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How to Get Into The Worlds Best Investment Banking Firms.

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Contents
1.0 Investment Banking ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 What is Investment Banking? ............................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Roles as per Investment Banking groups ..................................................................................... 3 1.3 Roles as per job title in Investment Banking ............................................................................... 6 1.4 Typical hierarchy/ ladder in an Investment Bank ................................................................... 8 1.5 Top Investment Banks ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 The not-so-secret life of an Investment Banker ...................................................................... 10 1.7 Essentials needed to be an Investment Banker ....................................................................... 11 1.8 Skills and Qualities ................................................................................................................................. 12 1.9 What the banks look for? (Selection criteria) ........................................................................... 13 1.10 What can you expect as a Graduate Analyst? ......................................................................... 13 1.11 Salaries ...................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.0 An Investment Banking Resume .......................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Keywords for Investment Banking resumes ............................................................................. 15 2.2 How Investment Bankers review resume .................................................................................. 16 2.3 How much time is spent on a resume review? ......................................................................... 17 3.1 Interview Dos and Donts ................................................................................................................... 19 3.1.1 Dos: ....................................................................................................................................................... 19 3.1.2 Donts: .................................................................................................................................................. 19 3.2 Interview Questions that an Investment Banker should be prepared for .................. 20 4.0 Interview tips by alumni.......................................................................................................................... 21 4.1 Goldman Sachs Interview tips. ......................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Credit Suisse Interview tips............................................................................................................... 23 5.0 Feedback given by our interviewers.................................................................................................. 25 5.1 Criteria ......................................................................................................................................................... 25 5.2 Feedback Examples ............................................................................................................................... 25 6.1 Examples..................................................................................................................................................... 31 7.0 What next? ...................................................................................................................................................... 32

1.0 Investment Banking

1.1 What is Investment Banking?
A field of banking, which aids companies in acquiring funds, is known as investment banking. In addition, investment banking also deals with offering financial advice for a range of transactions companies engage in. An investment-banking firm also does a large amount of consulting on mergers and acquisitions. They give advice on which is the best time to make public offerings and how to best manage the business' public assets, by keeping a track on the market. Fundamentally, Investment Banking is about helping corporate clients build their businesses by providing them with financial and strategic advice. The corporate clients investment bankers work with are typically large blue chip companies. As an investment banker, you would be expected to raise money for your client by issuing shares and debts in the firm, advise your clients in times of merger with another company, helping develop financial strategies for your client, as well as identifying new business deals.

1.2 Roles as per Investment Banking groups

An investment banker will usually find himself/herself in one of the following two groups: Client group or Product group. Client Group In a client team, an investment banker is a specialist. He/she will be looking after specific clients in a designated region or industry. The main tasks in a client team are to identify a clients needs and to then call on product specialists for advice on which products and services would satisfy the clients requirements. This team generally has an MD, a VP, an associate and one or two analysts Product Group In a product team, an investment banker is more of a generalist. He/she has to have extensive knowledge of a particular product in order to be able to advise client teams on the range of services that the bank can provide clients with.

There are several different groups and areas that investment bankers can specialise in and be a part of:

Industry Coverage This area relates to industry-focused investment banking. The group has a set of senior bankers or managing directors, responsible for maintaining good relationships with client companies in the industry. There is also a group of Directors, VPs, Associates, Analysts and Administrative Assistants who are in-charge of attending client meetings, coming up with ideas for clients, preparing pitch books, executing transactions, writing commitment committee memo's etc. Usually when fresh starting in banking means that you will likely be a part of the coverage group. Corporate finance A corporate finance position is about helping companies raise capital needed for new projects and ongoing operations. It involves determining the amount and structure of fund needs of a client through equity, debt, convertibles, preferred, asset-backs, or derivative securities. As a starting analyst, you would usually work with a client team and have responsibilities like preparing registration statements, attending road shows where investors are sold on securities etc. Mergers & Acquisitions This area involves setting up deals where one company buys another. This is an important source of fee income for many investment banks. Working in this area involves giving advice to a client when they are seeking to buy another firm. The advice may relate to potential target companies, pricing and valuation, as well as how to integrate the firms postacquisition. Here an investment banker needs to work out value transactions, structure creative deals and negotiate favourable terms working in teams. As a starter, your duties could involve analyzing the appropriate form of participation. Expect to start running lots of valuation models on spreadsheets and gradually get more client focus as you progress. Banks, which specialise in this area, are Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley.

