A bit of a background- I am from India. Don't have any mentor to speak of so troubling you all...Please let me know your thoughts.
Q1) Introduce yourself-
I was born and bought up in Delhi. Coming from a family of lawyers and businessmen, I developed a keen interest in commerce due to which I pursued a degree in B.com(H) from XYZ.
From campus, I joined Ernst & Young as an assurance analyst where I performed substantive testing to check on management's assertions regarding financial statements. To gain a deeper understanding of various business verticals and establish my professional network, I joined the MBA program at PQR.
In my curriculum I have found the subjects of finance and valuation particularly interesting because they helped me develop a skill set in analytical thinking and quantitative analysis. This led me to an internship at GS where I got an opportunity to come up with differentiated views on stocks through industry and firm analysis.
Apart from my curriculum, I recently qualified for the 3rd phase of Economic Times Young Leader's program which has a selection rate of less than 2% nationally and also was the campus finalist for JP Morgan & and Mahindra & Mahindra's case study competitions.
In my free time, I also like to play volleyball, debate, and read.
Q2) What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths-
1) Ownership- I take complete ownership of my work. AT EY, I was one of the first few to get hands on with migration to a new software which helped me not only quickly finish my work but also help my colleagues navigate swiftly through this change.
2) Intellectually Curious- I am a fond debater and reader and much of it stems from my curiosity to assimilate new information and analyze it.
3) Quick Learner- I have the ability to grasp new concepts and ideas quickly.
Weaknesses-
1) Prioritization- I sometimes have difficulty in prioritizing my time between shorter and longer deadlines. I am actively working towards spacing my work out to budget and prioritize my work better.
2) Verbose- I have identified that my love for languages has sometimes made me verbose. These days I try to be succinct by taking a minute to collect my thoughts to communicate more effectively.
Q3) What has been your biggest failure?
In college, I had been preparing for a parliamentary debate to be held at NUJS amidst the best minds of the country for more than 4 months. I was excited because my team would be pitted against a group of law students, the ultimate challenge. Unfortunately, we couldn't make the cut and had to go back empty handed. After this, my team and I reflected a lot over our mistakes- specially of keeping cool in rebutting and taking a moment to answer. We will be trying again this year, with a calmer disposition in place.
Q4) Team conflict resolution
We had a 3 week deadline for our financial management assignment for which our professor allotted teams randomly. Two members of the team in our class project weren't really interested, citing their inclination towards finishing a marketing project, and kept on delaying the task at hand. I finished my bit and broke down their work by giving shorter deadlines on which I followed up closely. This created pressure on them complete the task, and we successfully submitted our work on time.
Your introduction is a bit lackluster, you introduce yourself and immediately start blasting out your accomplishments in the same breath. Comes off awkward. I suggest you follow the M&I story outline, in which you present yourself in the following way:
1) The Beginning (A quick sentence about your background, such as where you grew up or your university or business school)
2) Finance “Spark” (What made you interested in finance/banking)
3) Growing Interest (How you gained relevant skills and work experience over time that prepare you for this job. You can put your campus finalist stuff and internships there)
4) Why You’re Here Today and Your Future (Why this firm and group fit your long-term plans)
Rest of the answers seem solid to me. Good job on mentioning that you're working towards overcoming your weaknesses. You can also use the last answer as a leadership example, since you took the initiative in organizing your lackluster team.
Thanks man. Okay, so I am confused about one thing-
Walk me through your CV and introduce yourself- both of them should be reverse chronological?
The chronological answer is definitely the way to go. You want to nail the transitions from point to point and make the causality between your history and you sitting in their offices as clear as possible. The narrative would become awkward if you went from EY to extracurricular activities outside of highschool, then back to why you're applying for the job.
I have tried following what you said-
I was born and bought up in Delhi. Coming from a family of lawyers and businessmen, I developed a keen interest in commerce due to which I pursued a degree in B.com(H) from XYZ.
From campus, I joined Ernst & Young as an assurance analyst where I performed substantive testing to check on management's assertions regarding financial statements. To gain a deeper understanding of various business verticals and establish my professional network, I joined the MBA program at PQR.
In my curriculum I have found the subjects of finance and valuation particularly interesting because they helped me develop a skill set in analytical thinking and quantitative analysis. This led me to an internship at GS where I got an opportunity to come up with differentiated views on stocks through industry and firm analysis.
Apart from my curriculum, I recently qualified for the 3rd phase of Economic Times Young Leader's program which has a selection rate of less than 2% nationally and also was the campus finalist for JP Morgan & and Mahindra & Mahindra's case study competitions.
In my free time, I also like to play volleyball, debate, and read.
Is this better? And one more thing, should I point why I want to join their firm (IB/Corp fin) in the intro itself or should that be a different answer?
Definitely better than before, however you've still got some room for improvement:
Try to elaborate a bit on your finance "spark" - you mention that you come from a family of businessmen and lawyers, however you should also provide a specific example of an experience/event that influenced you (ex. your parents would sometimes take you to work with them, which got you exposed to the world of finance from a young age). If it's something unique, it can help differentiate you from others.
Also I'd encourage you to go into further detail on how your interest in finance grew while you were in undergrad. You could explain how the finance subjects captivated you early on, which urged you to intern at Ernst & Young to further enhance your knowledge and so forth. Basically move that one part from MBA to undergrad. Makes the story flow better, especially since you're expected to already be interested in finance by the time you're in b-school. Instead of that, you can go into more detail on your interest in banking and basically tie everything together on how it has led you to the specific group you're interviewing for.
And yes, you should explain briefly why you chose their specific firm in your introduction. After all, it's usually the first question given, so if your answer is good enough, there would be no need for a separate question on their side.
SBed, thanks :)
"Walk me through your CV" and "Introduce yourself" are variations of the same question. You should answer both of them with the outline given above, in 2-3 minutes max. Your resume might be reverse chronological, however you're supposed to present your "story" from the earliest (short background, finance spark etc) to the most recent (why this firm, future plans) events.
I would encourage you to frame your strengths and weaknesses in context of what is most important for the job. For example, you mention that prioritization is your biggest weaknesses. In banking, that is one of the most critical skills to have given that you will be working on multiple projects at the same time, each with their own competing timelines. I know that you are being introspective and are trying to provide an honest answer, but there are definitely less detrimental answers that you can come up with.
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