I made a thread last year around February after receiving my SA offer, walking through the steps I had taken that I thought made me successful throughout the process. I ended up signing with the firm I summered at and in the same group as well. Now that SA season is heating up (accelerated stuff beginning soon and most of the Midwest firms will begin interviewing within the month), I thought I would offer my advice to those who are juniors and applying for these positions.
Lots of this stuff is personal opinion, and I'm sure others will disagree with some of the things I say, so take as much or as little of this advice as you would like.
1. Cast a wide net
Very very very few applicants in this process have the right/ability to be selective in applying to the various banks. If you only apply to BBs and the Elite Boutiques you are doing yourself a huge disfavor. SO much of this stuff has to do with luck and randomness, and nobody can tell you how it will turn out. Apply to every firm under the sun- this includes places like Piper Jaffray, Stifel, Jefferies, UBS, RBS, and all other firms that get shit on this site and others. And you'll be surprised to see the randomness in all of it.
I'll be outright and say that I didn't even get an interview with PJ (no networking of any form just sent in a resume online), but I did get an interview with Blackstone through essentially the same level (or lack of) of networking. Weird things happen, and you can't really explain them. The last thing you want is to get to January or February with no offers and realize you hadn't applied to a bunch of places because you thought you were too good. Worst case scenario, you apply everywhere and have to turn down superdays or turn down offers- not a bad position to be in.
2. Focus on the fit, not the technicals
This may not sound intuitive, and for certain firms it is fine to disregard this piece of advice. I can tell you with a fair amount of certainty, that aside from some of the top boutiques (Evercore, Greenhill, Moelis) most other firms ask the same, very basic technical questions. Even those boutiques rarely get into detailed and complicated questions until their final rounds of interviews. At the BBs, the technical questions are not a way to differentiate yourself- they are merely a box that is checked- 'does this kid have some understanding of basic technical concepts.'
The fit questions are where you can separate yourself from the other 80% of the interviewees who also could walk through a DCF, answer basic accounting questions, and describe the fundamental process of an LBO. If you have experience on your resume then yes, you will have to know how to talk about it, but don't try to act like you are an expert on these concepts or you will be pushed until you crack, which, unless you are a superstar, will happen.
3. Don't overdo the networking
Talking to alumni and other employees at a firm is great, and it is without a doubt the best way to get your name recognized. This doesn't mean you need to talk to every single person or the same person 1x per week to ensure that you get the interview. If you talk to 2-3 people at a firm that should be sufficient. Anything more and you risk coming off as pushy, aggressive, or annoying- all traits that do not lend themselves to helping you get that interview.
4. Be interesting
This sounds stupid, but at the end of the day, the people who get hired and the best interviews have nothing to do at all with the job, the technicals, or even much of anything on your resume. If you can talk with an interviewer about sports (maybe you are on a team), your study abroad plans (if they exist), an interesting non-finance class, or anything of this sort, in my mind this is 10x better than a generic walk through of a resume. Your interviewer is giving his feedback to HR or the recruiting team and what he is giving is his impression of you- make a good impression, be likable, and have him leave feeling like he didn't just waste 30 minutes of his life, and you are golden.
5. Use your resources
If you go to a target or semi-target and have a solid (not even necessarily great) GPA, there is no reason to not get a 1st round interview everywhere (or almost everywhere). Use your alumni database, and if none exist at a firm then think outside of the box- went to Harvard? See if anyone from Yale is at the firm. Went to Phillips Exeter, see if anyone from the prep school works there. From California? See if anyone from CA schools is at the firm. These are just a few examples.
These places at the bare minimum have 200-300 employees- you have many more ins than you might think you do. Find someone that has something in common with you, and do your best to connect with them. Don't just give up and send in a resume via online submission- while it can work for some (see 1st paragraph BX), you are playing the odds and not helping your luck.
I'm sure there is some stuff I'm missing, but I'm typing this quick and wanted to get it posted. Feel free to PM me with any questions on anything recruiting related or other topics in general. Best of luck.
-Black Jack
Finally a quality post - some points are a given but you'd be surprised what you forget to do once the recruiting craze sets in!
Great post @Black Jack You should have posted it last year when I was applying to SAs.
I sincerely agree about the fit questions being paramount. While you definitely need to know the basics, stressing about that one-off technical isnt going to help as much as spending time developing and becoming comfortable with your story. It shouldnt be something that seems mechanical or memorized, it should just flow
From my personal experience: great advice. I interviewed for a top SA programme (GS/JPM/MS IBD) and could sheld some light on this as well. The OP is probably geared towards US recruitment, but nonetheless networking is key. Especially on campus events with pre-selection can be fast tracks to SA/FT positions. Got interviews (and eventually offers) through some of these networking events.
All my non-case interviews were purely based on fit/smarts. Can you think on your feet? How do you tackle problems? Suppose the rules of games change, how do you deal with it?
Example: "How would you value barbershop X around the corner?"
Tackled this like any other guesstimate. When I was about to reach my answer my interviewer said "I'm going to challenge you here. Aside from barbershop X there are three additional ones in the same street."
This is actually a crucial part, because you need to: (1) Check your assumptions (2) Validate what the "challenge" actually implies and ask questions. Men/female-only hairdresser? (3) Re-run and adjust your calculations
I could get really in-depth with guesstimates and brainteasers, because I legitimately enjoy them.
Completely agree with this advice, especially about the fit portion. Thanks for the write up!
Good stuff.
What do you do if you cast a wide net and land no interviews despite having a 'strong CV' (and your network think so too)?
I'm at a target, strong GPA, yet barely land 1st round interviews (I'm in London so perhaps its different here?)
You're doing something wrong in your networking- being overly agressive, annoying, awkward- those are the worst case scenario. Other possibilities- your resume is too scattered and you don't have a real good reason for why you want to do IB, you haven't done enough networking, etc.
What do you do during the networking session in campus events? Such events in my school tend to be highly disproportionate in terms of number of company rep vs students attending.
Talk to company reps after and ask intelligent/relevant questions. Most kids ask ridiculous/obvious questions, so you can stand out a little there. Get business cards and follow up that day/night. Ask if they would have a few minutes to talk on the phone. If they are a senior person maybe ask for some analyst contacts as well. There may be a lot of students at the event, but most of them will not put in the time to network going forward.
The below response was pretty much spot on, so a lot of this will be repetetive. Basically try to get in front of the reps without seeming too agressive, and ask them a question or 2 (without taking too much of their time). Follow up with an email over the next few days, mentioning that you met them and asking if they would be free to speak with you over the phone sometime in the next week or so. Now you have your chance to 1. Send them your resume and 2. Have a prolonged 20-30 minute chat with them.
Love this post! I am currently in the recruiting process from a non-target school and a lot of this fits my experience. Just a quick question for everyone on this post/thread, what are some basic technical questions that firms tend to ask?
I would first suggest trying to find an answer to the question on the internet. In general, try to avoid asking googleable questions unless you haven't had (and will not have) access to the internet for an extended period of time.
You should be able to find this fairly easily, but I'll respond for the hell of it.
There are a few more very generic accounting questions, but these 3 are the most common (and it appears I've also forgotten more than I thought I had in terms of other commonly asked questions).
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