Structure Financing Investment bankers provide clients with an alternative to standard business loans. They borrow against a companys cash-flow history. In order to successfully do your work in this area, you must have good spreadsheet, accounting, and legal skills. Equity Capital Markets In this case, investment bankers help clients structure, buy, sell, and issue shares using market insight and intelligence with corporate finance knowledge. What they decide to do with the shares is highly dependent on the financial situation and future estimates of the client firms performance.

Debt Capital Markets When clients have limited access to traditional capital sources, they ask investment bankers to help them raise funds by taking out loans in the form of high yield bonds or investment grade bonds. Investment bankers working in this area will need to interact with other divisions, such as financial strategy, derivatives, and currency trading, in order to be in a position to give sound advice to clients.

Private Wealth Management Investment bankers provide high net worth clients with highly customized and sophisticated investment management and financial planning services. They provide advice on various things including the use of trusts and other estate planning, vehicles, business succession, stock option planning, the use of hedging derivatives for large blocks of stock. It is a service offered by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

1.3 Roles as per job title in Investment Banking

If you are someone who has just finished with an undergraduate degree, the most common route to get into investment banking is to be hired into a banks analyst programmes. For someone with an MBA degree, the chances of getting hired as an associate are higher. Whether an analyst or associate, you are likely to work within specialised groups or teams with other investment bankers. Role of an Analyst As a start-up analyst you will join an investment bank for a two-year program. The top performing analysts are often offered a chance to stay for the third year and the most performing analysts can be promoted after three years to the Associate level. As an analyst youll be expected to do the bulk of the work. There are three types of work that Analysts do: Presentations Analysis Administrative tasks

Presentation are mainly putting together and writing of various PowerPoint presentations including marketing documents like Pitches or Pitch books and documents for live transactions (for example, a presentation to management or the Board of Directors). These PowerPoint presentations are printed in colour and bound with professional covers as they are taken to meeting with the clients. Analytical work involves all the work done in Excel like entering historic company data from public documents, analyzing such data for valuation purposes and projecting a companys financial statements. While administrative tasks are things like scheduling and setting up conference calls and meetings, making travel arrangements and keeping a list of deal team members up to date. Role of an Associate Associates are people who are directly out of a top MBA school or analysts that have been promoted. Before being promoted to the Vice President level, bankers will be at the Associate level for three and a half years at least. Associates also are responsible for supervising over the Analysts and checking their work.
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In addition to overseeing the Analysts work, Associates will often help write the text for the presentations as well as do much of the modelling work. While dealing with live transactions, the Associate will have significant ongoing interaction with the client and with the opposing investment bank.

Role of a Vice President Main role the Vice President plays is that of being a Project Manager, whether for marketing activities or on a transaction. The VP decides structure of the presentation or pitch book. Dealing with live transactions, the VP is typically the banker running the deal. The VP is in-charge of managing the client, managing the senior bankers and managing the Analysts and Associates that are actually doing the work. It is often at the VP level that bankers begin to form valuable relationships with clients. Depending on the individual and also the bank, some VPs will start to play a role in client development and marketing. Role of a Director or a senior Vice President The Director or SVP acts more like a Managing Director ie managing a high level client development role or acts like a VP playing a project manager role. The role could also depend on specific situation and other deal team members. For Director/SVPs to be promoted to Managing Director level, they need to demonstrate that they can form client relationships and have the ability to market and to bring in new business. Role of a Managing Director Being a senior level banker, the role of the Managing Director (MD) is mostly client development. The MD will likely be the one with the senior level company relationships (CEO, CFO, head of Corporate Development) and is typically responsible for spearheading marketing efforts. On a live transaction, the MD often plays only a minor role, getting involved when difficulties arise in the deal and during high level negotiations.

