Acquisitions Summer Analyst Interview - What can I expect?

I do not work for one of those firms but I just completed an analyst search for our private equity firm and can give you some perspective on what a smaller shop's interview process and knowledge required looks like.

Have a basic knowledge of the following terms and how to calculate them:

• Be able to walk someone through an operating statement (PRI, EGI, OPEX, NOI, CF after debt) for whatever the property type is they specialize in

• LTV, LTC, DSCR and debt yield - how to calculate them and why they are important

• Development yield, going in cap rate, equity multiple, IRR and NPV

• General vs. limited partner, typical capital structures between the two

• Preferred equity, mezzanine debt - if the firm uses them (this might be hard to surmise prior to your interview)

Do your research: make sure you understand the company's preferred property type, investment/project sizes, who their competitors are and ideally some background on who you will be interviewing with.

For our search we had candidates complete a four hour modeling exam building a ground up apartment development in Excel from scratch with a target of calculating the project level IRR and equity multiple which we had them present to our associate and director of development.

After that the following interviews were mainly for cultural fit, personality and how they interacted with senior leadership. I would imagine since this is a summer position they will not be as extensive as we did since ours was a full time opportunity out of the shoot.