Three envelopes are presented in front of you by an interviewer. One contains a job offer, the other two contain rejection letters. You pick one of the envelopes. The interviewer then shows you the contents of one of the other envelopes, which is a rejection letter. The interviewer now gives you the opportunity to switch envelope choices. Should you switch?
The answer is yes. Say your original pick was envelope A. Originally, you had a 1/3 chance that envelope A contained the offer letter. There was a 2/3 chance that the offer letter was either in envelope B or C. If you stick with envelope A, you still have the same 1/3 chance. Now, the interviewer eliminated one of the envelopes (say, envelope B), which contained a rejection letter. So, by switching to envelope C, you now have a 2/3 chance of getting the offer and you’ve doubled your chances.
Note that you will often get this same question but referring to playing cards (as in 3-Card Monte) or doors (as in Monte Hall/Let’s Make a Deal) instead of envelopes.
You are given 12 balls and a scale. Of the 12 balls, 11 are identical and 1 weighs slightly more. How do you find the heavier ball using the scale only three times?
First, weigh 5 balls against 5 balls (1st Use of Scale). If the scale is equal, then discard those 10 balls and weigh the remaining 2 balls against each other (Second Use of Scale). The heavier ball is the one you are looking for.
If on the first weighing (5 vs 5), one group is heavier, then of the heavier group weigh 2 against 2 (2nd Use of Scale). If they are equal, then the 5th ball from the heavier group (the one not weighed) is the one you are looking for. If one of the groups of 2 balls is heaver, then take the heaver group of 2 balls and weigh them against each other (Third Use of Scale). The heavier ball is the one you are looking for.
You are given 12 balls and a scale. Of the 12 balls, 11 are identical and 1 weighs EITHER slightly more or less. How do you find the ball that is different using the scale only three times AND tell if it is heavier or lighter than the others?
Significantly harder than the last question! Weigh 4 vs 4 (1st Weighing). If they are identical then you know that all of 8 of these are “normal” balls. Take 3 ”normal” balls and weigh them against 3 of the unweighed balls (2nd Weighing). If they are identical, then the last ball is “different.” Take 1 “normal” ball and weigh against the “different” one (3rd Weighing). Now you know if the “different” ball is heavier or lighter.
If, on the 2nd weighing, the scales are unequal then you now know if the “different” ball is heavier (if the 3 non-normal balls were heavier) or lighter (if the 3 non-normal balls were lighter). Take the 3 “non-normal” balls and weigh 1 against the other (3rd Weighing). If they are equal then the third ball not weighed is the “different” one. If they are not equal then either the heavier or lighter ball is “different” depending on if the 3 “non-normal” balls were heavier or lighter in the 2nd Weighing.
If, on the 1st Weighing, the balls were not equal then at least you know that the 4 balls not weighed are “normal.” Next, take 3 of the “normal balls” and 1 from the heavier group and weigh against the 1 ball from the lighter group plus the 3 balls you just replaced from the heavier group (2nd Weighing). If they are equal then you know that the “different” ball is lighter and is 1 of the 3 not weighed. Of these 3, weigh 1 against 1 (3rd Weighing) If one is lighter, that is the “different” ball, otherwise, the ball not weighed is “different” and lighter.
If, on the 2nd weighing from the preceding paragraph, the original heavier group (containing 3 “normal” balls) is still heavier, then either one of the two balls that were NOT replaced are ”different.” Take the one from the heavier side and weigh against a normal ball (3rd Weighing). If it is heavier, it is “different,” and heavier otherwise the ball not weighed is “different” and lighter. If, on the 2nd weighing, the original lighter side is now heavier, then we know that one of the 3 balls we replaced is “different.” Weigh one of these against the other (3rd Weighing). If they are equal, the ball not weighed is “different” and heavier. Otherwise, the heavier ball is the “different” one (and is heavier).
If you get this right and can answer within the 30 minutes alloted for the interview, then you probably do deserve the job.