1.4 Typical hierarchy/ ladder in an Investment Bank

Just about all investment banks have the same strict hierarchy or ladder of professionals. From junior to senior, the typical hierarchy is (1) Analyst (2) Associate (3) Vice President (4) Senior Vice President/Director (5) Managing Director

Sometimes banks do tend to deviate from this typical hierarchy a bit, for example having the Senior Vice President and Director to be separate positions. Other banks, usually have the same hierarchy but with somewhat different names for each position. Associate Director for Associate Director for Vice President Executive Director for SVP However, regardless of the names, the general job functions of each relative position tend to be consistent from bank to bank.

1.5 Top Investment Banks

There are three top investment banks that are globally recognised are

Goldman Sachs JP Morgan Morgan Stanley

Getting into any of these three requires perseverance and hard work. As a student, you might think of getting ahead of your competition by participating in Spring Weeks organised by the banks or by interning during a Summer Analyst Scheme. Other top investment banks include:

Citigroup Bank of America Deutsche Bank UBS Credit Suisse BNP Paribas HSBC Merrill Lynch Lazard

These investment banks are typically regionally oriented or situated in the middle market. You might come across boutique investment banks, which are oriented toward an industry vertical, bond trading, M&A advisory, technical analysis, or program trading.

1.6 The not-so-secret life of an Investment Banker

It is no secret that as an investment banker, you need to prepare yourself for long hours of meticulous work. A clear understanding of the business world and stellar analytical and communication skills are also required. A typical day at work generally starts at 8:30am or 9:00am and it is rare for an Analyst or Associate to leave work before 10:00pm. Many days are well beyond midnight, especially if you are in the midst of a live transaction. The busier the group you are interviewing for, the longer the hours generally. Smaller shops with smaller and less frequent deals generally have lower hours but also generally lower compensation. The hours for junior bankers tend to get busier after lunch as the Directors and Managing Directors spend the morning generating work for the junior bankers. Travel is frequent but far less than consulting. In general expect a day trip every two weeks at the Analyst level and one day a week at the Associate level (note this fluctuates meaningfully by office geography and firm). The type of work you will be doing at entry level, as an investment banker will generally take the form of the different types of analysis such as leveraged buyout modelling, equity comparables, etc. You will spend a great deal of time with those in the class you enter the firm with, especially those in your group. They are going through the exact same hardship as you and you get very close as a result. The good news about banking is that life gets easier at the Vice President level and much easier beyond that point. You then get more control over your hours and what you are working on. However, be prepared for some gruelling years before that point.

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1.7 Essentials needed to be an Investment Banker

Earn your Bachelors degree from an accredited college or university. Choose a major in a finance-related field, such as business administration, economics, marketing or math. Engineers with strong Quant abilities also stand a good chance. Sharpen oral communication skills with course work in speech or broader communications classes. Become a confident speaker, as investment bankers make frequent presentations to clients to attempt to gain their business. Take classes specializing in business or proposal writing. One of your tasks as an investment banker may be writing proposals to outline how a business deal will progress. Follow trends in the investment banking industry by reading financial newspapers and journals. This is a good way to find current job postings as well. Knowing the environment and especially the history of a company with which you are interviewing is more likely to make a good impression on the interviewer. Think traditional and conservative when preparing to apply and interview for investment banking jobs. Print your resume, cover letter and thank you letters on unadorned resume paper. Wear appropriate business attire when meeting with a prospective employer. Consider entering the field at an entry or lower level position such as an analyst. It is difficult to break into the industry of investment banking, but gaining some solid work experience at a large, reputable firm may make it easier. Continue your education if you are not satisfied with the results of your job search. While not necessary for every investment banker position, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) is quickly becoming a requirement for some highly sought-after jobs and is highly recommended. Learn everything about the company you are applying to.

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1.8 Skills and Qualities

It is vital to know that it is very tough to break into the investment banking market. Potential employers require from their future employees a strong analytical and interpersonal skill set. Generally, the following qualities are looked for in a prospective employee:

Strong problem solving skills Highly numerate Drive, ambition, flexibility Ability to quickly learn Exceptional networking skills Stamina Ability to work with influential clients

As an Analyst, you are expected to be:

Very dedicated Have good spreadsheet skills Be highly analytical

At a mid-career level, you should have:

Very good communication skills in order to successfully work with clients A thorough understanding of market trends, the political and macroeconomic environment, and deal mechanics

In order to get a leg up in the recruitment process, you might think of acquiring a CFA certificate as accounting skills are highly valuable in investment banking.

