Do I need to be able to build a model for interviews?

I am preparing for IB interviews atm, I’m pretty confident I’m my ability to answer behavioural questions and I am decent at technicals and getting better at them. My question is do I need to be able to build models to be able to perform well at interview? I am able to answer technical such as “walk me through a DCF” but I haven’t actually modelled properly before (did one online course which was extremely basic three statement model and didn’t learn much from it). I am a non finance/econ/accounting major (biochemistry) so all my financial knowledge is self taught.

I also wanted to ask how well I need to understand the stock market? I’ve been told by some peers who interviewed for oil and gas groups that they needed very good knowledge of financial markets.

Thanks in advance.

2 Comments
 

Yes I’d expect interns and analysts to be able to build DCF’s, LBO’s and monte carlo simulations. I’d say you’ll know you’re ready when you can build a model for an O&G/Infra deal including all the macros & VBA’s.

 

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