Interview Prep?
Bit of a unique situation so not sure if i put in the right forum. I applied for a co-op (basically a 6-month off-cycle internship) with a very small and niche PE firm in SF. I'm a non-diversity sophomore at a non-target university but came in as transfer after doing a few years at another university, so I've done a ton more coursework than a typical sophomore and have had three internships at various places (all outside of the US, and none directly related to PE or IB - most recent internship was at a central bank where i did mostly back office type work - research, translating, summarizing, taking notes in meetings).
Had a ~30 min chat with the principal of the PE firm today. I didn't prep too much other than the common stuff (why PE, why this firm) but it seems like the call went well and I've just scheduled another call with another principal.
Any tips and advice on what I should prepare and expect to come up in the interview? did I basically just go through a first round and is this next interview gonna be a more rigorous 2nd round? principal said it was gonna be more of the same stuff with the rest of the team but my gut tells me its gonna be tougher or different or theres gotta be a curveball somewhere.
in this interview i specifically asked the principal what stood about me and my resume and he said my most recent internship, my extensive coursework, and prior exp in excel from classes. So it seems like they are clear that i dont have prior PE experience. they also said that in terms of FT hiring, they're only looking for ex-bankers wanting to be taken on as associates, so i wouldnt have a chance at a return offer cos id only be an analyst doing work for about 6 months - but to me that also implies that they dont expect prior IB exp. seems like they just want me to demonstrate an interest and show that im capable of learning on the job.
so im not too clear on what to do between now and my 2nd interview.
note: just realized how much detail i went into here. ik chances are nearly impossible, but if the principal i talked to today somehow sees this and connects the dots - first off - hi! second, does it look bad that im seeking advice on WSO? i hope not.
The fact that he invited you for the 2nd round means you know how to talk to people and tell a good story. Considering your behaviourals are fine, just get your techs down pat.
BIWS 400 + Get your reps in with Paper LBOs + be able to speak on a deal you’re following.
You’ll be fine. Good luck
thanks for the advice!
Just did my interview today and got into the final round! Will be talking to the 3rd principal at the firm this week. I didnt end up doing much prep cos I doubted that they expect me to know how to do LBOs and other technical stuff (and in hindsight, based on my 2 interviews so far, that seems to be the case), so I just tried to make sure i knew my behaviorals and also had a tech startup i could talk about.
Today though they did ask me, as an analyst, how I'd source deals and new companies to work with. Honestly I improvised my answer on the spot, so I don't think it was great.
First I talked about how I'd use my immediate network. I knew someone in high school who's now working at a startup, so I talked about what the startup does which i thought was interesting, and then how I'd go through the key things that the firm is interested in (revenue, growth, Application software/in the FinTech space), and how if the startup checks all those boxes I'd bring it to him and the other principals and see what they think. And key points of interest were just things he mentioned to me in the beginning of the interview about what kind of companies they look for, so honestly I just pulled that one out of the hat and it wasnt that bad.
After that he asked me "outside of your immediate network, how else would you find new companies for us to back?"
thats when i got really lost. i mentioned using the internet, looking at PE news, and then finding an opportunity there that's consistent with what this PE firm was looking for, which is founder-led MM firms, so I'd look into smaller companies serving some niche. He looked a little more underwhelmed when I BSd this one, so I think I dropped the ball there.
How would you answer that question? I dont even know how I would have prepared for this type of question. I think they genuinely just wanted to hear my approach to searching for new companies they could invest in, being aware that i have never done that before, so getting ideas for that would be great.
i wonder what other questions they're gonna ask me in the final round.
i learned a ton today tho.
1. be ready to ask different questions. i took a risk and did not prepare new questions today for the 2nd principal, and when it came time for me to ask the principal questions that i had, he sort of hinted at the fact that he's talked to the other principal about my 1st interview, so in the moment I tried my best to ask different questions but still ended up asking a lot of the same stuff. luckily i actually got a different answer so in hindsight i think it was fine, but i could tell again that the principal was not impressed with my questions, and seemed to have expected more interesting questions. for the final round, i definitely need a fresh set of questions.
2. be ready to answer private-equity related questions. this is where im rly confused because i dont know what they're gonna test me on.
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