Studying process
My situation: My theory+technical understand is not the best. That being said, I actually struggle really understanding what's going on in the markets + news. Id like to be able to actually form my own opinion on matters rather than just tag along what I hear.
Timeframe: I have all day everyday to take full advantage of studying untill school starts in September.
Question: How should I allocate my time studying? From reading books, reading the news, and learning technicals + theory.
Ive been mostly reading the new's daily + working on my excel skills. What do you recommend I tackle first? What's the most optimal way to choose what to study?
Thanks in advance.
Given that I was in your position before, I will pitch in my best advice:
I remember in College I would block out time each evening after the markets closed to read about the general market activity (Reuters, WSJ, Bloomberg (before the paywall existed)). After a few weeks and discovering M&I plus WSO, I came to realize that was not the best approach for prepping for IB Interviews.
I would recommend learning the technicals and not just memorizing answers (brainteasers are a different thing altogether). Knowing your technicals cold (especially since variations to finance and accounting questions are fair game) allows you better focus on behaviorals (which tends to end up being a core focus of the interview) and your best responses to these types of questions.
As for following the markets, have a good sense for the market and what is driving movement, but don't bog yourself down in it too much (unless S&T or Equity Research (to a degree)) are paths you are considering as well.
Would also recommend having 1-2 M&A deals you can speak about for interviews with key points in mind (Key Points: 1) Company A acquired Company B for $____ (if deal value is disclosed along with Revenue and EBITDA multiples) 2) Why you think the deal happened and what thoughts you may have about the deal's impact on industry or what the deal says about M&A activity in a particular space
Learning for the sake of learning is pretty hard. It’s easy to get lazy and there are so many convenient excuses. If you don’t have a time sensitive inherent reason to learn (class, interview prep) maybe you should try to create those reasons for yourself.
It doesn’t really matter right now whether you end up wanting to do banking (or anything in the finance industry) or not. Instead this would be my thought process.... Banking sounds cool, how does someone get into banking. Read about that. You’ll end up wondering what the interview process is like and the kinds of questions that would be asked. Read the questions. Pick one or two that seem relatively basic and do some research. Try to learn how to answer those two questions.
Now you’ve built some knowledge however small it may be, but that knowledge will guide your curiosity when your reading about a merger in the news for example. Lather, Rinse, Repeat until you end up knowing a lot about something because you were genuinely curious instead of force feeding finance terms to yourself.