Sophomore SA Technicals vs Junior SA Technicals?

Seeing as many sophomores will only now start taking dedicated finance courses (or have taken very introductory coursework), how do technicals for sophomore SA positions differ from their junior-level counterparts? Are they usually much more basic?

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Honestly, in my experience, it depends heavily on your interviewer and where you are interviewing at. If its a for a competitive role, the high calibre of competing interviewers will generally mean that the interviewer can ask more challenging questions (regardless of whether you've taken dedicated finance courses). If you would like to have a look at some of the technical questions that may come up, I recommend: https://dailyibdprep.com

At the end of the day, what makes or breaks an interview in my opinion is your story. e.g. you can mess up a technical question, but if you sell your story well you still have a chance of landing the role. Whereas you can kill all your technicals but fail to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role and get dinged.

 

Most of the SA interviews are pushed up so much that even juniors are interviewing in their sophomore fall/early spring, and have taken 0-1 finance classes. You should know the basics of everything... DCF, comps, accounting, basic valuation, etc. Prepare for heavy technicals if you have time, it will help you in junior recruiting too.

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