Does technical interview difficulty fluctuate depending on your resume?

How serious are technical interviews for IB? I've heard everything that ranges from simply talking the interviewer through the steps of a DCF to being required to actually construct one from scratch under a time limit. Does this depend on what experiences you claim to have on your resume? I've had someone warn me that if you claim to be "proficient" in financial modeling on your resume, then some banks will give you a DCF that is wildly messed up, and tell you that if you can't fix it in 30 minutes consider your interview to be over. If that's the case, wouldn't it be advantageous for everyone to claim that they don't know anything about financial modeling to avoid getting grilled on technicals?

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Yes, to certain degree, the interviewer will adjust difficulty based on the candidate’s experience. But it’s not necessarily advantageous to water down your resume. If you actually did what you say you did and have gained relevant experience, you’ll probably be able to handle the more difficult questions. Simultaneously, you’re impressing the recruitment team with your solid resume. Keep in mind, they won’t really knock off points for you not being able to answer ridiculously hard questions. If you water down your resume, you might not even get the interview, and even if you did, the expectation will be that you can answer all the easy questions with no opportunity to impress the interviewer by taking a crack at difficult questions.

 

correct, if you claim to be proficient then be proficient at it- otherwise dont put it in the first place

cant believe how many times students who claim to be proficient at stuff like excel, bloomberg, financial modelling, etc, buts its very clear that they just put it to pad their resume.. kinda irks me tbh

theres a fine line between strengthening your resume and padding it; if youre actually what your resume says you are (e.g proficient at modelling), you'll get a leg up in the hiring decisions all else equal

 

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