The Interview Pitch
To answer to the question tell me about yourself, walk me through your resume, why are you here, etc...
I usually say something like, I work at X as a Y, working on blah blah blah. Prior, I was at Z working on blah blah blah. I left Z because....and now I'm looking to leave X because....
It really sucks, I know. I don't know how to craft a good pitch. I've gone through networking guides but they aren't too helpful. My "story" is really strong if I start with my college years, but I feel it is taboo to start in the past and work my way to the future. Any advice?
I always start with my first job, how I got into the industry then work my way up to my current role and end strong with how my recent experience is most appicable....you're saying it is taboo to go chronologically? that is news to me...
I've always been told to start with my current job and work my way back! It never made sense to me
Tell me about yourself is actually different than walk me through your resume.
They seem like the same question. Am I missing something?
Tell me about yourself- the interviewer is looking for your story or 'spark' of why you want to work there not going through your resume word for word (tell them something that isn't on your resume).
Walk me through your resume - remember the key words from the job posting and hit on them as you walk through your various experiences and how they give you the skill set to be successful in this role.
There's a webinar here on WSO about the recruiting process and the difference between the two questions.
investment bankers have a very very short attention span. i would focus only on the most important points; and wait to expand upon more if there were any followed up questions. typically answer on this would be:
"My name is Johnny Bravo. I am interested in working as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs. Previously, I had interned at JT Marlin's Capital Markets Group. Prior to that I worked at Jackson Steinem & Co's M&A group. I recently graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor in Economic."
Touche
Discard unnecessary connecting words for an even better response.
My name Jeff. Me want work at Goldman Sach.
Just one Sach? I always thought there was 2 or 3 of the Sachs.. plural
You call yourself Johnny Bravo and don't request that your interviewer does the monkey with you? Dinged.
What are interviewers looking for in a story? (Originally Posted: 05/02/2016)
I'm a sophomore at a target school, and as I was reading the forums for what to do for this summer, I noticed most people recommending that people in my situation do something that would allow me to have a good story for interviews when I do recruiting down the line. I've got an internship set up that I imagine will let me tell a good story (working at a VC in one of HK/Singapore/Tokyo), but I'm trying to understand what part of the experience I'm supposed to talk about.
For interviews, would I end up focusing more on the work I did, or would interviewers tend to ask me more about the experience of living in a foreign city (as I'm a born-and-raised American)?
Well bankers in interviews aren't really looking for stories that are just "interesting"; they're looking for stories that are a) interesting, and b) lead logically to why you are interviewing. For example, let's say this summer the start up raises some capital, and you are involved in that process, which gets you interested in valuation and start up financing, which leads you to an internship at some VC firm, which in turn leads you to being interested in tech banking or something and interviewing for IB.
People have a very short attention span in interviews. The challenge in telling your story is A) connecting your story relevance to the job and thus making you interesting the YOU factor B) having your story sound sincere and not contrived or full of it
C) Avoiding an unfocused story -- rambling on for too long
For attention span reasons, I think the B & C combinations are absolutely critical. If you don't have a unique differentiating factor (A), you can still get away with it if you nail B and C. Having an unfocused, rambling story that comes off as forced is the kiss of death because it speaks to poor preparation and being disorganized, the investment banking kisses of death.
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