Source: ibankingfaq - click to check for more brain teaser Q&A
Investment banking interview
A blog for undergraduates and young bankers – cover letters, resume writing and interviewing skills, just for investment banks.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Investment Banking Interview – Brain Teaser Questions
You don’t necessarily come across brain teaser questions, but you have to be prepared, as they are quite popular in investment banking interviews. Don’t worry if you can’t produce an answer. This is a way to see how you deal with stress. Even if you don’t know the answer, it is a strategy to voice out your analysis and calculations to let the interviewer know your logic and how good your analytical thinking is.
To save my time in writing, I have found some popular questions for your practice.
Come back and check the answers tomorrow.
Three envelopes are presented in front of you by an interviewer. One contains a job offer, the other two contain rejection letters. You pick one of the envelopes. The interviewer then shows you the contents of one of the other envelopes, which is a rejection letter. The interviewer now gives you the opportunity to switch envelope choices. Should you switch?
You are given 12 balls and a scale. Of the 12 balls, 11 are identical and 1 weighs slightly more. How do you find the heavier ball using the scale only three times?
You are given 12 balls and a scale. Of the 12 balls, 11 are identical and 1 weighs EITHER slightly more or less. How do you find the ball that is different using the scale only three times AND tell if it is heavier or lighter than the others?
Investment Banking Interview
To save my time in writing, I have found some popular questions for your practice.
Come back and check the answers tomorrow.
Three envelopes are presented in front of you by an interviewer. One contains a job offer, the other two contain rejection letters. You pick one of the envelopes. The interviewer then shows you the contents of one of the other envelopes, which is a rejection letter. The interviewer now gives you the opportunity to switch envelope choices. Should you switch?
You are given 12 balls and a scale. Of the 12 balls, 11 are identical and 1 weighs slightly more. How do you find the heavier ball using the scale only three times?
You are given 12 balls and a scale. Of the 12 balls, 11 are identical and 1 weighs EITHER slightly more or less. How do you find the ball that is different using the scale only three times AND tell if it is heavier or lighter than the others?
Investment Banking Interview
Sunday, July 20, 2008
How To Get Investment Banking Offers
As we move further into summer internship season, many have asked me why they can get interviews but can never seem to get actual offers.
Usually, they lack a hook. To get an investment banking job, it's not enough to show you can do the job well and have a serious interest in it.
You have to show them that they need you more than you need them.
Of course, this is never really true. You're just a resource. They're a $100 billion firm. But a hook makes them think differently, at least temporarily.
What's A Hook?
A hook makes you stand out from everyone else. It can be your extreme enthusiasm over the job that caused you to email them 59 days in a row. It can be the experience you had working at a Chinese Private Equity firm last summer. It might even be how you were a Varsity Athlete in that sport they've never heard of.
But it can't be, "I really want to do banking so I can learn!" or, "I like the fast-paced environment!"
Those are just standard reasons to say you want to do the job.
When bankers interview you, they try to check off 3 boxes - 1) smart 2) can do the job 3) like him. A hook makes sure #3 is a "check."
But I'm Just A Normal Person, How Can I Get A Hook?
One good tactic is to make a connection with your interviewer by having similar interests, asking questions about some topic he or she likes, or having friends/alumni in common.
This requires upfront research and isn't always possible. But when you can do it, it works well.
Was your interviewer in the Marines? Maybe your brother/cousin/uncle was too. Was he in the industry where your dad/cousin/uncle works? Same undergraduate schools?
No One Wants You Until Someone Wants You (Then Everyone Wants You)
Everything is just high school all over again.
Another "hook": Convince the firm that you have offers with other investment banks. When they find out others want you, they'll be afraid they're missing something and want you more.
The correct answer to, "Are you interviewing with other firms?" is NEVER, "No." Even if you're not, never say, "no." Just be vague and say you are interviewing and considering several options.
If you are indeed interviewing successfully with other firms, mention the names - this works especially well if they are competitors. Naming any of the bulge brackets when interviewing with a bulge bracket, for example, would give you a boost.
