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.

 
Best Response

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!

 

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...

 

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.

 

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."

 

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.

 

^^^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?

 

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.

 

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"

____________________________________________________________ "LIVING THE DREAM 24/7 ON http://THEALLNIGHTER.BLOGSPOT.COM" ____________________________________________________________
 
MercuriusW:
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.

nauru:
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.

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.

 

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