WSO Technical Interview Guide - Investment Banking specific

Just bought the technical interview guide - if I want to go into investment banking for SA or FT, which sections should I really focus on?

I know of the following- but what else is really important?

  • Current Event Related
  • Accounting, Finance and Valuation
  • Mergers and Acquisitions
  • Other
  • brainteasers

and for Accounting, M&As sections, to what extent should I know to? Basic is important, but what about intermediate and advanced for SA positions?

5 Comments
 

from what i have seen interviewers tend to generally move with the flow of the interview. if you act like you know a lot, they will give you tougher questions, if you have more experience and talk about modeling etc on your resume, they will ask tougher questions. interviewers generally dont go too tough on you unless you act like youre smart/act too cocky/confident about what you know, in which case they then try to take you down to size. some people say theyve gotten offers just from knowing the fit/tech guides, and being a generally easygoing person who didnt get stressed or anything like that

 

Being able to speak at least decently intelligently about the sections that you mentioned will be more than enough to get you by. If you are unfamiliar with some question, then admit so and move on. Nailing technicals isn't the most important part of the process. I can tell you from personal experience that you don't have to answer every question perfectly, especially for a SA position.

More than that, really practice telling your story because seeming like you arent too nervous and being able to speak clearly and concisely is more important than any technical question you could get asked.

 

I got hired for FT a few months ago and interviewed with both BB and MM firms. Of all the technical questions I got asked every single one except one was in the first 15 pages of the guide after the current events section and they were generally word for word the same question. If you're short on time I'd recommend working on your story and studying the bold faced questions in the guide.

 

My piece of advice is to not only be able to answer the questions, but really understand them. In an interview, you will get follow up questions and variations of questions, so if you just memorized responses, you might freeze up. You should have these down.

 

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