Worst Case Scenario
Sometimes none of these tactics above actually works. This is why you spread your net wide and interview at many different banks - because eventually your hook will work and you will land that investment banking job.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on understanding investment banking and how to get investment banking employment.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
Usually, they lack a hook. To get an investment banking job, it's not enough to show you can do the job well and have a serious interest in it.
You have to show them that they need you more than you need them.
Of course, this is never really true. You're just a resource. They're a $100 billion firm. But a hook makes them think differently, at least temporarily.
What's A Hook?
A hook makes you stand out from everyone else. It can be your extreme enthusiasm over the job that caused you to email them 59 days in a row. It can be the experience you had working at a Chinese Private Equity firm last summer. It might even be how you were a Varsity Athlete in that sport they've never heard of.
But it can't be, "I really want to do banking so I can learn!" or, "I like the fast-paced environment!"
Those are just standard reasons to say you want to do the job.
When bankers interview you, they try to check off 3 boxes - 1) smart 2) can do the job 3) like him. A hook makes sure #3 is a "check."
But I'm Just A Normal Person, How Can I Get A Hook?
One good tactic is to make a connection with your interviewer by having similar interests, asking questions about some topic he or she likes, or having friends/alumni in common.
This requires upfront research and isn't always possible. But when you can do it, it works well.
Was your interviewer in the Marines? Maybe your brother/cousin/uncle was too. Was he in the industry where your dad/cousin/uncle works? Same undergraduate schools?
No One Wants You Until Someone Wants You (Then Everyone Wants You)
Everything is just high school all over again.
Another "hook": Convince the firm that you have offers with other investment banks. When they find out others want you, they'll be afraid they're missing something and want you more.
The correct answer to, "Are you interviewing with other firms?" is NEVER, "No." Even if you're not, never say, "no." Just be vague and say you are interviewing and considering several options.
If you are indeed interviewing successfully with other firms, mention the names - this works especially well if they are competitors. Naming any of the bulge brackets when interviewing with a bulge bracket, for example, would give you a boost.
Worst Case Scenario
Sometimes none of these tactics above actually works. This is why you spread your net wide and interview at many different banks - because eventually your hook will work and you will land that investment banking job.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on understanding investment banking and how to get investment banking employment.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Guide To Technical Questions In Investment Banking Interviews
One topic everyone asks me about is how to answer technical questions in investment banking interviews. What should you expect, how do you keep your calm, and what do you do to prepare beforehand?
I actually think people tend to focus too much on technical questions when preparing for interviews. Your fit and enthusiasm for the job are much more important.
That said, if you have some previous finance experience or have studied economics or finance in school, it is important to get these questions right.
There are 3 types of technical questions you may be asked: 1) Valuation/Modeling Questions 2) Accounting Questions and 3) Brain Teasers.
Valuation
You should know the three main valuation methodologies and be able to explain them to your interviewers.
First is comparable company analysis - looking at publicly traded companies and the multiples they trade at, then applying those to the company in question. This depends very much on "market data" to value companies, and the main downside is that sometimes there are no true comparable companies to use.
Second is precedent transaction analysis - looking at what buyers paid for sellers in similar industries and with similar financial profiles and applying the multiples to your own company. Again, there are often no true comparable transactions. Precedent transaction analysis also tends to produce the the highest valuations because of the control premium required to acquire companies.
Finally, there is the Discounted Cash Flow Analysis - using a company's projected cash flows, discounting them for the time-value of money and cost of capital and summing those to find the company's present value. This is the "purest" way of valuing a company since it depends solely on its financial performance, but the drawback is that it depends heavily on future projections, which tend to be unreliable.
Know these methodologies and the various advantages and disadvantages of each.
Modeling Questions
The most likely financial modeling questions you'll get will concern merger models (when a company acquires another company) and Leveraged Buyout, or LBO models - when a private equity firm buys a company using equity and debt.
The most important part of a merger model is the accretion/dilution - will a company have a higher or lower earnings per share (EPS) after acquiring another company? A merger model is an analysis of the trade-offs between using cash, stock, or debt to finance an acquisition. Any of these methods, or any combinations, will result in a different EPS. Beyond just the EPS impact, you also have to consider how much debt the buyer can afford, how much cash they have, and how much stock they can issue.
