Vault guide to finance interviews
Does anyone know if this comes in a print version or just PDF? Also what are your opinions on the Wetfeet IB interview guides?
Does anyone know if this comes in a print version or just PDF? Also what are your opinions on the Wetfeet IB interview guides?
+273 | My chaotic IB journey | 28 | 2h | |
+212 | MS M&A vs GS HC | 49 | 12h | |
+116 | Anyone live in a different country before? What’s it like? | 45 | 6h | |
+77 | Hazing in the Bullpen. What to do? | 17 | 8h | |
+76 | Improving in TMT | 32 | 22m | |
+43 | Later Chodes - I'm Taking My Talents to The Mega Fund Leagues | 10 | 15h | |
+37 | Basically necessary to be a varsity athlete to get BB IB from Bowdoin? | 22 | 2d | |
+22 | Moelis vs PWP | 6 | 8h | |
+22 | Tips for incoming analyst at a small boutique | 6 | 2s | |
+21 | Summer 2024 Return Offers Forecast? | 11 | 5h |
Career Resources
It comes in both. The Wetfeet IB interview guides were pretty useful in my opinion, they are more focused on IB than the Vault one.
Does anyone have the link to the print version, when I go on the vault website for some reason it just says they have the pdf version
if by print you mean like an actual book, then yes, you can purchase it on amazon. otherwise you can print off the pdf yourself. Does your school have access to the pdf library for free?
Yes, my school does but I like having a hard copy, maybe I will print it out though and just staple by Chapter.
That's what I did. I'm not sure if this is something to do with the .pdf file, but I had a lot of trouble printing it. I eventually got it to work, but for so many runs it would only print a few pages and stop. I thought the file had some print protection or something, but I'm not sure.
A little off topic... but my 2 cents on Vault guide to finance interviews from an Econ major without hard corporate finance classes:
I went through my fair share of technical ibank/hedge fund/AM interviews, and I would say that while the guide does an OK job of providing you a base from which to proceed in these sorts of interviews, it sure as heck does not "give you everything you need to ace that finance interview" or whatever it advertises.
Specifically, it doesn't cover in much detail at all equity/enterprise value, EBITDA. It also doesn't cover in nearly enough detail basic accounting and the 10-K (esp. depreciation). Explanations on how to actually use comparable transaction and industry multiples, and specifically when to use which, need to be in more depth. It's my opinion that, even in first rounds, interviewers expect their interviewees to know all of this and other basic finance/accounting concepts (even if they don't have a hard finance/accounting background).
One banker put it rather bluntly at a pre-night, "if the candidates don't spend the time to do the background research [on their own], they were probably doing something else with their time [showing disinterest in finance and ibanking in general]."
Anyways, I am rambling and didn't mean for this post to be this long. At any rate, use the guides, but don't rely on them. Safest bet is to take Accounting/Corp. Finance introductory classes. Or at least use other resources in conjunction to the vault/wetfeet guides (investopedia.com is a great resource. wiki is OK).
Hope this helps!
you might lucky though; i got my print version for FREE from UBS when they recruited on campus. They a gigantic pile of them on a table outside the room!
[Removed]
while we're all waiting for dosk17 to finish his guide :), in the meantime, you can find some good interview technical questions & answers here (and free): http://www.ibankingfaq.com/category/interviewing-technical-questions/
Is the Vault Interview Guide a joke? (Originally Posted: 12/16/2007)
There are so many god damn typos in this thing. 30 dollars for a tiny little paperback and they can't even check it over for errors?
That's why you get it for free through school. Most career centers will give you access.
It's poorly prepared but it's a really good resource. As Matty200 said, you should be able to obtain it for free (along with the rest of their guides) through your school's career center.
nope, i had to pay 41 dollars for it (30+11 for 2 day shipping to get it before my interview)
I have question about it though:
on page 42, it doesn't explain how to get the DTS for the APV. All it says is, "We use the following formula: APV with DTS = APV without DTS + DTS" That's not even a damn formula. the discounted value of fcf is 26.41 and they get 3.7 for the value of the tax shield. Can anyone tell me how to get the 3.7?
if you have ever taken a finance class. Very basic. If you have no finance knowledge it is a decent place to start, but I would try to learn more.
