If you ever intend to interview (which I assume is all of you), please know the deals you list on your resume.
I've noticed this recently that candidates are vague on what they contributed, vague on details, but really jazzed to talk about what the success was.
That's not why I am asking the question. I am honestly trying to understand what you know about the process, whether you pay any attention during work, and how you think about deals. It is HIGHLY unlikely that I know the intimate details of private deals.
A very good answer is "it was an industrial company with approximately $100MM in EBITDA, they wanted to refinance their $800MM of debt ($600MM senior, $200MM subordinated), the issues were X, Y and Z, we overcame them all by X, Y and Z (or were unable to because of whatever reason). I ran the comps / financial modelling / data room / whatever the fuck you did. In the end it was a success and I learned something."
A bad answer would be "it was an industrial company, it was middle market, we were able to get the deal done in 6 months. But it was really cool to work on a huge M&A transaction"
A few tips:
1) keep a detailed deal sheet for every one you work on
2) review this sheet prior to interviews
3) fucking make it up if you can't remember exactly
3a) if you didn't do anything important or valuable, say some things that the team did and you were kind of part of -- unless I was in the deal or am friends with someone on your team, I won't call them to ask unless you make the issue in 3b
3b) if you are making it up, don't tell me you made the call to pitch the new buyer and captained the deal while you were an analyst. At least say something that your team would have done in the situation and something someone at your level would be expected to do.
This isn't something I have seen before COVID and an wondering if kids just aren't keeping score of what they're doing. Or aren't very good at interviewing because they think their resume is hot shit for listing large LBOs that a 20 person team worked on.
This is important, I ding almost everyone who fucks this one up. You're going to be required to speak to clients and I can't let you fumble through these stories and make it look like we don't know what's going on.
Your interview is your time to shine, not your team's pitch book.
ok
Great post, need more of this on WSO
What other types of stuff would you like to see? I can only approach it from the things that have worked for me / things that bother me that others do.
I can definitely do one on how to organize / track your job search and networking, how to not try to convince me you don't have the experience for the job (just happened to me on Friday), things like that.
Happy to help.
OP, when creating a deal sheet for each deal, what items would be the most important to consider (aside from the ones you just listed)? What should we be prepared to know and answer?
I would at least track:
- Date range
- Name
- Confidential (Y / N)
- Type of transaction
- Industry
- Important parties (counsel, buyer, bank agent)
- Relevant Operating metrics (Revenue, Gross Margin, EBITDA, etm.)
- Capital structure information
- Catalyst that got your team involved
- Key issues (customer concentration, lagging division / product, management issues, whatever the top 3 are)
- How you diligenced those issues
- What you specifically did
- any other relevant or interesting commentary
Listen to the way the senior people would give a 3 - 5 minute overview of a deal and try to replicate that. You can try to ask someone more senior to walk you through a deal they had previously done (under the guise of looking through a pitch book with some old tombstones or something) and see how they do it.
Just keep the details in excel, I have found that to be easiest.
really quality post, thx
Following
Awesome post, not quite there yet but I’m adding it to my notebook.
I hope Juniors bookmark this post.
People need to put up on game more often.
3b: what if someone used family connections to pull a deal for the team? Have seen this happening in my own group. You cannot blame an Analyst 1 for generating revenue, no? Small chance, but happens.
There is no blame, but you better be prepared to explain in appropriate detail.
Otherwise, I'm definitely calling bullshit.
Okay. What if it’s some really simple deal-winning process ? Literally called the family friend, and that’s it. Can elaborate on the process management part though.
It's whatever you want to present in an interview.
Personally, if I was interviewing you and you said "family friend," you wouldn't be at the top of my list. I think it shows a lack of discretion. I also don't think I would believe it was a real deal.
There is always a risk when you share personal information (which is what this phrasing is), it could endear you to someone or make them hate you.
Perhaps a more appropriate way to phrase it is "I introduced a new party to the sales process and they were ultimately the successful bidder. So I believe I added value to the deal by influencing the sales process and providing $10MM incremental dollars to our client."
I said the same thing you said, plus I quantified the value add and showed I cared about the client. Then, if they want to ask you questions about how you did it you can say "previous coworker", "mentor", something more professional.
Does that make sense?
Again, I am not saying anything about your ability to be the first analyst rainmaker. I'm merely providing thoughts and opinions (which you're free to disregard), I'm not looking to debate.
Your interviewer could disagree with everything I said (although I doubt it) and this could be horrible advice.
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