Personally, as a student without much IBD experience I only have this one to share regarding an an off cycle interview for a M&A boutique.
They closed me in a room without the internet, my phone etc. Then they asked me to develop a FCFF/FCFE --> DCF model from the scratch with only a few details provided.
I failed it, but I learned a lot.
How about you?
That’s not hard at all...it’s actually something you’re expected to know. I guess it comes down to details you are given though that would determine its difficulty.
One of my first interviews a few years back was at a PE shop. Thought it would be a standard 30 min interview but was 6 hours long and was grilled for a solid hour from basics to recaps and exits (IPO vs sale, how much to sell in IPO, what multiple). Didn't really get to the techs until 4 hours in or so and was so fried at that point. Really didn't belong in the room. Interviewer eventually started finishing the answers.
Had no fucking clue why they emailed me to come in and chat. Also they failed to mention it was unpaid until the end. Wouldn't have pursued it if I knew that in the first place. Learned a lot and never risked another shit show like that.
Wow. Unpaid yet they grilled you as if they were hiring you as an investment director or something. What a fucking joke if you ask me.
As for me, had an interview for an internship position at a boutique, and the guy kept hounding me on technicals, from basic accounting to shell premium calculations etc. None of that was too bad until he wanted me to do an LBO at the top of my head, no paper to work on or anything. Just kinda stared at him blankly for asking me to do something that retarded.
When he said to me towards the end "your grades are pretty shit" I just mentally stopped giving a crap and stopped paying attention for the remainder of the interview. He gave me a verbal offer but then later rescinded it because he felt I "lacked the technical knowledge". Later got an offer from a firm 10x the size of that one, and twice the pay, and all they cared about was "are you good with Excel?"
Funny how things work out.
Sounds brutal...I find it funny how sometimes the companies with the shittiest pay have the hardest PE interviews. Maybe they were trying to cover up some insecurities about their fund performance?
Or the prestige whoring boutique ib guys who ask for "top tier undergrad" and only pay 50k. LOL.
Maybe not the hardest but the most painful interview ever was actually a non-IB job early in my career lasting 6 hours:
Note that this was not for some amazing job or opportunity. Didn't get the offer and never applied to that company again even years down the road as a result of interview process.
This sounds like Amazon.
.
Questions weren't hard but I wasn't expecting an hour of brainteasers. But 1 clout token for you!
Not exactly a hard interview story, but definitely the weirdest one I've had.
I interviewed with a MM boutique for a SA position, and they set me up for a phone interview with one of their international offices. The phone was supposed to be with senior bankers, so it was 2 VPs, 1 Director and 1 MD (big line-up for a SA interview I know but I guess it's probably because that office is very small)
When I got on the line, one of the VPs has not joined the con call yet, and one of the guys just went "oh just give her a second, she's in Germany at her ex-husband's funeral".
Dead Silence for about 20 seconds on the line. And then she joined the call.
and no she was not in a good mood, and I did not get the job lol.
Hardest interview was for a MM boutique. 2-on-1, with an MD and a VP. They kept drilling into my past experience - which was totally fair, until they asked me increasingly specific details about a model I had built for a deal I had listed 18 months prior. They eventually caught me in a mistake ("I think the growth assumption was 3%" / "If the growth assumption was 3% then the deal wouldn't have closed"), at which point they told me to leave.
I made it about a block away until I started crying.
Then they made me the offer.
Turned them down.