I think the best interview prep it to actually work through a corporate finance book, even an introductory book would do. Granted this will take about 20 times longer than going through the Vault book, but if you really want the job...
About to buy the Vault guide about interviews etc...anything better? (Originally Posted: 07/29/2011)
That I should know about...did my research and Vault is highly praised.
Any other books I should consider that flew under my radar?
I feel silly for posting this but WSO offers some interview package.
Don't buy. It's a waste of money. A lot of good folks here can send you a free copy.
The Vault Guide is shit compared to WSOs. Take a look for yourself http://www.scribd.com/doc/14343364/Guide-to-Finance-Interviews
thanks for the feedback
so WSO'S would be better?
check out our testimonials and you can do some searches through threads over the years... http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide-to-finance-interviews
don't buy it, check your pm-inbox
can someone help me out with the vault guide via pm?
thanks for the feedback guys again
I bought the WSO Finance Guide and got the Vault guide from school. Let me say Vault will confuse you more, especially Vault Guide on Cases/Consulting and the accompanying one.
Always get aftermarket. So think Wetfeet > Vault > Case in Point > Tim Darling's Guide to Consulting -> WSO/Management Consulted's Bible, etc. (in order of progression, not use quality).
WSO for finance interviews, for sure. Consulting guide is great too.
For those who have studied Vault Guide/Finance Interviews...have you gotten similair questions at your interviews? (Originally Posted: 07/24/2007)
how "on point" are the questions that are discussed in Vault Guide for finance for ibanking specifically.....would I be set if I just studied that Guide? or would more reading on the subject be necessary ? thanks
When I did my finance interviews, I was an economics major so it was assumed I knew next to nothing about finance. I had studied pretty extensively so I definitely had some clue as to how read a balance sheet etc. but the point is if you aren't a finance/accting major, the Vault guide is more than enough.
There are people who say read the WSJ everyday, front to back etc. but what I did was just read it the day of my interview and the night before I just looked at a chart of major indices so I could give a reasonable answer to basic questions/come up with random shit "well the dow was 200 points lower 3 months ago, etc."
It depends on your resume and background. The Vault was enough for the basic stuff, but a lot of my interviews got much more technical.
^^^could you elaborate on that?
This was for summer. You likely won't get any of these unless you are from a finance school.
How would you model a leveraged buyout? What company is a good target for a leveraged buyout?
Why is it better to use a DCF for valuation of a cyclical business versus using multiples? Then, argue the opposite way. What are weaknesses of a DCF? Why would you use TEV/EBITDA instead of P/E?
Why doesn't Microsoft have debt?
How can you tell if a transaction is accretive/dilutive? Using 100% equity? Using 100% debt?
Would you buy or sell these industries, and why? (went through a list of 5-6) How do commercial banks make money? Would you buy or sell? (technical discussion on interest rates)
A corporation has extra cash on their balance sheet. What are five things they could do with it?
Plus a bunch of other finance and accounting Q's.
CDNMonkey, was this for a summer analyst or summer associate position? Some of those seem to be too technical for a summer analyst interview.
^^^how do you prepare for that? that sounds kind of crazy....i'm majoring in finance & investments next year....are those basic topics usually discussed within a finance major?
These were all for summer analyst interviews. If you are at a school known for finance, interviewers will sometimes try to push you a bit.
I am a finance major and my summer interviews were not that technical. My school only offers one class on mergers and acquisitions so any questions on accretive/dilution transactions were not possible, but a director I interviewed with did ask if I had any knowledge on it. Being able to talk about DCF, capital structures and tying together the balance sheets are mainly what I encountered.
thank god i go to a school with no finance major. only econ
vault guide for interviews (Originally Posted: 04/21/2009)
http://www.vault.com/store/book_preview.jsp?product_id=56206
Vault Guide to Private Equity and Hedge Fund Interviews
Anyone read yet? Worth buying?
