About the "real weaknesses", should we adress them from the start (by including them in our story for example) ? Or should we wait for the interviewers to challenge us ?
You can address the most obvious one in your story, but don't spend too much time on it; your story is about your strengths, not your weaknesses. So, don't mention something like a low GPA or low test scores upfront. Let the interviewer ask about it, and be prepared to address it when he/she does. On the other hand, if your weakness is blatantly obvious, such as getting interested in IB after graduation and not having any relevant internships, you have to explain that in the course of your story.
We've covered this topic a lot on Mergers & Inquisitions, and there are interviews from readers with different academic/work backgrounds who got into the industry there. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to come in from a complete non-finance background because you typically need 1-2 previous finance internships to be competitive for roles at large banks at the undergraduate level. You can still move in as a lateral hire post-graduation in some cases, but, again, you usually need something a bit closer to finance experience to do this.
@@FM-dm8xj I can't recommend anything offhand, but you can learn a ton just by reading everything online, in this channel, across both our sites (M&I and BIWS), etc. These days, there's almost too much information about finance careers online because it's a completely saturated market.
Hi Brian, great video as always. Not sure if you will see this now but here goes. Regarding failure story and hence weaknesses, could the following be a viable answer (I know you said not to mention any "real weaknesses"): took on a back office wealth management job (looking back now, a mistake) during university on top of doing a full course load (total workload 80+ hrs per week) and was also living alone during that time so grades suffered (think 3.0-ish GPA for Americans, 68-70 WAM here in Australia), next semester amidst COVID (so online classes, etc.), managed to juggle work commitments and uni load (for a total of 60+hrs p/w) and performed really well (4.0 GPA, 88 WAM). Could I use this as a potential failure story, demonstrating my adaptability/resilience/improvement in time management/prioritisation or is this "too real or "too universal" of a weakness? Another question: I know the following Rule Of Three method is not a catch-all method so how should we be preparing for other specific behavioural questions such as "Describe a time when you faced a particularly tight deadline or had to juggle multiple projects. How did you overcome that challenge?". For some people, their Success and/or Leadership stories may fall into this category but how would you suggest other candidates respond to questions such as these? Last question: when and how would interviewers ask about our 3 real weaknesses? Would they ask us to describe our weaknesses, to which we would tell them the 3 non deal-breaker weaknesses and then they'll grill us further/call BS on our responses to which we finally reveal our 3 real weaknesses? Or is this preparation more so if the interviewer tries to pick out or drill in on weak areas of our resume/CV and ask us to explain any shortcomings? Thanks heaps!
It could work, but how, specifically did you improve in the next semester? You need to highlight that or it just sounds like happenstance that you did poorly in one semester and better in the next one. I suggest you spin other stories into sounding appropriate for behavioral questions. If a project or job didn't have a deadline, for example, insert a deadline into the story or say that there was a "soft deadline," but you could tell your boss really wanted it by Date X. Interviewers will rarely ask for your 3 real weaknesses directly, so this one is more about preparing for when they start drilling into your resume/CV, work experience, grades, etc., to find those weaknesses.
What advice could you give to someone who maybe didn’t go to an Ivy League school, but a known senior military college such as The Citadel? I’ve been interested in investment banking and received an amazing opportunity but want to be sure I can meet this criteria.
Please see all the recruiting-focused articles on M&I. Network, network, network, internships, internships, internships, and start extremely early since recruiting now takes place at warp speed.
I would aim for different stories for these, or at least try to put a different angle on them. You don't want to sound like you're repeating yourself too much when they ask common fit questions.
Hi Brian, one question, How much should I remember about a deal that i worked on, for an interview purpose. I'm talking about numbers, multiples, model assumptions ? Or do interviewers just want to know the story ?
You don't need to know every single number, but focus on the ~5 or so key ones... the multiple or premium the deal was done at, approximate revenue growth and margins, etc.
So reviewing this video I'm not clear on how just 3 stories would answer all fit questions? For example if you only have 3 stories and they ask 6 fit questions are you meant to use the same story twice? So how would it work then since we cannot do that?
One approach is to use a different part of a story or emphasize different parts of the story in your responses. There's no rule that says you can't reference the same story or event to answer different questions. It's just that you can't say the same exact thing in response to different questions.
No, but we do have articles on interview prep for S&T and ER on M&I if you take a look there. The "fit" questions aren't that much different, but you focus on slightly different points in your answers (e.g., ability to take calculated risks is a lot more important in S&T).
