I just had a phone interview with a multistrategy real estate fund manager for an analyst position. I'm a current undergrad and got the interview despite the job looking for 2-3 years of exp in IB/PE. The interviewer and I hit it off, but he told me that he was unsure of my Excel skills just due to my experience.
I'm looking to see if there's a way to help make this less of a factor before they select people for final rounds. I'd be fine with building a model if I had a weekend to do it. The idea I was thinking of was to email him and ask for an example of a typical Excel-based problem that an analyst would have to do on the job. Has anyone here done this before? Or should I wait and hope that the rest of the interview will be enough to carry be through to their final rounds?
Some people do sample cases like that. Their only hesitancy would probably be the fact that you haven't had the 2-3 years of experience where people forge their Excel skills under pressure.
Most problems relate to data sets and sussing out financials etc. If you ask for one and can't do it, you essnetially shoot yourself in the foot.
Unless you have worked on a lot of different models and are very experienced, DO NOT DO THIS. Like Void said, you will surely be overwhelmed and shoot yourself in the foot.
You can learn this stuff on the job, just get your foot in the door. Perhaps look at taking an excel class.
I would not ask them for one of their models because like HFF said, you'll likely be overwhelmed. I would instead just send them a model that you have worked on and are familiar with / can answer questions about. I did this once and was successful. I sorta knew the model, as in I knew how to make it work, but could not write an if-statement (it had plenty). When it came time for the excel test they said they did not see the point in giving me one because I already submitted a sample.
Note: I was wildly unprepared for the months ahead in that job..
Thanks for all the responses. Really like this idea, they have an Excel test on site too. I'll build one from scratch tomorrow for an office tower and send it to him, probably would be a lot easier to explain than the ones that had other people do parts of it.
I had an "excel test" in my third interview. Luckily, I knew it was coming and was able to get some good practice in, but there are essentially unlimited functions they could ask you to perform that no online prep course could prepare you for. Like sk8 said--you're best off bringing in your own model and explaining it so you don't get stuck having to try and figure out someone else's work. Have your vlookups and whatifs on point, and know your $ and ! commands. I was competing with MBA and masters folks and thus had a pretty significant disadvantage, but was still able to get through without "shooting myself in the foot." Good luck mayne
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