Going from 0 to interview ready in a month?
What the title says. Rising junior at a semi-target that does well on the West Coast. No previous finance experience, but I have a perfect GPA in a STEM program. I had an active interest in finance, but I'm working in tech this summer, so I haven't really paid attention to much financial news, or gotten interview ready. I have interviews lined up with a couple BBs, as well as West Coast PE (think LGP/SLP/Ares).
I think my GPA/program combination is the only reason I have these interviews, but I'm confident in my abilities to learn everything I need to for the interviews. I was wondering if anyone on this forum had any resources they'd recommend so I can:
- Prepare for the technical questions.
- Get caught up quickly in financial news.
First off, congrats on landing the interviews!
In terms of prep - At the most basic level, you need corporate finance and valuations knowledge, as well as some basic accounting knowledge. As you only have one month remaining, it may be worth investing in either BIWS or WSO resources and doing a very quick run through.
More importantly, given that you only have a month remaining, you need to start practicing and answering questions ASAP. For this, I would recommend https://dailyibdprep.com</a">DailyIBDPrep which sends you a investment banking interview question everyday - it's great for improving familiarity with IB interview question styles.
In terms of financial news, start reading WSJ everyday - it may be hard to understand at first, but theres no way around it. Alternatively, for more easy-to-understand news, perhaps give Finimize a go :)
Highly recommend subscribing to The Morning Brew email. Every morning at 6am, top business headlines and short/funny to read.
Also agree with WSJ rec. Read every business section article. Also have two or three "top events" ready every week, I got asked about news items and I was following, and then follow-up questions on how it would affect their business a few times --
You should know a few big-ticket deals the company has done, as well as major ones in their industry. They can be WSJ-headline type articles, but make sure you know more about news events than just the headline (ie ATT-Time Warner was a deal I used for some TMT interviews... speak about the players, synergies involved, most importantly why did this deal happen and how does it benefit them). I don't know much about west coast PE but west coast IB is largely tech stuff, so your experience could be helpful there. Be able to talk about how your tech internship/STEM experience will translate to a tech role if that is what you are interviewing for.
Technicals the M&I 400 questions guide and WSO guide are good. There are really 10-20 major questions you'll always get asked and should not get wrong... other questions you should at minimum be able to be think your way through how to solve them. Technicals take time, accounting was hardest for me with 3-statement work.
Preparing for an interview in a month (Originally Posted: 08/14/2018)
I came from a target school with good grades, but a severe lack of useable experience to put on my CV.
So I networked my ass off and managed to secure an interview at a BB.
This is really important to me, and I want to make it work. What is the best way I can spend the next month getting ready for this? jkh
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