People who got offers, how many technicals guides did you guys do before recruiting?
I'm an upcoming sophomore. I'm currently working through the BIWS ones, but I know there's also Training the Street which I get free from my school and I know that WSO just came out with new guides, and my cousin sent me the Rosenbaum and Pearl book, so I was thinking about maybe doing one or two other ones after the BIWS ones, since I have a lot of time. Is that overkill? How many different guides did you guys do, and how long did you do them for?
BIWS and WSO was all I studied. I spent more time actually trying to build 3 statement models to understand the links as well as DCF and comps. Heard Pearl and Rosenbaum is good, but I didn’t read it. I got the most value from networking, as you learn to speak the language, find out what’s great about each firm, and the differences in the types of deals within each group.
thanks, that's helpful. can you provide a little context on whether you went to BB/EB, and whether the interviews went far beyond 3 statement models, dcf and comps, maybe into M&A models or LBOs?
Top MM, as I got the offer early, really liked the group and couldn’t pass it up. They didn’t specifically ask about 3 statement models, but it helped me to answer questions on how an increase in X affects the three statements. I didn’t get anything on merger models or LBOs, although I did have to talk about the SS M&A process, quick stock pitch (bc I’m in SMIF), market outlook w/ COVID, Walk through a DCF/WACC/unlevered FCF calculation. Honestly nothing that was very difficult. Spent a month or so reading/studying when I had time, and then another 2-3 weeks preparing hard once I knew interviews were coming up. I’d also add that in the 4 or so months beforehand I wasn’t directly studying for interviews, but I was building models, watching YouTube videos, looking up words I didn’t know, and doing random research on the side about some of this stuff.
I imagine EB interviews will go into more difficult questions. BB probably too, but I’ve heard it depends.
Did you get laid in college though?
Good one!
It’s not difficult to sacrifice some sleep and get all this shit done during the week while still going out Thursday - Saturday. Especially when classes went virtual in early March. Might’ve sacrificed some social time in Jan/Feb, but now I don’t have much else to worry about for the next two years.
Heavy BIWS and also skimmed WSO/R&P/club materials
Accepted EB
How heavy? Weeks? Months?
Don't think of it in terms of time spent. I worked with the guides until I felt very comfortable with all of the info/questions, including LBOs/Merger Models
To echo some of what kachow said, I benefited from practicing modeling and reading Rosenbaum & Pearl. Obviously I read the guides too but not until later (around the time when interviews were starting).
What's your quote from? It's familiar but I forget where I've seen it
For me, the most helpful thing was contacting seniors/juniors at my school that went through the process and ask them what questions they got; wrote all of them down with answers, and mostly studied from them. Turned out to be great, ended with 3/4 offers from superdays. Best of luck.
Think if you have the main BIWS guides (accounting, DCF, LBO, etc) and the 400 question M&I down, that should be good enough for the most part. Obviously need to know the concepts behind the questions and not just memorize the questions. If you're interviewing for a specific coverage group (tech, healthcare), you might get asked some industry specific technical questions as well.
Honestly, think people spend way too much time on technicals - it's a lot more important to stand out in your behaviorals and industry interest / knowledge than spend time memorizing some advanced LBO topics. Not that those aren't good to know, but if it's a choice between spending that extra hour on technicals or behaviorals, the latter is definitely more important. Technicals are a check the box category - as long as your technicals meet a certain standard, it's good enough.
And how exactly would you stand out in your behaviorals? I feel like most candidates have answers that follow the same structure (STAR technique and what not). Is it more like charisma, in which case there isn't much you can do to improve in such a short period of time?
Ffollowing
the way you stand out on behavioral is have one cohesive story. I am not saying like one story as in an experience, but rather all your background, Strenghts, Weakness, Experience tie together, with the main direction being why you want to be a banker.
Tbh i used tiny bits of a lot of different resources. I used the BIWS quick accounting reference thing for instance, but thought the 400 questions was a bit overkill.
Used WST videos. I don’t think there is a single comprehensive resource for recruiting. It’s probably best to just look for better explanations of shit your core resource doesn’t explain too well.
Main BIWS guides and M&I is a good starting point and their videos are good as well (Merger Model Videos). Mock interviewing with friends and upperclassmen is super helpful— helps to learn how to be less of a robot reciting and more thoughtful when answering technicals.
Behaviorals/Interest/Personality definitely more important though.
Guides are way overhyped on this site. Interviewed at a variety of places, and the only place that asked some hard technical questions was an irrelevant pension fund. None of that at BBs, except for the basics.
Other might have touched on this, but I would say it's not a very good approach to just try to get through several interview guides. I think the 400 guide should be used only as a review once you have a good understanding of finance and accounting. Then you should really make sure you actually understand the concepts/reasons behind each answer rather than just memorizing them. That and Moyer's were all I read, and I got EB offers
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Started with 400 guide and once i had a general understanding of those questions, used WSO for more in depth prep. I think others can agree that one guide isn’t the end all be all, it’s better to just completely understand all of the concepts so that 1) you can go into an interview with confidence 2) you can answer ( or at least speak intelligently) about any off guide/follow up question they ask
At BB SA- Skimmed the 400 guide and went for understanding over memorisation that way I could work it out if anything changed. To get understanding joined investment banking club at university. Sure I lost 1 hour a week, but it didn't feel like that as there was a social element, made it more palatable to learn and could ask questions whenever I didn't get anything.
EDIT: At BB SA, but also got offers for EB and other BB
Following.
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