Interview Prep Guides for a n00b

Our technical guide is a very solid way to prepare and it breaks the questions down into basic, intermediate and advanced unlike the other guides.

Yep. Get the WSO, naw d.

Bang out the Valuation and M&A parts and your golden. WSO really makes it easy to understand - guides you at the ladder.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but, keep in mind that I successfully landed full-time offers from 100% of my IBD interviews. So, something worked along the way for me. This should be referenced for anyone looking for advice in IBD interviewing.

It is my personal opinion that my preparation for the interviews, which was very systematic and detailed, is what allowed me to do well in my interviews. Ultimately, you want to feel confident that you know all areas of the technicals, know your story perfectly, and have several personal examples/experiences in the forefront of your mind that support answers to fit/behavioral questions.

For the technical portion of interviews, I would suggest first comprehensively reading the technical interview portion of ibankingfaq.com. After having all of the tech sections from that website secured conceptually in your mind, I would then get the WSO tech guide and go through it (it's very concise and easy to read, you can fully internalize this in an hour or so). Then, if you're feeling extra motivated to overachieve, get the M&I guide to complete your interview studying (technicals to be specific). If you prepare this way, you will know everything you need to know in an IBD interview. The best part of being so prepared is that it allows you to feel confident and comfortable with your interviewing skills and knowledge. By feeling as though you can draw upon anything potentially available to an interviewer, you will be more yourself...this is what is really important. This is what will allow you to be more yourself in the interview, more personable, which will make the interview more conversational in nature. If the interviewer feels like he's having an intelligent conversation with someone who has a very impressive conceptual understanding of finance and IB, then you will come across as competent AND likable. This is the key to securing offers in my opinion. You want to be personable, humble, eager to learn, AND smart.

As for the behaviorals/fit, don't overlook the preparation for these questions. Write down two or three detailed personal examples/experiences that support your answers for team work, strengths, weaknesses, leadership, time management, problem solving, initiative, communication skills, and influence. Also, make sure you are reading the WSJ and have a few recent M&A deals you can talk about if necessary (ideally draw upon deals that were advised by that specific bank if possible and/or that specific group/space if possible).

If you prepare thoroughly in this way, which can be done very easily in a matter of a week or so, then you will do very well in your interviews, assuming you're a personable and likable person of course. If you're a douche or socially awkward, well, then try and pretend to be the opposite if at all possible I guess. But at any rate, get to the interview 20 minutes early and take a big ass dump in their toilets and you'll definitely own the place during your interviews. Good luck.

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions; they're very much appreciated. I'm hoping you might be able to answer another question for me though.

I've managed to get all the CFA books from a friend in preparation for my interview. Should I be looking at any of these or do you think they're far too detailed to study properly in 4 days ? As I mentioned previously, I've got minimal financial knowledge, and I'm wondering if one or more of these books might provide me with the requisite information to fully understand the nature of the material presented in ibankingfaq and WSO.

Thank you for your help.