Best Interview Prep Guide for Corporate Finance/ I Banking Interviews

i've only read vault, but i can't imagine the other two are drastiaclly different. Probably better since theyre written by insiders. Honestly though, if you have some finance background and/or wk exp you only need one to brush up on the basic stuff that might have slipped you mind. In my experience, they grill your specific background, not your general DCF and accounting knowledge.

Thanks Panther. So, when you say that they typically grill your specific background, please elaborate. Say on your resume you list a couple deals/projects you were involved in with a previous firm...say you say you did comps to help with the valuation, as well as dcf and precedent transactions, which led to a specific return projection. How would they typically grill you on such "background experience"?

I have read all 3 and would recommend studying all three. They are all well worth the price. M&I does a terrific job of giving examples of questions that actually would be asked while Vault is better at background knowledge. If I were to rank them it would go:

M&I WSO Vault

thank you pureazn for the advice and insight. I have the vault guide to i-banking...but it doesn't have any actual questions, mostly just an overall description of the industry and what they do, in detail of course...is there another vault guide that I don't have?

there's the vault guide to finance interviews that actually has the questions.

I would probably rank them as M&I, WSO, and Vault too in order of detail and just the complexity of questions.

That being said, I think the WSO does a good job covering most of the basic stuff you need to go (better than vault) and M&I provides a LOT more detail (especially with their advanced sections)! Hope that helps.

Thanks geez, I really appreciate your thoughts!

I really like the WSO Guide -- the beginners and intermediate section should be mandatory before you step into an interview.

M&I (Ibankingfaq is quite good as well, and FREE, I put it on par with M&I) WSO Vault

but ibankingfaq doesn't cover everything the interviewers would cover, right?

I found that M&I is solid! definitely recommend, particularly the more fit questions, now it comes with videos and such, definitely worth for buck. Though it also covers questions that is well beyond SA interviews in my opinion, particularly the "Advanced" sections.

The M&I guide is $97? I only used the WSO Tech guide, not the Behavioral. I think it also had a few brainteasers at the end which helped.

I think the M&I guide is the most helpful. You should buy the interview prep course from the M&I website. The guide and videos are well worth the money (around $97 I believe).

M&I recently revamped their guides. Go check it out.

I think the WSO guides are a good base for any kind of finance/accounting interviews.

M&I is a little bit more comprehensive than WSO. So if you're willing to invest go with BIWS.

If not, then WSO is good enough

Thanks appreciate the thought.

Also if you could state why you liked it

Anyone?

There are many topics like this. I don't know anything specifically about the UK, but I like the BIWS guides more than any other I've used. They provide explanations instead of just a list of facts which I think is the big problem with the WSO guide. The weakness of the guide is that it's really geared towards what you'll encounter in ib interviews and isn't as great if you're also going for S&T or other roles. I think it's well worth the money.

The behavioral and technical interview guides WSO offers should cover everything you need... though I'd wait and see if any corpfin guys on here have used them

I recommend the WSO interview guide as well. I pretty much substituted 'investment banking/consulting' with 'corporate finance' themes. The interview will most likely be heavily behavior based and the guide does a great job walking you through how you should frame your responses.

In my experience:

Know the financial statements and how they are connected. Understand working capital Know the company

Thanks guys, appreciate the input

I've also heard about the guides on Wall Street Prep and Mergers and Inquisitions.

financial modelling and Valuation by Paul Pignataro

Most would suggest Investment Banking by Rosenbaum but it's more on banking than financial accounting concepts

It sounds like you're covered in terms of guides. I like the M&I guide and the WSO guide; the Vault guides tend to be outdated. Now, you actually need to read them and understand the concepts. This can come from reading relevant books (like Liar's Poker for the lifestyle factor or Damodaran's Little Book of Valuation for the more technical stuff), watching YouTube (search for "WACC" or whatever concept you need help with), or getting in touch with people in the industry.

Do contributors get a free copy? Seems only fair.

may I can a Free Copy ?

Just get the interview guides from WSO and you'll be fine. and if you don't want to pay for guides, you can find pdfs of random guides on google easily enough

M&I and WSO are the best guides. I won't say avoid vault, but there are better guides out there. Start advanced and just work through it, you'll do fine.

Second the M&I and WSO guides. Got multiple BB and boutique offers just studying these. I never touched the Vault guide, and I come from a liberal arts background. For more in depth stuff, ask your buddies at b-schools or just google online for lecture slides regarding the particular topic. I found a wealth of knowledge about more advanced topics this way. These forums are a big help as well if you need more insight

there's a few videos regarding IB interviews which I found helpful available on youtube (no real experience with IB interviews here but they just seem professionally done to me)