Clarify incorrect answer in the interview?

Hi guys.. need some advice please..
I had an phone interview with an MD for a BB last Friday and thought it went pretty well. However, as I was going through my concepts in anticipation of a follow up interview, I found out I had answered a simple technical question inaccurately!

Would it be advisable to send an email to explain the concept and that I do understand it, but was confused by the technical vs practical use of it? (I have not used the technicals for almost 4 years). Need your inputs!

 

No, do not. I recently made a mistake during a phone interview and sent the interviewer an email shortly after addressing it briefly in the form of a thank you email. I never heard back about the next round so I don't think it went over well. Do not bring attention to any negatives.

 

Concur with the above replies. May sound like you're second guessing yourself...

All the world's indeed a stage, And we are merely players, Performers and portrayers, Each another's audience, Outside the gilded cage - Limelight (1981)
 

Don't do anything. I once made a similar mistake in a phone interview (something to the effect of, they asked me to estimate how much sugar is consumed in the US annually and I didn't factor in the sugar in soda). The interviewer even mentioned it in his feedback, and moved me on to the next round anyway.

 

I was actually told by an MD that you should always try to send the correct answer after the interview. Even looking up the answer and sending it shows some initiative I guess. I'd say it varies from person to person.

 

not sure how you confuse revenue and ebit...that's an extremely elementary mistake. if you didn't get enough sleep, or whatever your reason may be, that would only signal the interviewer that you may not have the mental acuity to handle the hours of M&A...

I don't think a few mistakes in the technicals break an interviewee - but your mistakes, unfortunately, raise some red flags. Nothing you can do at this point tho, so just learn from your mistakes, prepare for other interviews, and hope for the best vis a vis this one.

Capitalist
 

i completely agree with all of u guys...the unfortunate thing is that i always prided myself for my solid technical foundation...i gave him a perfect dcf, capm, wacc, discussion on m&a etc....he pointed out my mistakes to me so i was able to correct them but i just felt so embarrassed....

due to these basic mistakes, he look surprised when i handed him a recommendation from my director at my internship since i had crashed his expectations earlier....this is a very humbling experience for me...and the worse thing is that excuses especially in this market are not accepted...i never told him that i didn't sleep etc but just apologized....it was more like i didn't absorb his question well enough before i began answering. also since they're only hiring like 1/2 kids in total this is goin to be a far cry for me.....hope this never happens again!

“I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals and I loathe humanity for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”
 

In an academic interview at my first choice university for Physics, I was asked is mass a component of force (F = ma).

Answered - no.

Mechanics was my strong point (didnt drop a mark in it in any mechanics or physics exam), but got 11 year old stuff wrong, because i was nervous as fuck. To those above that think there's a difference between a bad day and basics wrong, I can assure you, there isn't.

In hindsight, I should have stopped the interviewer then and there and explained that it was my strong point, but was a bit jittery.

lesson learned, chin up and move on.

 

I agree with trazer - no difference between a bad day and getting basics wrong. Shit happens, if you did well in everything else then you may be (probably are) fine. If you really didn't know what EV was, then you would have screwed everything else up as well, so they would probably recognize that it was just a silly mistake.

 

What is your major? I was interviewing with a very high up and couldn't tell him what an accrued expense was (it had been a long time for me as well). It sucks knowing the answer but not able to think during an interview. I still got the job offer. Of course, my degree isn't accounting related.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

Change the subject. Figure them out and get them talking about themselves, sports, anything where you can turn it around to get them to like you. Unless you're doing really haevy quant work, you'll learn on the job.

Get busy living
 

In my case, I just nodded and proceeded onto another topic. Then in the end when I was shaking hands+saying thank you, I returned back to the question and asked him to go over (as if it was constantly going in my head and I was too intellectually aroused to let it pass). Got my offer on that day via phone. Of course, this will only work assuming the question asked wasn't too basic.

