Interview with direct competition
Hi all. I work at a top investor in a niche asset class and was just contacted by a recruiter to have a phone call with one of our biggest competitions VPs next week. This would include a promotion to aso1 and a large pay bump from around 110-120 to around 180.
I have been directly involved in structuring and and meeting clients on the dev side for many deals that I’m sure this other group is actively working on, so how can I talk deal experience without giving up info that I shouldn’t? We work on lots of off market ops as well and I don’t want to give any of that information up. Any major no nos?
Thanks in advance.
Just say you can’t give exact info and you need to be vague due to confidentiality issues. They should understand. If they don’t, do you really want to work there?
Not only that but if they can't then chances are they're interviewing you for ideas rather than to hire.
This is good feedback. Thank you
So, the concern you have is appropriate, but you are probably worrying too much. In fact, the issue you discuss is more one for the interviewer.... A few points..
- They asked for the interview, and it is an interview of "you" not your firm.... So, really deep or even probing questions of the deals you are working on are not really appropriate or that likely they want to know about you, what you can do, want to do, etc. You can easily answer these without giving out deal details, just don't use names, address, markets, etc. At least not at same time. That said.... deals that are closed/public are totally fair game to talk about (at least with what is in bounds publicly or easily knowable).
- The real info flow.... is from their firm to you!!! You get to ask all sorts of questions about their operations, strategy, capital funding, deals, etc.... you are doing due diligence on them... so in reality... the risk is actually far more theirs than yours! So keep this framework in mind.........
- Major no nos.... Don't offer extra "color commentary" deals live, dead, or closed (like, "this one was tough, and boy did we overpay!!"), don't over conflate your role or contribution to deal ("yeah, I'm an analyst but I basically negotiated and did the whole deal by myself"), and don't "neg" your current firm/boss/coworkers (like "the pay is okay but may XYZ is a raging alcoholic, don't want to work for them a day longer than I have to), in fact, you should speak well/positive of your firm whenever possible (it really is the best look).
I really appreciate the thoughtful response (and your responses to about every re post on this site.) This is great feedback and I likely am overthinking, as I tend to do. You need to write a book or start a podcast or something. You’re the man!
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