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.
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?
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.