The most basic finance question

NI-> Retained Earnings on B.S/Beginning # on SCF Ending Cash Balance-> Cash on B.S

Yea bro no prob. But before I explain, I just want to let you know that your interview was rough. Usually banking interviews don't bring up finance-- I mean you're not going to be looking at financial statements, like ever. I mean dude, IBD, braa, you're just going to be a baller, meet with big dog executives at top companies, jet set, and party like it's 1999. Fo riz.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=3+basic+financial+statements

4u2bnvs--

Fellow chem major here, no finance background. Thanks for your input, get back to work.

mergerarb15--

Thanks that's helpful I traced it through and that makes sense.

No offense.....

I know you're here to learn and all that....but how can you have studied finance/ be studying finance and not know the 3 financial statements? Your only excuse can be that you have not taken a single finance or accounting class.

Read through the vault guides and do your research throughly before you go in for your next finance interview.

Vault?! Gross.

Read Mergers & Inquisitions' interview guide or WSO's.

Maybe so, but I don't think that is an excuse. Every guide that I have read addresses the questions you were asked in the first couple pages. You better grab yourself some guides and read. It might be excusable to some extent to not know the technical questions because of your background/major but you have steep competition in the later rounds for interviews and you better be able to answers those types of questions even if its to show your interest in finance and commitment to IB.

Regards

If you don't have a econ/finance major, don't have work experience or ECs that demonstrate an interest in finance you should expect to get asked some basic questions like this to see if you know anything about finance. The challenge for people with a background like this is to first prove that they know what an IB does, that they have some interest in it and have done some independent research to figure out why they think they're a good fit.

These jobs are way too competitive to get by because you're smart.

Here are some other resources to consider in addition to the ones mentioned above: Literature to Educate you on Wall Street - http://bit.ly/1B9JGi

This would be good for you to take a look at as well to get a feel for the depth of answer you should be giving to basic questions like the one you were asked 5 Common Investment Banking Interview Questions That Most People Screw Up - http://bit.ly/13yK40

You might also want to read some of the Day in the Life summaries found on this page http://bit.ly/a9Mcp

Good luck!

Gotta Mentor www.GottaMentor.com Connect to the Advice & People You Need to Achieve Your Career Goals

This is a thread where I would actually welcome LondonE1's commentary...

You are going into banking interviews during one of the most competitive recruiting times ever and you don't know the answer to that question...? Even if you are an art history major you should have studied up a little bit about the job you are interviewing for don't you think?

Read the WSO guide or the vault.

Does anybody on this site answer questions asked or just nag on people for not knowing something. I understand it's an easy question that should of been known in advance but c'mon just answer the fucking question if you know it!

http://www.ibankingfaq.com/

go to this site and learn everything from the technical questions page. can't go into another interview without knowing at least the basics.

to answer your question in a very basic way- 3 main statements: balance sheet (which is assets on one side, liabilities and shareholder equity on the other where A=L+E), income statement (which is basically revenues/gains and expenses/losses), statement of cashflow (which can be broken down into operating, financing, and investing activities) bottom line of income statement is net income, which is the top line of statement of cashflows. bottom line on statement of cashflows is cash, which goes right over to the asset side of the balance sheet

learn the technicals and youll do fine. good luck!

That's not the point dumb dumb.