In an LBO model, you're trying to solve for the private equity firm's return on investment - the IRR. It's very similar to buying a house with a mortgage - there is a down payment (the equity part of an LBO) and the mortgage (the debt used to finance an LBO). The model measures how much the company's value grows and how much debt is paid off over 3 to 5 years. The most important drivers are purchase price, exit price, amount of debt used, and the company's growth rate and profitability.
Accounting Questions
Make sure you know the three financial statements - the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement - link together and be able to walk through how changes to one of them will affect the others.
One common question here is how an increase of $10 in depreciation will affect all the statements.
On the income statement, depreciation is an expense so operating income would decline by $10. With a tax rate of 40%, net income would drop by $6.
On the cash flow statement, net income is down by $6 but depreciation - one of the "addbacks" - increases by $10, so cash flow from operations would increase by $4.
On the balance sheet, Net PP&E would decrease by $10 because of the depreciation, while cash would be up by $4 from the tax savings. The $6 decrease in net income would also cause retained earnings to decrease by $6, so that the balance sheet balances - both assets and liabilities / shareholders' equity are now lower by $6.
Brain Teasers
It's hard to give a detailed overview of brain teasers because questions are usually completely different. In general, though, you want to keep your calm and focus on your thought process rather than getting the answer exactly right. Brain teasers are really just stress tests, so keep that in mind as you go through interviews.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on understanding investment banking and how to ace their investment banking interviews.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
I actually think people tend to focus too much on technical questions when preparing for interviews. Your fit and enthusiasm for the job are much more important.
That said, if you have some previous finance experience or have studied economics or finance in school, it is important to get these questions right.
There are 3 types of technical questions you may be asked: 1) Valuation/Modeling Questions 2) Accounting Questions and 3) Brain Teasers.
Valuation
You should know the three main valuation methodologies and be able to explain them to your interviewers.
First is comparable company analysis - looking at publicly traded companies and the multiples they trade at, then applying those to the company in question. This depends very much on "market data" to value companies, and the main downside is that sometimes there are no true comparable companies to use.
Second is precedent transaction analysis - looking at what buyers paid for sellers in similar industries and with similar financial profiles and applying the multiples to your own company. Again, there are often no true comparable transactions. Precedent transaction analysis also tends to produce the the highest valuations because of the control premium required to acquire companies.
Finally, there is the Discounted Cash Flow Analysis - using a company's projected cash flows, discounting them for the time-value of money and cost of capital and summing those to find the company's present value. This is the "purest" way of valuing a company since it depends solely on its financial performance, but the drawback is that it depends heavily on future projections, which tend to be unreliable.
Know these methodologies and the various advantages and disadvantages of each.
Modeling Questions
The most likely financial modeling questions you'll get will concern merger models (when a company acquires another company) and Leveraged Buyout, or LBO models - when a private equity firm buys a company using equity and debt.
The most important part of a merger model is the accretion/dilution - will a company have a higher or lower earnings per share (EPS) after acquiring another company? A merger model is an analysis of the trade-offs between using cash, stock, or debt to finance an acquisition. Any of these methods, or any combinations, will result in a different EPS. Beyond just the EPS impact, you also have to consider how much debt the buyer can afford, how much cash they have, and how much stock they can issue.
In an LBO model, you're trying to solve for the private equity firm's return on investment - the IRR. It's very similar to buying a house with a mortgage - there is a down payment (the equity part of an LBO) and the mortgage (the debt used to finance an LBO). The model measures how much the company's value grows and how much debt is paid off over 3 to 5 years. The most important drivers are purchase price, exit price, amount of debt used, and the company's growth rate and profitability.
Accounting Questions
Make sure you know the three financial statements - the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement - link together and be able to walk through how changes to one of them will affect the others.
One common question here is how an increase of $10 in depreciation will affect all the statements.
On the income statement, depreciation is an expense so operating income would decline by $10. With a tax rate of 40%, net income would drop by $6.