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1.9 What the banks look for? (Selection criteria)

Grades: Generally each bank has certain target schools that most of their candidates come from. Applications are generally read by those who went to those schools and know good from average grades there well. In particular focus is on accounting, finance, economics and management science courses. Extra curricular Activities: Emphasis here is on if the candidate has had leadership roles and if the experiences suggest a level of socialism and friendliness. Job Experience: Related is better, but the more impressive the better. Bankers are a capable bunch and expect high levels of accomplishment from applicants. If an applicant received top tier ranking in their annual reviews, be sure to note this in your resume as that is an important metric for bankers themselves at their annual bonus reviews. SAT, GMAT, GRE test scores are secondary, if you have a great score put it on your resume, it will only help.

1.10 What can you expect as a Graduate Analyst?

As a Graduate Analyst at an investment bank, you have to be prepared for a number of difficulties and challenges. You should expect to work hard from the first day with very long hours in a demanding environment constantly under pressure. As an Analyst, you probably wont have much choice on which division you can work in; most likely, youll be rotating between different departments at least during the duration of your first year. However, on the bright side, you can expect to receive very high rewards in terms of financial compensation as well as considerable client exposure.

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1.11 Salaries
Salaries will vary with the firm youre working for and the region of the country you are in. However, below are rough estimates of how much you can expect to earn (including bonus) as an investment banker. Job Level First year Analyst Third year Analyst First year Associate Third year Associate Vice President Director/ Principal MD/ Partner Department Head Salary Range $90k 150k $120K - 350K $150K - 250K $300 - 500K $350K - 1MM $400K - 1.5MM $500K - 20 MM $800K - 70MM (Degree/Years experience) Bachelors Bachelors MBA MBA 3-6 years 5-10 years 7-10 years 10+ years (Careers-in-finance.com, 2011) Bonuses greatly vary in size and can reach very high levels; they can end up being between 10% to 50% of your salary. In 2008, due to the severity of the financial crisis, most investment bankers received low and even zero bonuses. You have to be aware of the fact that bonuses are heavily dependent on the state of the current economic climate. In addition, it is important to know that the salary you will receive will include an equity component, which is especially designed for the purpose to limit employees movement between firms. In terms of investment banking areas, due to the new financial forms, salaries in prop trading, institutional equity sales, and securitisation will most likely fall. In contrast, areas such as restructuring, health care M&A/financing, and debt capital markets are growing, and therefore, are expected to have a positive upward effect on salaries.
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2.0 An Investment Banking Resume

While writing a banking resume, it is important to first list your Educational background with the name of your business school and undergraduate university name, degree titles, and graduation dates. Then comes the section with related Work Experience. Highlight 2 to 3 leadership instances where you made a difference to the organisation. It is always better to mention full-time jobs rather than internships and provide details of only the kind of experience, which is relevant to the new job profile. If you are an undergraduate, then add your internships and part time jobs as well. Then have a section of Skills, related interests and activities. You can include CFA, GMAT, GRE related information in this section. Candidates having a lot of work experience can also drop this section to keep their resume short. We believe a one-page resume is best suited for investment banking applications. Make sure that the content of your resume is specific and focuses on your achievements. General requirements for a good investment-banking resume are attention to detail and focus on results. Investment bankers are excellent at pointing out mistakes in a resume, so candidates should make sure they have the correct dates and information with no typos or errors.

2.1 Keywords for Investment Banking resumes

Transaction experience: If you have ever been involved in deals like any of those I noted above, be sure to make mention of them in your resume and explain your role in those deals in your interviews as well as at a high level in your resume. Attention to detail: Investment bankers have a tremendous attention to detail. No comma can be in the wrong place, no extra spaces, everything must be accurate and aesthetically appealing. So too is the case for the resumes reviewed by investment bankers. If there is an error in the resume then the odds are the candidate will not have the requisite attention to detail. Make sure your resume is thoroughly reviewed so it is accurate. Financial Designations: If the candidate has any significant designations, such as a Series 7, CFA, etc. be sure to note this in the applications. Languages: Investment bankers often work on deals internationally. If you speak any other languages make sure to note this.

