Technical Interviews are Dumb
Incoming BB analyst here so I'm not just some kid who doesn't know his technicals lol. But seriously asking difficult technical questions in interviews is ridiculous. Yes, ensure the candidate knows the basic accounting, finance etc but beyond that it's ridiculous to ask hard questions. There's such a broad range of things that could be asked and no one knows the answers to every potential question. Technicals can be learned on the job. When I'm an interviewer I'm going to look for someone who has grit, really wants to be here and is personable. I don't care if they trip up on the technicals, if I like them I'm going to push them through and help them for the later rounds
I disagree a bit. I think that asking the standard technicals is somewhat pointless. The standard, basic technicals are easily memorizable and don't show any level of critical thinking or intelligence, and are really only a measure of a candidate's preparedness for interviews. However, I think that the difficult technical questions that are more common among boutiques are pretty useful, as most of them can't be just memorized and actually require the candidate to understand the concepts and use some thinking and problem solving to apply the concepts to somewhat they didn't just read out of a prep book. I'm at an EB, and personally, when I'm interviewing candidates, I basically throw the candidates a single "$5 of depreciation" question to check if they have any semblance of finance knowledge. After that, I usually ask candidates about a company they follow and give them a small case study, as it shows both their actual interest as well as some level of creative thinking.
"No one knows the answers to every potential question." That's the point, they shouldn't, and that's why I'm not a fan of asking questions that could be directly from guides. When I'm asking technical questions, it's not about their answer, but it's rather about analyzing their thinking process and if they're able to formulate their thinking and problem solving in an organized and logical way.
With the millions of interview guides out there (looking at you IB400), every idiot now "knows" technicals. Have no choice but to ask more difficult or thoughtful ones to weed these out. Also, like the other comment said, a lot of it is the thought process and problem solving.
Wait till you're a second year, you'll care about candidate technicals lol. When you're under the gun, you can't teach and deliver your shit. No room for passengers.
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