On the cash flow statement, net income is down by $6 but depreciation - one of the "addbacks" - increases by $10, so cash flow from operations would increase by $4.
On the balance sheet, Net PP&E would decrease by $10 because of the depreciation, while cash would be up by $4 from the tax savings. The $6 decrease in net income would also cause retained earnings to decrease by $6, so that the balance sheet balances - both assets and liabilities / shareholders' equity are now lower by $6.
Brain Teasers
It's hard to give a detailed overview of brain teasers because questions are usually completely different. In general, though, you want to keep your calm and focus on your thought process rather than getting the answer exactly right. Brain teasers are really just stress tests, so keep that in mind as you go through interviews.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on understanding investment banking and how to ace their investment banking interviews.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
How To Answer Investment Banking Fit Interview Questions
If you've managed to land investment banking interviews, you need to keep in mind 3 big themes as you go through interviews and try to get a job:
* You can "burn the midnight oil" - you work hard, consistently.
* You "don't shake the Jello" - you do not make mistakes.
* You "want to be Gordon Gekko" - you love business and finance.
Burn The Midnight Oil
More than just claiming you "work really hard" you need very specific stories here. When I was interviewing for these jobs in my senior year of college I discussed my experience working at a big company and how I regularly put in 100 hours a week and lived at the office toward the end of my internship there.
How can you show just how hard you work?
* Starting your own company: Not even banking is this much work.
* Taking leadership of a large project that takes several months to complete.
* Working 2-3 jobs at once and multi-tasking all the time.
* Running a political campaign over many months.
Don't talk about Finals Week or how you worked hard for 1-2 weeks with something. In banking you'll often be exhausted for months at a time, so come up with something at least this long in duration.
Don't Shake The Jello
As a junior investment banker, your most important duty will be checking numbers and not making mistakes. As with showing your interviewers that you can burn the midnight oil, you need specific stories here to stand out.
The way to show your attention to detail is by emphasizing that whatever you did was used by real, paying customers or read/viewed by a lot of people. Having wide exposure implies that you had to get your work right.
A perfect example of this kind of experience would be running a website or publication with thousands of daily readers. If you were editor of this publication, you would have to spend hours checking for mistakes and errors before publishing anything. And by relaying such a story, you could get across your leadership abilities as well.
If you have nothing like this, make a list of every single organization you've been in and every single project you've worked on over the past 3-4 years. Find the one where you were most attentive to detail and speak to that.
Want To Be Gordon Gekko
Even if you're not quite Mr. Gekko himself, you have to convince me that you're actually interested in finance.
This sounds elementary but you'd be surprised how many people don't do this. Why are you applying for this job if you're not interested in it? Yes, it pays a lot of money but you'll never be able to stick with it unless you're genuinely interested in the industry.
Here's an example dialog showing how to convey your interest in an industry:
Interviewer: "Tell me about a market you're interested in."
You: "I really enjoy following the alternative energy industry because it's so new. There has been a lot of activity lately in the solar cell manufacturer sector, driven by technological breakthroughs and favorable government subsidies worldwide."
Interviewer: "Did you invest in any companies? It seems like there's a lot of hype surrounding everything solar."
You: "I agree, most solar companies are overvalued. After researching the major companies, I invested in Solar Company X a year ago. They were trading at a discount to their competitors, despite growing at a 50% rate with 10% profit margins. And their Price To Earnings ratio was only around 30 rather than the 40 to 50 other companies had."
Interviewer: "Sounds good, but why were they valued so much lower than the competition?"
You: "They came in below earnings expectations just before I invested, and announced expansion plans and new capital expenditures at the same time. Investors questioned why they were spending more and more on product development when they were getting less profitable."
Interviewer: "So why did you invest anyway?"
You: "I found a much stronger correlation between annual stock returns and growth compared to profitability. Investors were focusing on short-term results instead of thinking long-term and looking at other companies in the industry. It is a nascent, high-growth industry so growth matters more than short-term profits."
This response shows you've put some thought into this stock pick and can explain in simple terms the qualitative and quantitative reasons for investing.
