I'm probably going to get a lot of heat for this but I'm curious as to what the community leans towards in regards to when the interviewer asks, why our bank?
Do you bring up previous deal flow, or the firms history. Perhaps previous alumni or words you've heard about the firm. For a MM I've never had any interaction with I'm having trouble with a good "why".
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For me this is somewhat of a check the box question, but normally I look for the following (at an EB for reference):
1) Prior to this interview have you done the proper networking at the firm to get these questions below answered? Who have you spoken to thus far? If you name someone I have a good level of respect for then that will help a lot since it means you have been vetted by someone who knows what they are doing (it's like investing alongside Warren Buffet)
2) Do you understand how our business model (pure advisory) differs vs. BB banks; why is this attractive to you?
3) Do you understand how our analyst program is structured (generalist vs. group, 2-year program vs. evergreen, etc.); why is this attractive to you?
4) Do you understand the types of deals our firm focuses on: a) Size of deals worked on b) Types of clients served (majority corporate, majority sponsor, etc.) c) Why is this attractive to you?
5) How are the firm's deal teams generally structured (for us it is almost always only one person at each level, especially at the junior level - still load up on MDs and sometimes EDs); why is this attractive to you?
If you can answer all of these questions with non-generic responses then I will be pretty impressed. If you start naming off mega deals we have worked on I won't really care (and it's unlikely I know anything about them beyond what the press release said unless I happened to work on it)
Reverse UNO the unsuspecting interviewer:
"Why not?"