Worst Private Equity Modeling Test
Having gone through a number of PE interviews over the years I wanted to see what the best/worst modeling tests you have had the pleasure of going through. My worst experience happened to be at a fund where I was given two hours to build a model with every conceivable debt structure with different bullet/amortization schedules, wonky growth projections based on both one time and recurring revenue, and a sources and uses tab with 3 different equity holders (previous sponsor, mgmt, and sponsor) not to mention a chunk of preferred. While complicated the worst part of the test was..................................................that the computers ran office 2007. Threw me off completely and spent the first 20 min trying to figure out how to use the damn thing. Needless to say the formatting was not the best quality.
You gotta learn Office 2007, it's a steep learning curve but it's so much better than 2003.
There is no way in hell that 07' is better than 03'.
2007 may be better, but when you have spent years on 2003 then suddenly have to use 2007 in a timed format it throws off your entire mindset. Note to self...test new associates on 2003 when 2007 becomes the preferred format.
windows software is a running joke, the world around. problem is that it is the standard.
office 2003 is superior to 2007 as it has all the same abilities, but doesn't change the basic layout for appearance reasons.
Office 2007 is a million times better and faster. Obviously you guys don't like learning the new shortcuts. I resisted at first too cuz it was really awkward... but 2003 really sucks because you have to Alt, Ctrl+tab, Ctrl+tab, tab tab, tab to get to certain toolbar buttons in 2007 its literally three keystrokes to just about any possible type of formatting. You even eliminate the need for Ctrl+1 for 90% of the formatting options for which you HAD to ctrl+1 in 2003. And its significantly slower in calculations which you won't notice unless you're working on a very large LBO model or operating model, or both tied together. I've never modeled with calculation set to Manual in 2007, as I often had to do when working on larger models in 2003.
Add to that you can filter Ctrl+F3 named ranges to clean out broken references and identify any links to other spreadsheets.
As for OP's question, worst modeling test... I had a PE Partner ask me for my HP AND cell phone, and hand me a fine tipped sharpy marker and 2 white pieces of paper... gave me another sheet with assumptions and had me build a PF BS, and the 3 statements followed by a list of activities being done by the company... in addition to that there were FX conversions and tax issues that head to be calculated. I ended up walking out to the admin and getting about another 15 sheets of paper for scratch work and for mistakes.
Completely unnecessary IMO.
I make F1 my Ctrl+1 key to open up the formatting dialog box. Unlike some bankers who disable F1, I found a way to make it useful.
Office 2007 is better for a number of reasons:
-It has the ability to use multi-threaded calculation, which can cut calculation time by half or even more if your PC has a dual core / quad core processor -More rows and columns -Graphs and charts look better -More functions (Averageif, etc) -Functions can take more than 1024 characters. This is important, because I frequently got the "Formula is too long" error message in Excel 2003.
Im great with all versions of excel (been using Excel since the 6th grade, when the version I used was Excel 97), and I can easily say that Excel 2007 is the best out of all of them.
How did you learn to use Excel so well? Are SAs expected to know a good amount coming in?
Just put in your time. The longer you work with excel the more shortcuts you will learn. Comes with time trust me.
Agree with the sentiment that 2007 > 2003. I was trained on and have used 2003 for years, but last year I made the full switch to 2007 and greatly prefer it.
Once your VP and MD learns how beautifully you can make ppts on 2007, they're never gonna let u go back to 2003. Besides, I never got modeling questions from PE for an associate+ level position ;p
Luck of the draw I suppose as far as on site modeling. At the end of the day, modeling is the least stressful activity possible. As far as the sharpie response, instead of walking to the admin to ask for more sheets of paper I would bluntly tell the firm to F**k off. Also the first thing any respectable banker does when presented with a new keyboard is to simply rip off the F1 key and throw it in the trash IMO. Maybe I'm just old school.
Haha, when I was at MS, we had an analyst that ripped off the F1, Caps Lock, the windows key, and a couple other keys. His keyboard looked bare, but he was damm quick on his short cuts.
throw the insert key in there while you're at it... I HATE THAT BUTTON!
I use the insert key in Outlook to flag emails, but most people rip it off.
how would one go about doing that specific modeling test?
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