It's important to do both because candidates often focus on one or the other without considering the whole picture.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on understanding investment banking and how to get an investment banking summer internship.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
Investment Banking Interview
* You can "burn the midnight oil" - you work hard, consistently.
* You "don't shake the Jello" - you do not make mistakes.
* You "want to be Gordon Gekko" - you love business and finance.
Burn The Midnight Oil
More than just claiming you "work really hard" you need very specific stories here. When I was interviewing for these jobs in my senior year of college I discussed my experience working at a big company and how I regularly put in 100 hours a week and lived at the office toward the end of my internship there.
How can you show just how hard you work?
* Starting your own company: Not even banking is this much work.
* Taking leadership of a large project that takes several months to complete.
* Working 2-3 jobs at once and multi-tasking all the time.
* Running a political campaign over many months.
Don't talk about Finals Week or how you worked hard for 1-2 weeks with something. In banking you'll often be exhausted for months at a time, so come up with something at least this long in duration.
Don't Shake The Jello
As a junior investment banker, your most important duty will be checking numbers and not making mistakes. As with showing your interviewers that you can burn the midnight oil, you need specific stories here to stand out.
The way to show your attention to detail is by emphasizing that whatever you did was used by real, paying customers or read/viewed by a lot of people. Having wide exposure implies that you had to get your work right.
A perfect example of this kind of experience would be running a website or publication with thousands of daily readers. If you were editor of this publication, you would have to spend hours checking for mistakes and errors before publishing anything. And by relaying such a story, you could get across your leadership abilities as well.
If you have nothing like this, make a list of every single organization you've been in and every single project you've worked on over the past 3-4 years. Find the one where you were most attentive to detail and speak to that.
Want To Be Gordon Gekko
Even if you're not quite Mr. Gekko himself, you have to convince me that you're actually interested in finance.
This sounds elementary but you'd be surprised how many people don't do this. Why are you applying for this job if you're not interested in it? Yes, it pays a lot of money but you'll never be able to stick with it unless you're genuinely interested in the industry.
Here's an example dialog showing how to convey your interest in an industry:
Interviewer: "Tell me about a market you're interested in."
You: "I really enjoy following the alternative energy industry because it's so new. There has been a lot of activity lately in the solar cell manufacturer sector, driven by technological breakthroughs and favorable government subsidies worldwide."
Interviewer: "Did you invest in any companies? It seems like there's a lot of hype surrounding everything solar."
You: "I agree, most solar companies are overvalued. After researching the major companies, I invested in Solar Company X a year ago. They were trading at a discount to their competitors, despite growing at a 50% rate with 10% profit margins. And their Price To Earnings ratio was only around 30 rather than the 40 to 50 other companies had."
Interviewer: "Sounds good, but why were they valued so much lower than the competition?"
You: "They came in below earnings expectations just before I invested, and announced expansion plans and new capital expenditures at the same time. Investors questioned why they were spending more and more on product development when they were getting less profitable."
Interviewer: "So why did you invest anyway?"
You: "I found a much stronger correlation between annual stock returns and growth compared to profitability. Investors were focusing on short-term results instead of thinking long-term and looking at other companies in the industry. It is a nascent, high-growth industry so growth matters more than short-term profits."
This response shows you've put some thought into this stock pick and can explain in simple terms the qualitative and quantitative reasons for investing.
It's important to do both because candidates often focus on one or the other without considering the whole picture.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on understanding investment banking and how to get an investment banking summer internship.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
Investment Banking Interview
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Investment Banking Interview Selection Process
As summer holiday is approaching, many of you might be invited to attend interviews. I have been busy recently and have therefore borrowed a number of articles from Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, who has a similar mission like mine. Here is his article on investment banking interview.
One of my most frequently asked questions is how investment bankers decide who gets an offer following a day of interviews. Even if you did everything right, there's no guarantee you'll get an offer if your interviewers didn't like you.
Who Calls The Shots
Unlike the resume review process, Managing Directors are actually involved in handing out offers. HR does very little aside from scheduling the interviews - usually the MDs even tell them how many Analysts they need.
