MBA / Lateral Recruitment | Interview Guidance

Hey All - 

I'm currently an associate at an UMM PE shop in my last few months on the gig ahead of going to get my MBA. I'm planning to re-recruit for buyout shops for my post-grad role. With this in mind, was wondering if any individuals out there could speak to the types of deal-specific (or technical) interview questions that you received during MBA recruitment? I imagine it's not too dissimilar from interviews for lateral roles so that might be a helpful data point as well. 

Mostly asking to make sure I'm collecting / rehearsing all the information on my portfolio companies / deals that I can before I lose access to a lot of this information. 

Questions that I have on my mind - 

  • How high level vs detailed can these get?
  • How can I adequately prepare? If you found that a one pager / tear sheet for each deal helped you personally, curious what you included on that to feel like you were ready to go.. Mainly hoping to understand whether I need to go beyond classic growth / margin profile / capex intensity / etc. that are the headline numbers that you'd see on the teaser page of a CIM 
  • How well do I need to know the specific model implications of deals that I looked at (e.g., debt paydown, implied MOI, NWC profile)? 
  • I've heard you get asked a lot about process and have to prove that you know how to QB a deal. What does that actually look like beyond me saying "yes, I ran the model / QoE / lender workstream" 
  • For those that didn't close a deal (but got plenty of deal experience), did you find that to be a challenge? 

As context, I recruited for PE from a consulting role, so I might just not be as schooled on how to talk through actual financials and what the expectation is as those that came from the banking universe 

 

Unde et aut nihil cumque sit impedit. Aut omnis molestias maxime eius qui ut culpa. Sed iusto fugit rerum vitae est unde soluta. Quo quidem dolores dolore aut assumenda aut impedit.

Itaque et esse quod facilis ut. Provident necessitatibus architecto sit officiis dolores laboriosam. Distinctio eum inventore laudantium incidunt. Dolores commodi voluptate quas nihil. Modi eos similique at aut vitae necessitatibus.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Lazard Freres No 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 18 98.3%
  • Harris Williams & Co. New 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 04 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

May 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (21) $373
  • Associates (91) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (14) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (68) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (205) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (146) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”