Was way too underprepared for phone interview

Feeling like an idiot. Applied to a random Private Equity internship on Indeed, got the phone interview, and was completely fucked. No information about the firm (it's a year old) so I expected an informal conversation, even expected the firm to possibly be a hoax. Was completely unprepared for LBO, DCF, and PE strategy questions. Had to bullshit my way through :(

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this happened to me a lot in the past. a couple strategies I've used - (1) after the interview, write down all the questions you remember and keep them in a doc somewhere, they'll probably come up again in the future & you can be more prepped and have these for reference, (2) for phone interviews, write out the steps for 'walk me through a DCF' / LBO / any other valuation types in case nerves cause you to blank out -- disclaimer, not a great idea for video interviews lol 

Also keep in mind - a lot of these small / sometimes not as legit PEs and HFs make the interviews obnoxiously difficult, I've never understood that, considering most don't pay or pay min wage, and BBs interviews aren't even that technical. Could be an indication of a toxic culture, usually these things are 

 

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