Investment Banking Analyst Interview (2020) Questions and Answers
Behavioural Questions:
Q1 Tell me about yourself? / Walk me through your resume? ******
Don’t repeat what is stated on your resume.
Tell them things like:
- Why do you want to study at this University?
- Why did you choose to study this field?
- Why did you intern at this company?
- Why did you gain interest in Investment banking, if you are studying Accounting? → is it because a lecture you attended in school, you met an investment banker, you have relative in an investment bank, you worked on a project.
Q2 Why do you want to be an investment banker? ******
- * Don't talk about finance in general eg. I enjoy finance module
- * Never say you want it for the money
- * Never say you are willing to work long hours
- * Never say you want to advise companies
Step 1: Your background
Step 2: Investment Banking Spark (how you get interested?) eg. was it a lecturer, you have relative working as one, you attend an event/talk
Step 3: Your follow-through actions eg. did you read IPO, keep up with M&A news, networking, learn financial modelling
Technical Questions:
Accounting
Q3 Walk me through the 3 financial statements
- Balance sheet shows you the snapshot in time the economic resource which is available to the company.
Q4 If depreciation increase by $10, walk me through the changes
Q5:
Behavioural Questions:
Q6 Why do you want to work for this firm? ******
To ace this question, you need to do research on the company and stand out from other interviewees.
eg. if the company is a car company, you can say you like cars…
Tips: Always finish your answer with “I really want to work in investment banking, because I network with other investment banker and I get along with them really well and my personality fits in with them”
Technical Questions:
Finance
Q7 What is EBITA?
Q8 When calculating company EV, do you use Book value or Market value?
Behavioural Questions:
Q9 Tell me about your weaknesses
Technical Questions:
Q10 technical question
Behavioural Questions:
Q11 What do you think an important trait to have to be successful in this role?/what is your greatest strength?
Technical Questions:
Q12 Merger and Acquisition
Behavioural Questions:
Q13 Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
Q14 What other banks you are applying for right now?
Employee want to see how attractive is this candidate. If you are applying for a large bank then say other companies that are also large banks. vice versa for boutique bank.
Technical Questions:
Q15 Capital Structure
Must know how companies finance its operations
Behavioural Questions:
Q16 What other industries or companies are you looking at?
You should say something related to the same field to show your interest is only in investment banking.
Technical Questions:
Q17 LBO (leverage buyout) model
Behavioural Questions:
TMT-(tehnology media telecom)
Brain Teasers Question
Last Part
Do you have any questions for me?
- * For the question on “Describe the culture at this firm”. You can use this same response on answering “Why you want to work at this bank”
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
If you dont know 50% of the answer to the question, ask the interviewer for the answer.
If you dont know 100% of the answer to the question, then dont ask for the answer as it will show you are not prepared.
Hedge fund is short term investing.
Private equity is long term investing in companies stocks. Helping wealthy clients to invest their capital.