 

Not really. If you email the guy afterwards going, "I know I sucked and couldn't tell you what WACC was, but please hire me anyway, I'll debase myself as much as you want me to for this job," or something to that effect, he's not going to think., "Wow, that kid really knows he was terrible, he'd be a great asset to my team!" Would you? Fuck no. You'd take the kid who nailed it.

Just take your lumps, learn from it, and look to the next one. I fucked up my first IB interview so badly I cried out in the waiting room afterwards. Got an offer somewhere else. It happens to everyone.

 

He means like any ideas how to fix it mid-way through the interview. You feel it going sour...any chance to spice it up, maybe turn it around?

I'm interested because I've had that feeling before

"I did it for me...I liked it...I was good at it. And I was really... I was alive."
 

I'd just brush it off and don't get flustered. Sometimes the interviewer is just fucking with you to see how you'll handle it. Had what I thought were 'bad' interviews where I got offers a couple hours later.

The worst possible thing you could do is go, "I know this isn't going well, but..." That's not being perceptive or ballsy. It's cracking under pressure.

 
t-jfk:
BS it. If you had a bad interview send the thank you email 2 days later thank you for your time, I believe the interview went well as I...hopefully demonstrating the qualities you are looking for in a candidate.

Something like that.

You might get lucky if he forgot or has been busy.

Agree with this. Although they usually check off the yes or no box as soon as you leave.

 
t-jfk:
BS it. If you had a bad interview send the thank you email 2 days later thank you for your time, I believe the interview went well as I...hopefully demonstrating the qualities you are looking for in a candidate.

Something like that.

You might get lucky if he forgot or has been busy.

So an interviewer is gonna forget a bad interviewee? Thats your advice? Seriously?

Everyone has bad interviews. Move on but learn from it if you can i.e. more preparation, practice interviews, etc. Incredibly difficult to salvage a bad interview after and during. You know the interview is going badly, and so does the interviewer. He's likely made his mind up already and unless you have nerves of steel, it'll be very difficult to pass over the feeling of a bad interview mid-interview and get back on track.

 

The guy was a dick, but also testing how you would react while under pressure.  As long as you think you remained cool, calm and collected, I'm sure you did fine.  Remember to follow up with him with a kind thank-you email and reiterate your strong interest in the position.

Are you a native Mandarin speaker or are you fluent?  He probably asked you to answer it based on your stated level of fluency.  Don't get rattled.  Stay focused.

 

Thanks for your response Eric.  I feel a bit better now -- it was just frustrating, because it seemed like he wasn't listening to a lot of my responses.  I feel like I'm a pretty articulate guy, so I can explain myself well, but he just didn't seem interested and focused on why he felt I was not truly interested in the job.  How can I sound more convincing next time.

 

wow. did he ask all those questions in chinese? i'm a native speaker but since i've been going to school in the U.S., i find it difficult to say some of the more technical terms in chinese. do you think it will look back if i mix in some english with the chinese?

 

It's really just the typical things that you hear/see from other people.  Let him know that you read the journal and watch cnbc, but without saying "i read the wsj" etc.  If the group does M&A, mention a deal that you read about in the WSJ or saw it on Morning Call and how you think it would be cool to work on something like that.

If it is a smaller firm, talk about DealMaven or Wall Street Prep training that you are interested in doing just so you can learn the modeling on your own.  That can show intitiative.

 

That sounds absolutely awful... I had an interview w/ JPM HK that was significantly easier. The only part that tripped me up was when she wanted me to speak in Chinese (and that was only about 5 mins out of the 30 for the interview).

 

seo has a similar interview tactic. in my first phone interview the person showed absolute no emotions on the phone. didn't even give me the opportunity to ask questions in the end. i thought i was gone for sure but i got invited to the in person interview still. i think as long as you kept ur cool and are confident about ur answers, u should be fine. this might just be a stress interview.

 

on this subject, how are the hours like in hk, china, taiwan?

i mean asians in asia work hard, asian bankers in asia work really really ridiculously harder? like 110+?

