How to prepare for modeling interviews *WITHOUT* access to any models myself
I'm going to be on for a modeling case soon, and while I'm a decent modeler (when given a lot of time), I'd want to practice ahead of time.
Trouble is, I have absolutely no idea how. In asking some friends, it's suggested to me that I "just take some models, delete the values, and fill them in".
I've found this to be very unhelpful advice.
I do not have any access to interview-scale models whatsoever, and even if I did, there'd be no way to check my work or know how close I got. For instance, if I had a model, deleted it, and tried to fill it in from scratch, I would probably be able to tell if it was different from the starting model, but no way to tell if it's correct. Maybe I didn't add the right line item, much less did the math wrong? The last time I had a modeling case, they didn't even include some of the line items, only having blank lines labeled to be filled in. I assume I got them filled in the right, being fairly decent at knowing straightforward accounting, but who knows? I can't delete lines from models even if I did have them, because I'd know what I deleted.
I've no way of knowing what would be on the test, and I've previously seen financial statements with all sorts of different lines - even simplified ones.
How should I go about preparing if I don't have a model, no way to validate my work even if I had one, and no way to know if I'm preparing for the right things?
Don’t see how you have access to no models - have you tried google? Go through Macabacus and some of the other sites. It doesn’t matter if you know what you deleted. Once you do the same model 3/4 times you will get a feel for the mechanics. Once you understand how to lay out the model and how the formulas work, you should try building the same model from a blank sheet and using the assumptions from the example so you can validate your work. There is another really good website that has practice models and a walkthrough that was really good, I’ll reply to this if I can find it.
What your friends told you is not great long-term since you may need to build a model from scratch. Get out on google and start looking around.
The site is Multiple Expansion. Do their simpler model and then work up to the 3-hour one. Their model is likely more than you’ll need for an interview setting, but it’s pretty comprehensive.
Thanks! I'll check them out, as I've not heard of them.
I have, of course, seen Macabacus, but their models seem far more complicated than anything I've seen on, say, a 2-hour modeling test interview. In that sense, I have access to full-scale "large public corporate" models, but it's impossible to know what to excise there and have it be translatable to something I'd see on an interview.
For instance, the Macabacus operating model includes a section on "Equity Investments". While I can ignore that as it seems excessive for interviews, the rest of the model references the section in ways that make me think that simply not considering it at all will break the rest of the model, and so it quickly becomes immensely convoluted to back out to anything practical as a reference. Same thing with their sections on tax schedules, depreciation schedules, etc...I can ignore them, but that would mean that I do not fully understand how the rest of the model works without them, and then it's back to square one. Or I could try to understand how the Macabacus model uses these sections, but then feel like parts are missing when I'm given a case that does not include them.
On the flipside, sometimes they're not detailed enough. Last modeling case I took a swing at had something like 8 to-be-filled-in lines for current assets on the BS, and [seemingly] far fewer connective inputs elsewhere on the model. Of course there was some way to fill it in correctly, but I'll never know.
There will never be one perfect resource that you can just use as the bible. These tests/case studies are highly variable and each one will be different. The best you can do is expose yourself to different formats and understand the mechanics/how things flow.
Yeah, Macabacus has a lot of stuff you don’t need, but it’s meant to be comprehensive and thus includes all the bells and whistles. You really need to just spend some time working through different models, F2’ing into cells from the solution that you don’t get and go from there.
Breaking into wall street still has some free models available.
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