there - I'm going to a BB office in Canada) but I'm not sure why there is the perception that they're hiring some ridiculous amount of people.
//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/where-does-moelis-stand-these-days
looks like 50 analysts. i remember it was higher but close enough.
I had to do a modeling test for a boutique MM a little while back. This bank wasn't in the same leauge as Moelis or Evercore. My exam consisted of three years historical financial info for the three statements along with assumptions (revenue growth rate, COGS % revenue, inventory/AP/AR days outstanding, etc). I had to project 3 years of the three financial statements, along with building a simple DCF (did not have to do a WACC calculation, just used an assumption) and the top half of a LBO (transaction assumption, debt assumptions, sources and uses.... no debt and interest schedule, IRR or rebuilding any of the statements).
Sounds like you are well prepared considering you have taken classes before, so my advice to you is just practice to brush up on everything.
.
I went through the FT recruitment cycle with Moelis this past fall. I don't know what the numbers are this summer, but last summer they had 12 SAs in NY. They planned on taking ~24 FT analysts in NY this past fall, and 50 globally (NY, LA, HOU, London etc).
Moelis usually recruits pretty aggressively ft, or at least has the past couple of years, so SA size isn't necessarily indicative of their full-time class.
The incoming new york fulltime class is >20
not sure how many of you kids are in college posting about moelis - still a strong brand name that will give you plenty of exit options, but the firm has declined quite a bit from its glory days in 08-09. I got a couple friends who work there and they said its overstaffed - one of my friends does not like it there at all.
To OP:
Usually, the modeling tests we gave to laterals usually comprised of 1) you get the last 10k and Q 2)make your own assumptions, give us a quick 3 statement model 3)DCF, we will give you access to bloomberg and will give you assumptions if needed 4)Accretion and dilution model, quick and dirty one, just show us the income statement and tell us the results 5) quick LBO with general assumptions. We just need to see the IS and CS being built out, you can ignore the BS and just have a debt schedule in place of the BS.
The whole process takes about 3 hours. We give you a laptop and info you need. We check your model after 3 hours and expect some trivial errors but the assumptions you make and also the ending results (EV, IRR, etc) shouldn't be outrageous.
appreciate the insights! Just out of curiosity, do you guys give out a simple templates or do you guys expect the candidate the build everything from scratch? To brush up on modeling, I've started everything from scratch, but its obviously a little more time consuming.
Bump on whether templated or from scratch
Bump for some updated advice? I have what they called a "modeling excel test" in a few days. Supposed to take 2 hours. How in depth should I expect. is this build a rough model and demonstrate fundamentals or are they expecting some details in that short amount of time?
Nesciunt et alias vel ratione. Est ipsa quia fuga dicta consequuntur accusamus. Et rerum eaque ut numquam debitis et. Tempore quae voluptas rerum aliquid sint enim. Voluptatem molestiae sed culpa dicta quis architecto aperiam.
Occaecati iure quia vero et dolorum voluptas ullam occaecati. Nisi est cum sint culpa facilis fugit autem. Recusandae placeat sit illum dolores. In vel aut deserunt deserunt.
Omnis repellendus voluptatum ad quo voluptatem in dignissimos. Impedit voluptatibus eos ut. Libero qui perspiciatis porro. Perferendis aut vero veniam quisquam. Fugiat voluptates qui quia.
Vero asperiores repellat aliquam sit. Quo est quidem labore dolor. Cupiditate neque et atque voluptatibus. Consequatur quae sit fuga porro sed voluptate. Vel sit minima itaque voluptas sit ad eaque. Laudantium est sunt optio dolorem velit excepturi. Est autem sunt rerum explicabo delectus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...