 

I'd say the guy was actually nice, you are young maybe banking is not what you really want. He is trying to make sure that you won't be miserable in the future and you have put a lot of thoughts in the interview.

On the subject of language fluency, one of the many languages I listed as fluent on my CV is what got me the job. They hired me to work with a certain country, if I had lied on my resume and they didn't test me on that language skill they would have had a pretty funny surprise come my first day on the job. That said, I am still worried about it because I haven't really used my writen skills for the past 7 years, so I am brushing up on them before I start in July. Also my speaking skills are null in technical terms so I am eating the financial news of that country every day to familiarize myself with the technical vocab. Fun isn't it?

Final note: Are your chances over? I hope you are just asking that question to re-assure yourself. If you said you answered all the question with confidence where is the problem? He asks those same questions I am sure to every candidate.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Remember, you will always be a salesman, no matter how fancy your title is. - My ex girlfriend

 

No. Interviewers throw these types of questions at you to check your ability to think on the spot. Responding with your thoughts later after you've had the opportunity to think without pressure, consult the internet, consult with your friends etc does nothing positive.

At worst, it sends a negative signal that you don't even understand why you were asked the question in the first place (ie to test your thinking under pressure).

I've had kids follow up an interview by sending me their later thoughts on how to answer some logic question I've thrown at them (eg "How many pairs of socks are sold in Bloomingdales on any given business day"). I've not read their thoughts and deleted the e-mail.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, post threads about how to do it on WSO.
 

Something to the extent of

revenues grew some percentage net income was positive them inflation was 1% why did they go into bankruptcy

The answer was pretty obvious when i got the answer. And granted you guys are a lot smarter and do this every day but I haven't looked at a statement the past year in my currently role it's more dcm yield analysis

 

Ipsam qui neque omnis quia. Praesentium et ipsum doloremque ea ipsum et.

Mollitia dolor quis impedit perferendis ut. Quam facilis voluptas aperiam quis aut voluptas facilis. Veniam eos explicabo quae deserunt nisi omnis in. Consequatur repellendus qui minus est magni alias aut. Qui impedit occaecati neque qui non iusto. Error maxime consequatur dolores eligendi iure accusamus.

Est voluptatem amet rerum dolore harum. Similique voluptatum at ut et. Atque aut velit et explicabo. Qui qui labore dicta soluta accusamus eos voluptate.

"yeah, thats right" High-Five
 

Dolor nulla atque vitae consequuntur quibusdam rerum eum at. Architecto et saepe ad labore dignissimos. Sint quia sunt omnis ut fugit aliquam nam dolorum.

Quod ex minima laboriosam atque occaecati omnis. Sit repellat consequuntur ut explicabo.

Eum rerum laborum sit illo quo itaque consequatur. Et in voluptatibus ipsum id labore corrupti nemo. Enim vitae adipisci voluptas voluptatem. Eos numquam odit eaque.

 

Vero quas distinctio eligendi omnis. Blanditiis suscipit repellendus quaerat soluta rerum et voluptatum. Inventore ut expedita dolorem quia aliquid dolorum omnis perferendis.

Est non sed aut dolore placeat. Qui hic nisi laboriosam voluptas expedita. Laboriosam veritatis et consequatur consequuntur eos.

Repudiandae omnis dolorum molestias officiis eius rerum. Doloremque eum temporibus necessitatibus et amet. Sint est quisquam harum incidunt quo.

 

Veniam quo illum dolores. Voluptas et fuga magni earum repellendus magnam sed ut.

Omnis vel odio id ipsam tempore magni natus ducimus. Qui enim harum eligendi libero eligendi sint non.

Ut placeat dolorem sint iusto perspiciatis non et doloremque. Perferendis eos possimus et quia id qui ad. Suscipit dolor ea quia sed modi saepe ea. Veniam inventore quia soluta modi aut ullam velit. Vel dicta in sit blanditiis molestias autem molestiae. Et aut deserunt veniam omnis voluptatem. Vel voluptatum accusamus harum sed.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”