Breaking Into Wall Street – Investment Banking Interview Guide
Here’s How to Gain an ‘Unfair Advantage’ Over Other Candidates in Investment Banking Interviews – Without Memorizing Hundreds of Repetitive Questions and Answers
- Pitch yourself like a pro
Use our templates to answer the “Walk me through your resume/CV” question - Ace the technical questions
Learn the concepts so you don’t have to “memorize” anything - Prepare efficiently for “fit” questions
Re-use the same few stories to answer any fit/behavioral question - Test yourself and practice for case studies
You’ll get 17+ case studies and 218+ quiz questions with full answer keys
What You’ll Learn In Investment Banking Interview Guide
Module 1: Action Plan and Quick Start Guide
This module will show you how to get the most out of the Interview Guide with limited time, and what to focus on if you have only a few hours or a few days to prepare.
You get a Quick Start Guide with 4-hour, 2-day, and 1-week-long study plans, as well as checklists of everything you need to do before and after the interview.
You’ll also learn how the recruiting process works and what you must do to be a competitive candidate.
- 3 Written Guides: Quick Start Guide, Interview Checklist and What to Do Before and After the Interview, and The Recruiting Process and Differences at the MBA Level and in Other Countries.
Module 2: How to Tell Your Story (Resume Walkthrough Tutorials)
In this module, you’ll learn how to answer the most important question in any interview: “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume/CV” or “Why are you here today?”
If you answer this question effectively, all the other “fit” questions will be easy because you can keep referencing your ‘story’ to answer those questions.
If you don’t answer this question effectively, the rest of the interview is pointless because the interviewer will stop paying attention after 1-2 minutes.
- 1 Written Guide: How to Tell Your Story in Interviews.
- 4 Slide Presentations and 4 Videos: Overall Strategy, Undergrads and Recent Grads, Experienced Professionals and MBA-Level Candidates, and IB Exit Opportunities.
- 5 Templates and Executed Examples for Undergrads and Recent Grads: Engineer to IB, Liberal Arts to IB, Mixed Finance to IB, Previous Banking Experience to IB, and Consulting to IB.
- 8 Templates and Executed Examples for MBA-Level Candidates and Career Changers: Big 4 and Accounting to IB, Corporate Finance to IB, Experienced Executive to IB, Law to IB, Back and Middle Office to IB, Military to IB, Equity Research or Sales & Trading to IB, and Entrepreneurship to IB.
- 5 Templates and Executed Examples for IB Exit Opportunities: IB to Private Equity, IB to Hedge Funds, IB to Venture Capital, IB to Other Groups, and IB to Other Banks.
Module 3: Fit Questions and Deal and Market Discussions
In this module of the Interview Guide, you’ll learn how to answer “fit” questions (e.g., your strengths, weaknesses, and leadership skills) and how to discuss deals, companies, and markets, including your own deal experience.
Instead of presenting a laundry list of questions and answers, we focus on the strategies behind answering questions and how to prepare your discussions efficiently. We provide sample answers for the key “fit” questions as well as many examples of transaction discussions – for IPOs and equity deals, M&A deals, and debt deals.
You’ll also learn how to present your work if you have non-investment-banking deal experience, such as client work at a Big 4 firm, law firm, consulting firm, or in a credit risk role.
- 3 Written Guides: “Fit” Questions and Answers, Deal and Market Discussions, and How to Discuss Your Own Deal Experience.
- 3 Templates and Executed Examples for Deal and Market Discussions: One initial public offering (IPO) example, one leveraged buyout (LBO) example, and one shipping/maritime market discussion example.
- 3 Templates and Executed Examples for Discussing Your Own Deal Experience: One sell-side M&A example, one buy-side M&A example, and one capital markets (debt/equity) example.
Module 4: Technical Questions and Answers
In this module, you’ll master all the technical concepts.
You’ll start by learning about the core concepts required to understand everything else: The time value of money, present value, net present value, discount rates, WACC, and IRR.
Then, you’ll move into accounting and 3-statement modeling, equity value and enterprise value, and valuation and DCF analysis.
The remaining lessons and guides cover M&A deals and merger models, leveraged buyouts and LBO models, and more specialized topics such as private companies, equity and debt capital markets analysis, and industry-specific technical questions.
Each guide has “key rules of thumb” that explain the concepts, as well as interview questions and answers and accompanying Excel files so you can test yourself.
The core sections alone have 578+ pages of instruction and guidance, along with hundreds of annotated diagrams and screenshots, making this the most comprehensive coverage of technical questions available on the planet.
- 10+ Written Guides: Core Concepts, Accounting and the Three Financial Statements, Equity Value and Enterprise Value, Valuation and DCF Analysis, M&A and Merger Models, Leveraged Buyouts and LBO Models, Industry-Specific Guides (Real Estate; Oil & Gas; Banks and Insurance; and Restructuring), Equity and Debt Capital Markets and Leveraged Finance, and Private Companies.
- 18+ Excel Files: These files concisely demonstrate all the mechanics, from the fundamental concepts to their actual application to real-life deals.
- Short Video Walk-Through for Each Guide: These short tutorials summarize the most important points for each topic and explain how to use the written guides, questions and answers, and Excel files efficiently.
Module 5: Interactive Quizzes
This module lets you test your knowledge of the key technical topics by completing quizzes on Core Concepts, Accounting, Equity Value and Enterprise Value, Valuation and DCF Analysis, Merger Models, and LBO Models.
These quizzes are intended to be CHALLENGING – even if you have excellent knowledge of the material, you are unlikely to pass with a score of at least 90% on your first attempt.
Once you’ve tested yourself with these quizzes, you can download the full answer keys to verify that you understand the fundamental concepts.
In total, you’ll get to test yourself with 218+ questions across all the topics.
- 6 Interactive Quizzes: These cover the core technical topics and expand on the questions and answers covered in the technical sections of the Interview Guide in Module 4. There are many trick questions!
Module 6: Case Study Exercises
In this module, you’ll get practice completing a variety of case studies and modeling tests given in interviews and at assessment centers in the EMEA region.
The time required for these case studies ranges from 30 minutes up to 2 hours to simulate the time pressure you will encounter in interviews.
The topics covered include 3-statement modeling, valuation and DCF analysis, M&A and merger models, LBO modeling, and credit analysis. There are both qualitative and quantitative case studies, and some exercises mix the two.
We feature companies and deals from all 6 inhabited continents and a variety of industries, including airlines, manufacturing, professional services, retail, and more.
- 3 Three-Statement Modeling Exercises: A 30-minute case for Illinois Tool Works (U.S.), a 60-minute case for Frank Recruitment (U.K.), and a 90-minute case for Avianca (Colombia).
- 3 Valuation and DCF Exercises: A 30-minute case for Idea Cellular (India), a 90-minute case for Michael Hill (Australia and New Zealand), and a 30-minute case for Attendo (Nordics).
- 6 M&A and Merger Model Exercises: A 30-minute case for Steinhoff (South Africa), a 30-minute qualitative M&A deal discussion, a 30-minute deal discussion case for DSV (Europe), a 30-minute assessment center M&A case study, a 60-minute M&A calculations case study, and a 90-minute M&A case study on Starbucks and Krispy Kreme (U.S.).
- 4 Leveraged Buyout and LBO Model Exercises: A 30-minute “paper LBO” model, a 60-minute case for Diana Shipping (Greece), a 90-minute case for Fromageries Bel (France), and a 2-hour case for My Family Fit (Singapore).
- 1 Debt vs. Equity Exercise: 60-minute case for Central Japan Railway (Japan).
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