Why I Cancelled my IB Interview

For anyone else reading, this is absolutely the wrong move. 

• Don't overestimate your competition
• I haven't interviewed a candidate that "really nailed" technical questions. It's more that you know what you're applying to and are able to communicate clearly
• You should prepare and understand expectations before applying. The email reads like you threw your hat in without any awareness
• The payoff here is asymmetrical. If you can sell yourself and succeed in the interview, you get a job offer. If you don't, you have nothing, exactly what you have now. Highly unlikely that these guys are going to remember you or view you positively after this

That said, success in investment banking is much more about being able to sell yourself than knowing a set of facts. If you have "analysis paralysis" and lack confidence, it may not be a great fit.

You literally had nothing to lose by doing the interview

This is the kind of thing that gets thousands of likes on LinkedIn. That's not a compliment.

At the same time, if you quit that early even before an interview, you'd quit on the job. So, the interview process did it's part to weed people out.

Even if you bombed it you would have been more prepared for the next one by knowing what to expect.

This isn’t the end of the world and is a learning experience which is a huge part of beginning your career. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter, so I wouldn’t sweat it OP or take it harshly at all. If anything, it’s actually a pretty funny move if you look back on it in several years—yeah your email was a stinker, but it happens lol. Just as a parallel story, my first interview for IB (almost 5 years ago now) they asked me, “why are you interested in oil and gas?” I literally was speechless, because I didn’t know I was interviewing for an oil and gas role and my gut reaction was that sounds like the last place I’d ever want to be (this was a top EB as well). I look back at this and find it pretty funny, while it also taught me what to learn for interviews and how to prepare.

To other people’s points, it sounds like you psyched yourself out a bit and while I get your rationale that you might have saved the interviewers time, you really just shortchanged yourself a learning experience because you were afraid of failure or looking stupid. Let me save you the suspense—you are never going to feel 100% prepared and are absolutely going to tank an interview in the future, it’s a part of the interview process. If anything, getting those first few crap interviews out of the way early is really important for understanding what people ask in interviews and conquering the fear of failure or bad interviews (which happen even when you are an experienced professional).

Just to reiterate, it’s not a big deal and it’s no use getting upset over. If anything, hopefully this was a great lesson for you. Much like my infamous oil and gas interview, you will hopefully realize 3 things in the future:

1. Don’t ever send an email based on emotion. Anything business based you should write and let sit for a day before sending. Also, you might want to consult a mentor if you can before sending. In the future, hopefully this taught you that it’s not worth sending an emotional email because you might regret it in the future. There aren’t second chances with business.
2. half the battle is showing up. There are going to be a lot of uncomfortable situations as an adult and everything from a first date, to an interview, to an office happy hour are going to present opportunities to bail. Being afraid of showing up and just not going, is the only way to ensure failure and a lack of development.
3. Failing hard and fast is the best teacher. Also, hopefully after this one you realize—no matter what you can only go up from here!

Good luck OP, also, this gave me a solid chuckle lol.

All good just missing one line - your apology.

Nice, less competition for me

Can't help but feeling like either you were scared of being in that situation or you just don't have an interest in banking. If it's the former, I get that it's a tough situation to put yourself in but as others have alluded to, you have to put yourself in those uncomfortable situations in order to move forward.

That being said, under no circumstances should you say specifically why you aren't going into the interview. No good comes out of telling someone you aren't technical in writing over an email. Just say you won't be able to attend and that you' are sorry or that you accepted a different role or something. Literally anything but trying to describe your shortcomings in a letter.

Although I understand where you’re coming from, this made me cringe hard.

I have a very untraditional background, and (for some reason - don’t know what was wrong with me) actively decided against a target school back when I was young and naive. Since then it has been an eternal struggle to break into the industry and there were so many times I felt I was In the wrong place.

Throughout the uphill battle, I realised you have to learn to become uncomfortable. I can’t count the number of interviews I completely failed and made fun of myself - sometimes the interviewers even ended the conversation prematurely.

A little bit of insecurity shouldn’t stop you from all this. I learned that recruiters do not necessarily look for the candidate with the strongest technical knowledge to date, but more the strongest potential.

Keep grinding - and don’t send emails like this in the future

I think this was a huge mistake on your part.

1. Sometimes you get lucky and the interviewers don’t feel like doing technicals and just ask behavioral questions, especially if they see the candidate is from a non-finance background.

2. Practice. Nothing can simulate the stress of a real interview and, like anything in life, practice makes perfect. The only way to get over anxiety is to experience that thing over and over again.

3. I have aced interviews and bombed interviews. I’ve been on both sides of the interview process. It’s embarrassing and awkward for a few mins if you can’t answer a technical and then you move on. I’ve hired kids who stumbled on technicals before and passed on kids who answered every question right.

4. This is such an unusual email, that I feel like this group won’t forget your name and not give you another chance, so hopefully it wasn’t your perfect group.

5. When you start bailing on tough things, it becomes easier and easier to bail. Don’t let this become a habit where “you don’t care” or “life’s too short” feelings emerge when something challenging crops up.

Nothing bad can happen if you just give it your best shot. Even if you didn't have time to prepare properly, you could have done a lot of things during the interview to show you have the potential to learn. The email was definitely unnecessary. I dont think they care why you wanted to cancel it. In your professional future, theres no need to explain yourself like that. It sounds like you feel guilty for applying to a role and once you found out it was going to be a technical interview you just through the towel in. 

Certainly a mistake. Apart from a few minutes wasted I don't see any downside to having attended the interview. As a matter of fact it would have been a good learning experience. 

There is another massive mistake that was made by OP that no one is mentioning: brevity is king.

I have done (literally) hundreds of interviews for my BB and I've had candidates bow out of the process, it happens. If you're going to do that, do it in a two line email and say "thank you". If you write me multiple paragraphs just to tell me you're too scared then you're on my sh!t list forever. 

so the consensus is that you are indeed a pussy

If I were to receive this email I would audibly say "what the fuck".

I received an interview from an EB late last year. I thought I was gonna get embarrassed by the technicals and was ready to reject it. An associate I was friends with told me to never turn down an interview, let alone out of fear.

I now work for the EB.

Fear of failure is infinitely worse than failure itself.

So OP looks like you got the unfiltered feedback you wanted from WSO. What’s your plan going forward? Are you abandoning IB or hitting the technical guides? More curious about what you’ll make out of this experience. We all have shitty days but there’s always another shot to take.

I really wish this was satire. What the actual fuck?

If you have the type of personality where thinking that sending an email like this is a good idea then maybe go work at a non-profit helping the gay whales.

How do you expect to grow if you’re afraid to fail? Worst case scenario, you do the interview and get shredded. So what? I bet you would still learn a lot and ultimately improve your interview skills. If you bail on an interview the night before because you’re scared then you probably aren’t cut out for it anyways

It's one thing to turn down the interview (do as you will), but to outright tell them you're turning down the interview because you feel incompetent is really really dumb. 

Fake it till you make it

If you want to cancel, cancel. But why would you keep bragging yourself in the email? A determined college student can nail technicals in a week.

I think you got the advice you were looking for. I'll just add that next time, don't quit the game. Let them take you out. Do what you have to do and the next one will be better.