If you're at one of those schools, your major is almost irrelevant as long as you have decent grades. And there are proxies for finance/accounting... at Princeton, something like Operations Research and Financial Engineering or Engineering and Management Systems. Even something like Economics could work because those are 2 of the best schools in the country/world (whereas Economics would not be an ideal choice at a state school ranked #50).
@@financialmodeling I agree with you, but you shouldn't make it sound like in your video that you need to go to Harvard and major in finance because that's not possible.
@@financialmodeling I was always super curious how/ why the US banks prefer (mostly) to recruit Ivies even from some totally unrelated/ irrelevant 'Gender Studies' than anyone else from any decent finance (or any quant tbh) program. I wonder if they prefer to get a surgery done by History of Art major from Yale, than a Surgery major from mid-ranked public university.
@@Lagr3n Surgery is obviously a different case because it's a life-or-death scenario, and years of training are required to even attempt it. The work you do in IB is not life-or-death, it's fixing fonts and changing color schemes in presentations, so the stakes are much lower. Most banks recruit from the top schools as a simple filtering mechanism to reduce the number of applications they get. It's the same reason organic chemistry is a pre-requisite for medical school: they want to weed out people.
@@financialmodeling Sure, (un)fortunately I know what the junior IB works consists of. I also know, that most of the careers have a education-related filter for the sake of narrowing down on candidates pool, yet for the majority it is much more driven by the field of the study than the school's prestige. To become a surgeon, optimally you'd graduate from Medicine at Harvard, but you have a higher chance to get it studying Medicine at some lower-tier university, than geting a Philisophy diploma from Harvard. Same for most of other 'serious careers (whatever engineering, IT or even in 'normal' finance). Very limited number of careers gives preference to totally unrelated-studies at prestigious university over the right programs from less 'target' schools
As a first-year MBA candidate preparing for IB recruiting this year, I can tell your videos are a big help. Thanks for all the work.
Thanks for watching!
About the "real weaknesses", should we adress them from the start (by including them in our story for example) ? Or should we wait for the interviewers to challenge us ?
You can address the most obvious one in your story, but don't spend too much time on it; your story is about your strengths, not your weaknesses. So, don't mention something like a low GPA or low test scores upfront. Let the interviewer ask about it, and be prepared to address it when he/she does. On the other hand, if your weakness is blatantly obvious, such as getting interested in IB after graduation and not having any relevant internships, you have to explain that in the course of your story.
Thanks ! Great content btw.
Can u please do a videofor people with a non finance and accounting bg trying to break in internships and grad roles?
We've covered this topic a lot on Mergers & Inquisitions, and there are interviews from readers with different academic/work backgrounds who got into the industry there. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to come in from a complete non-finance background because you typically need 1-2 previous finance internships to be competitive for roles at large banks at the undergraduate level. You can still move in as a lateral hire post-graduation in some cases, but, again, you usually need something a bit closer to finance experience to do this.
@@financialmodeling thanks, do you reccomend any recources to start with tho as a first year in college?I dont think i can read rosenbaum yet
@@FM-dm8xj I can't recommend anything offhand, but you can learn a ton just by reading everything online, in this channel, across both our sites (M&I and BIWS), etc. These days, there's almost too much information about finance careers online because it's a completely saturated market.
@@financialmodeling I agree, but thats why I asked cos theirs an overloading of information and therefore hard to find whats good or bad.
Hi Brian, great video as always. Not sure if you will see this now but here goes.
Regarding failure story and hence weaknesses, could the following be a viable answer (I know you said not to mention any "real weaknesses"): took on a back office wealth management job (looking back now, a mistake) during university on top of doing a full course load (total workload 80+ hrs per week) and was also living alone during that time so grades suffered (think 3.0-ish GPA for Americans, 68-70 WAM here in Australia), next semester amidst COVID (so online classes, etc.), managed to juggle work commitments and uni load (for a total of 60+hrs p/w) and performed really well (4.0 GPA, 88 WAM). Could I use this as a potential failure story, demonstrating my adaptability/resilience/improvement in time management/prioritisation or is this "too real or "too universal" of a weakness?
Another question: I know the following Rule Of Three method is not a catch-all method so how should we be preparing for other specific behavioural questions such as "Describe a time when you faced a particularly tight deadline or had to juggle multiple projects. How did you overcome that challenge?". For some people, their Success and/or Leadership stories may fall into this category but how would you suggest other candidates respond to questions such as these?