Its not bad, touches on most of the areas. Doesn't your uni. career center sponsor?
You can get it for free
anyone have a copy? care to share? thx
Your school's career center should grant you access to many of Vault's career guides.
Are they any good? Urgent need of a copy. Would be very grateful for a download link.
Thanks!!
Is it essential to know everything in the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews? (Originally Posted: 08/03/2007)
do you really have to know each single part of the vault guide to finance interviews if you are trying to do an ibanking sort of interview? or only the part on valuation of a company and ibanking related stuff....thanks a lot for any answers
No way. Knowing this stuff helps, but they dont hire you for the stuff you know already - there will be training that is perfectly sufficient for you to learn everything you need to know even if you haven't got a clue about what a balance sheet is.
The more knowledge you demonstrate, however, the more genuine enthusiasm and time spent you show, which makes it more likely that you will tich the motivated candidate box.
Be aware, but there is absolutely no need to overdo it.
Good luck.
"Living the dream 24/7 on http://theallnighter.blogspot.com"
Help: Interview soon and Vault Guide (Originally Posted: 03/09/2008)
Hey,
I have an interview with a bank in a few days. The industry group deals with metals/mining, oil and gas.
I was wondering if someone could send me the Vault guide to the finance interview, or the Vault finance interviews practice guide.
Or if you could recommend some reading on the past, present and future of metals/mining, oil and gas. That would be very, very helpful.
Thank you.
Good luck. Metals and energy sounds like a really great place to be, if I were an IBD guy instead of markets. Don't have a vault guide for you though, sry.
Eh, My school has a Vault account and I found the guide to finance interviews to be extremely unhelpful. It contains a bunch of half ass answers to fit questions and a couple sections technical topics that (in my experience) never crop up in interviews.
That being said, I have the guide and could get it to you. How would I go about doing that?
Sweet. If you could email it to [email protected] I'd be very grateful. Hopefully it it's a text pdf so it should be small enough, and hopefully it isn't password protected. Thanks dude. And if you could recommend something better for interview prep.. feel free lol.
Thanks, that's great to hear. I think this is by far the most interesting industry to be in too. I'm actually not that interested in oil/gas (maybe I've just read too much peak oil stuff). I think uranium and nuclear is the future. It's just so much cooler.
Odio aut eaque similique quidem eum maxime rem quas. Maiores voluptatum ex cupiditate.
Harum eum hic ad ut quisquam repudiandae. Cum officiis explicabo iure est facere autem. Magni odit doloribus numquam magnam eos maiores quas.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Eum assumenda in repellendus rerum. Maxime nihil non necessitatibus dolor modi. Libero sit praesentium assumenda eaque incidunt aliquam totam voluptatem.
Et laborum omnis quibusdam molestiae distinctio optio dolor. Sapiente et iusto non non voluptatibus perspiciatis iure dolor. Alias cum impedit sunt quis eveniet libero alias.
Est ut ducimus doloribus nesciunt aliquam sequi. Repellendus saepe consectetur vel et sunt. A nihil dolorem alias nobis. Est voluptate error possimus quia et. Et sit est doloribus aut.
Cumque inventore perspiciatis eaque beatae quisquam et. Laboriosam odit temporibus officiis dolorum distinctio ut ut. Impedit vitae itaque explicabo et consequatur voluptate voluptatem. Aut ullam suscipit molestias tenetur enim ut.
Accusamus ad modi ad vel totam iste sed. Nobis odio enim ipsam molestiae culpa et. Commodi voluptas non natus id magni architecto. Aut ad voluptate numquam quasi nihil quidem qui.
Dolores dolores cum quis laudantium voluptate aut. Qui alias molestiae magnam rerum libero enim quae. Sed corrupti vitae nobis pariatur. Libero quis et voluptate rem. Quidem consequatur a et inventore rerum nisi. Ut dolor ad dignissimos. Eaque voluptates aliquid dolor sequi nemo.