So was wondering what people’s opinions were on preparation for behavioral and fit questions.
I know a lot of emphasis is put on learning technicals and preparing as much as you can for them, but for behavioral and fit do you guys do the same amount as preparation or just come up with a general idea of what to say and adjust accordingly. I feel like hearing stories of how people have “Tell me about yourself” memorized down to the last word takes away from the answer but that may just be me.
Thoughts?
I honestly don't really prepare for the behavioral other than the "Why XYZ Company?" question. Look into their transaction history and what verticals they focus on.
For other "Tell me about yourself" questions, I feel like you should know your story having lived it the past 20 or so years. Don't make it too long or too short, and maybe try recording yourself if you're nervous and trying to work on what you see as weaknesses in your presentation of it.
I would mainly focus on making your "story" very clear and concise hitting all of the key bullets and have 3-5 stories from prior work experience that can universally apply to any situational behavioral question. Also, having a solid "why banking" and "why this bank" answer is important I would say.
It's not about memorizing, it's about practice. Some people can nail a 'tell me about yourself' question with no practice, while other people sound awful unless they rehearse it a little bit. I definitely didn't memorize mine, but I ran through it a few times before every interview to make sure I didn't miss anything and sounded professional the whole time.
It's all about having anecdotes ready. You can't really memorize fit questions like you can for technicals, but if you do enough practice questions, you will end up with 5-10 good 'anecdotes' (ie a club you are a part of, a project from your previous internship, a community service initiative, etc) that you can really spin to fit almost all questions. I would sit down with a friend and we'd ask each other a ton of different fit questions until we both felt comfortable answering pretty much anything, and it definitely paid off in interviews.
Yes, this answer right here. The anecdotes are a good way to think about telling your story.
The inside secret is you should probably prepare 50%/50% for Technicals / Behaviorals because of how important behaviorals are. However it makes recruiting really easy when we can weed out so many students who clearly didn't put thought or preparation into their story.
Here are things you should be able to deliver at a Tedx-Talk level of preparation:
Your story - what you did before, why, how
Why you are here today (why banking,this bank, this group, this location)
What your future plans are and how to get there (hint, tie the previous two aspects in...)
Your strengths and weaknesses... sometimes we have to force you to tell an anecdote, such as "tell me about a time when ... (you led a team, you failed, etc.)". Know what you're bringing to the table and what you have to develop in an honest way.
Your hobbies and interests on your resume (this should be a slam dunk, but you'd be surprise...)
All of the other behavioral questions that are in guides out there...
Caught up in the markets, deals in the sector, current events / news, etc.
You know how if you watch pros vs. newbies on TV, YouTube, Twitch, etc. and you can easily tell the difference in polish? There is that gulf of preparation in analyst and even associate recruiting as well. You would not believe how easy it is to recognize until you have heard someone well-prepared speak on the same questions.
Totally agree with this. My way of thinking about technicals vs behavioral is that technicals are a minimum threshold, and fit questions are what gets you the job.
If you don't know technicals, you will be axed immediately at 99% of banks (especially those simple check-box technicals, there are obviously exceptions where they try to trip you up just to see how you think). Once you have a solid understanding of technicals, there is really no point to going further in depth.
There are a lot of kids that know their technicals, and there are a lot more kids that know their technicals than there are spots at top banks. Fit questions are how you differentiate yourself from all those other hundreds of kids with a good GPA, good resume, and strong understanding of technicals. A strong resume and good technical knowledge will get you through a resume screen/first round interview, but when you're sitting across from an MD at a superday, they assume you have already been screened for technicals and will only care about fit. They want to know if you are someone they want to work with until 2am, and that's what gets you the job at the end of the day.
I studied technicals first during my sophomore year to get my baseline understanding where it needed to be. I reviewed technicals a little bit after that just to stay sharp, but when I was actually prepping before interviews, 99% of my time was spent on fit. When you're prepping for an interview the next day, the last thing you want to be doing is cramming to understand a DCF, so just learn your technicals as far in advance as possible so you can focus your cramming on things like 'why bank x'.
Ah yes, fit questions. Basically, it's a matter of how much they like you versus other candidates.
Find a way to relate your background to theirs. Find some commonality. Be charming.
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