Questions to ask at the end of an interview?
I am working on prepping for summer internship interviews and have networked extensively with many firms. I am wondering what questions you typically ask at the end of the interview and how many you usually keep it to. I'm thinking just a handful of questions about culture, dealflow and mentorship or something but do you guys typically ask anything else?
Do you guys ever ask your interviewer about what their hobbies are or what they like to do for fun when not working? I feel like this could potentially be a good gauge on whether or not they're a sweaty shop - if the analysts seem to not have many hobbies you're either in a boring group or in one where everyone spends all week working with many weekends as well
Ask something like how has the team helped you succeed and achieve your goals. People love to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.
If they're highly struggling to come up with a coherent answer and start sweating or deeply deeply sighing, possibly tearing up, then that should also give you a sign that perhaps you should look to work elsewhere.
When I was a junior looking for my first internship at a tech pe fund, I asked something similar to a very senior mid level and his colleague. He looked at me very angrily, then just down at his feet and sighed deeply for a good 10 seconds before deferring the question to his colleague saying "hey __, mind taking this one first?". As the other person was answering the question, the very senior mid level visibly proceeded to have some sort of mental breakdown. I didn't know why or how to react, as part of me wanted to crack up laughing, and I was trying very hard not to, but on the other hand I realized perhaps this person just had a tough time getting promoted over the decades that he was in the same position. By the time it was his turn to answer, after mumbling and stammering for a good minute while attempting to answer, he eventually said "w-w- well, you get reviews and... and, and people give you feedback" ... The interview ended very awkwardly, as the mood of the interviewers seemed to be at an all time low.
The other colleague had to go out of her way to schedule a separate follow up interview after that to politely mention how it was just because of the shortcomings of the senior mid level over the years at the firm that caused him to be the way he is. So based on my experience, I would suggest to ask this question only to the most senior and / or accomplished people on the team.
Man that must suck. Probably a good sign not to join if your interviewer starts having some existential crisis as a reaction to your question.
Ask them what acomplishments their company has achieved. It can help you understand if they are really the innovative and productive company that they say they are. Also ask questions regarding promotions and empowerment, you don't want to be stuck in a job where you can't advance your career
This has been my tactic, for context and to give you confidence in my answer, throughout my 15+ interviews at various banks (primarily EBs) across the street these line of questions led to sincere (at least to me) discussions between my interviewers and I.
Pre-l prep:
Learn everything you can about your interviewers beforehand. Scour their profiles on LinkedIn the firm website (although this tends to be for only directors and partners). Memorise their path to IB, school, internships etc, bear in mind you're basically tryna be these guys in a couple of years' time. Anyways here's my gameplan when preparing questions for different levels
1) Analysts / Associates:
- if they did a summer internship at that firm, what was their experience like? If at another firm, why did they lateral to this one?
- are senior bankers approachable for coffee chats? Do they have a mentor at the firm they can turn to? (Doesn't have to be an official mentor and this is a much better indicator of a firm's culture than asking them point blank whats their culture like?)
- is there a particular industry / product they're focused on? Why did they choose to focus on that?
- what steps are they taking outside of the normal job stuff to progress to the next level or how are they signalling to superiors that they're ready to move on up?
- whats the social scene like? Do they throw banger parties at company offsite events (no seriously, if everyone's a stiff at the company retreat and don't get on chances are, the firm is about to lose a lot of people)
2) VPs or Directors:
- they've been at the firm/ in the game for a while now, how've they found navigating that transition from execution heavy work as an analyst to a managerial/ quarterback role as a VP?
- whats their experience been like simultaneously managing upwards, managing juniors and handling clients so far?
- why did they choose to focus on a particular industry / product group?
- ask them something from their profile (LinkedIn, firm website etc)
3) MDs / Partners
- pretty much same Qs as VPs, the caveat being that they're salespeople. So ask them how they developed those sales skills? Whats their method?
- chances are, they're the ones setting the "culture" at the firm. How exactly are they doing that?
- they're neck deep particular sectors, well aware of the latest developments etc, if you're interested in said sectors / products ask them how they think these developments will translate to deal flow ( this one really gets them going, and if you're well read in that sector - it'll be a nice end to a long discussion between two commercially minded people :) )
Hope this helps, the main tactics is to turn the interview into a discussion - because that's what it should be. You should've already done that in the first sort of QnA section so this part should be more free-flowing because you're leading it.
Ask how many interns got returns last year. Also ask how many interns took the return offers, if nobody takes the return offers, this indicates something is wrong with the firm, maybe bad culture, etc.
At the end they say 'we will inform you'. LOL
Yes you are right same thing happened with me in my 6 interviews.
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