Last question: when and how would interviewers ask about our 3 real weaknesses? Would they ask us to describe our weaknesses, to which we would tell them the 3 non deal-breaker weaknesses and then they'll grill us further/call BS on our responses to which we finally reveal our 3 real weaknesses? Or is this preparation more so if the interviewer tries to pick out or drill in on weak areas of our resume/CV and ask us to explain any shortcomings?
Thanks heaps!
It could work, but how, specifically did you improve in the next semester? You need to highlight that or it just sounds like happenstance that you did poorly in one semester and better in the next one. I suggest you spin other stories into sounding appropriate for behavioral questions. If a project or job didn't have a deadline, for example, insert a deadline into the story or say that there was a "soft deadline," but you could tell your boss really wanted it by Date X. Interviewers will rarely ask for your 3 real weaknesses directly, so this one is more about preparing for when they start drilling into your resume/CV, work experience, grades, etc., to find those weaknesses.
What advice could you give to someone who maybe didn’t go to an Ivy League school, but a known senior military college such as The Citadel?
I’ve been interested in investment banking and received an amazing opportunity but want to be sure I can meet this criteria.
Please see all the recruiting-focused articles on M&I. Network, network, network, internships, internships, internships, and start extremely early since recruiting now takes place at warp speed.
is it still good if my success and leadership stories are the same story?
I would aim for different stories for these, or at least try to put a different angle on them. You don't want to sound like you're repeating yourself too much when they ask common fit questions.
Hi Brian, one question,
How much should I remember about a deal that i worked on, for an interview purpose. I'm talking about numbers,
multiples, model assumptions ? Or do interviewers just want to know the story ?
You don't need to know every single number, but focus on the ~5 or so key ones... the multiple or premium the deal was done at, approximate revenue growth and margins, etc.
So reviewing this video I'm not clear on how just 3 stories would answer all fit questions? For example if you only have 3 stories and they ask 6 fit questions are you meant to use the same story twice? So how would it work then since we cannot do that?
One approach is to use a different part of a story or emphasize different parts of the story in your responses. There's no rule that says you can't reference the same story or event to answer different questions. It's just that you can't say the same exact thing in response to different questions.
is there a similar video for S&T or ER?
No, but we do have articles on interview prep for S&T and ER on M&I if you take a look there. The "fit" questions aren't that much different, but you focus on slightly different points in your answers (e.g., ability to take calculated risks is a lot more important in S&T).
Also, I'm not sure your "ideal" candidate could even exist. Neither Harvard nor Princeton offers finance or accounting majors.
If you're at one of those schools, your major is almost irrelevant as long as you have decent grades. And there are proxies for finance/accounting... at Princeton, something like Operations Research and Financial Engineering or Engineering and Management Systems. Even something like Economics could work because those are 2 of the best schools in the country/world (whereas Economics would not be an ideal choice at a state school ranked #50).
@@financialmodeling I agree with you, but you shouldn't make it sound like in your video that you need to go to Harvard and major in finance because that's not possible.
@@financialmodeling I was always super curious how/ why the US banks prefer (mostly) to recruit Ivies even from some totally unrelated/ irrelevant 'Gender Studies' than anyone else from any decent finance (or any quant tbh) program.
I wonder if they prefer to get a surgery done by History of Art major from Yale, than a Surgery major from mid-ranked public university.
@@Lagr3n Surgery is obviously a different case because it's a life-or-death scenario, and years of training are required to even attempt it. The work you do in IB is not life-or-death, it's fixing fonts and changing color schemes in presentations, so the stakes are much lower. Most banks recruit from the top schools as a simple filtering mechanism to reduce the number of applications they get. It's the same reason organic chemistry is a pre-requisite for medical school: they want to weed out people.
@@financialmodeling Sure, (un)fortunately I know what the junior IB works consists of. I also know, that most of the careers have a education-related filter for the sake of narrowing down on candidates pool, yet for the majority it is much more driven by the field of the study than the school's prestige.
To become a surgeon, optimally you'd graduate from Medicine at Harvard, but you have a higher chance to get it studying Medicine at some lower-tier university, than geting a Philisophy diploma from Harvard. Same for most of other 'serious careers (whatever engineering, IT or even in 'normal' finance). Very limited number of careers gives preference to totally unrelated-studies at prestigious university over the right programs from less 'target' schools