Typically everyone from Analyst to Managing Director will interview candidates. Everyone does have a say, but it's ultimately up to the Managing Director who gets hired.
Sure, junior people can disagree with something or try to push back, but the Managing Directors can never be overruled. This is investment banking, after all.
The Selection Process
After the first round of interviews, the interviewers decide who they want to invite back for Superday - where 10-20 candidates are interviewed and final decisions are made.
Sometimes there are too many people and not enough slots. In this case we'll give interviews to the best few and put everyone else on the waiting list.
During Superday, each interviewer will evaluate different qualities -leadership, drive, technical skills, for example. Candidates are not necessarily ranked on these, but we have an idea of who was the best in each area.
Afterward, HR gathers everyone for a debrief and sees what people thought. Usually consensus emerges pretty quickly on who we give offers to, who goes on the waiting list and who is rejected. Very rarely are we overwhelmed with star prospective bankers. Most of the time we are only impressed with 1 or 2 people.
How Many Get Selected
In general, we receive 500-1000 resumes for 30-50 interview spots, then give Superday interviews to 10 of those 30-50. Then we pick 2-3 of those to actually receive offers.
These odds don't look great, but most people we interview do not stand out and you can greatly improve your chances just by practicing and knowing what to expect.
What We Look For In Candidates
We look for people who really, really want the job and will do anything to get it.
Some interviewees are doing it just to test the waters and don't really know what they're getting into. Bankers can spot people like this from a mile away. Don't be one of them.
Prove that you can work hard on very little sleep, learn quickly, play well in teams and are hungry to get experience and you will get offers.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on how to get investment banking jobs and how to ace investment banking interviews.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
More interview tips from Jimmy Sweeney's "Job Interview Secret" job landing system.
Investment Banking Interview
One of my most frequently asked questions is how investment bankers decide who gets an offer following a day of interviews. Even if you did everything right, there's no guarantee you'll get an offer if your interviewers didn't like you.
Who Calls The Shots
Unlike the resume review process, Managing Directors are actually involved in handing out offers. HR does very little aside from scheduling the interviews - usually the MDs even tell them how many Analysts they need.
Typically everyone from Analyst to Managing Director will interview candidates. Everyone does have a say, but it's ultimately up to the Managing Director who gets hired.
Sure, junior people can disagree with something or try to push back, but the Managing Directors can never be overruled. This is investment banking, after all.
The Selection Process
After the first round of interviews, the interviewers decide who they want to invite back for Superday - where 10-20 candidates are interviewed and final decisions are made.
Sometimes there are too many people and not enough slots. In this case we'll give interviews to the best few and put everyone else on the waiting list.
During Superday, each interviewer will evaluate different qualities -leadership, drive, technical skills, for example. Candidates are not necessarily ranked on these, but we have an idea of who was the best in each area.
Afterward, HR gathers everyone for a debrief and sees what people thought. Usually consensus emerges pretty quickly on who we give offers to, who goes on the waiting list and who is rejected. Very rarely are we overwhelmed with star prospective bankers. Most of the time we are only impressed with 1 or 2 people.
How Many Get Selected
In general, we receive 500-1000 resumes for 30-50 interview spots, then give Superday interviews to 10 of those 30-50. Then we pick 2-3 of those to actually receive offers.
These odds don't look great, but most people we interview do not stand out and you can greatly improve your chances just by practicing and knowing what to expect.
What We Look For In Candidates
We look for people who really, really want the job and will do anything to get it.
Some interviewees are doing it just to test the waters and don't really know what they're getting into. Bankers can spot people like this from a mile away. Don't be one of them.
Prove that you can work hard on very little sleep, learn quickly, play well in teams and are hungry to get experience and you will get offers.
Ian Spellfield, a former investment banker, advises students and young professionals on how to get investment banking jobs and how to ace investment banking interviews.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Spellfield
More interview tips from Jimmy Sweeney's "Job Interview Secret" job landing system.
Investment Banking Interview
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