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Extra curricular Activities: Too often when I reviewed candidate resumes at Credit Suisse people failed to list their extra curricular achievements. Investment banks are highly social institutions and seeing lots of good extra curricular roles suggests that the candidate can fit in. If your leadership roles were elected, you can put (elected) in brackets after your title for the role, this is further proof that you are well-liked and can fit in. Job Locations: This point is particularly important for bank offices outside of New York. These offices will want to know that you have a link to the area. Therefore, if you have ever worked in or near that city be sure to list the location of your jobs on your resume. At a minimum, if you are applying for a role in Charlotte make sure your cover letter indicates why you want to work there.

2.2 How Investment Bankers review resume

Whether you are applying as an undergraduate, a current banker or as an MBA for an investment banking position, it is first important to understand the audience of your resume so that you can maximize your chances. Once you have submitted your resume for an investment banking job through the companys career website, the HR department forwards it to investment bankers for reviewing. All internship and analyst-level applications are reviewed by other investment banking analysts in the company. While for applicants applying for associate-level positions, the resume is reviewed by investment banking associates and they make the decision as to who should be called for an interview. However, if the applicant is from a target business school like the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke, LBS, INSEAD etc then an alumni from that particular school is in charge of the resume reviewing process. In case of a more random application, the HR just hands the resume to whoever has bandwidth at that moment. It is important to realise that the senior management like the Managing Directors, Vice Presidents and Directors have no part to play in going through over 500 resumes weekly, as their time is too valuable. Also the HR department is rarely involved in reading resumes of applicants. They are just responsible for handing over resumes to bankers. So applicants need to note that while networking into the field of investment banking, it is better to go for bankers rather than HR.

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2.3 How much time is spent on a resume review?

Applicants should realise that large banking firms on an average receive thousands of resumes every year. Out of which they conduct approximately a hundred interviews and then the job offer is finally given to only a few number of interviewees. A rough estimate could be drawn that out of every 100 resumes received by banks, only 20 applicants have a chance of being called for the interview. You must note that an investment banker has a very busy schedule and so everything is done last minute, including reading resumes and selecting the right candidates for the interview process. So an analyst or an associate banker spends only 30 seconds (half the time spent by management consultants to review a resume which is one minute) reading through each resume with focus on mainly 2 or 3 points provided by you. These Golden 30 seconds is all that your resume has to impress the analyst/associate who is reviewing it.

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3.0 Interview Preparation

Read a few investment banking culture related books like Monkey Business and Liars Poker, it will give you something casual to discuss with the interviewer and most everyone in the industry has read these two books. Make sure you are deeply familiar with the principles of valuation: accretion/dilution analysis; equity and debt comparables analysis; comparable transaction analysis; leveraged buyout modeling; discounted cash flow analysis (make sure you know what weighted average cost of capital is and be able to explain it in granular terms). Be sure to understand each of these analytical tools, when and why they are used and what they tell you. Know your metrics. Know how any why to calculate: EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization); total enterprise value / EBITDA; the difference between trailing (aka LTM last twelve months) and forward multiples; free cash flow (aka FCF); EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes); maintenance versus growth capital expenditures; debt ratios like total or net debt to EBITDA; covenants; have a broad understanding of reps and warranties in deals. Know stock market index numbers especially: where the DOW, NASDAQ, S&P, oil, gold, LIBOR, and if applicable the stock of the investment bank you are meeting with are trading at. Also know key currency exchange rates (US versus pound, euro and Canadian dollar). Have researched a minimum of two companies and be able to discuss why they would or would not make good investments. How they are viewed by analysts in the market. What they are trading at (overvalued or undervalued in your estimation and why). What are their growth prospects? What geographies do they serve? What is their revenue mix? What are their greatest risks? Have at least 3 questions in hand to ask them about working at their firm. Some good ones: How are deal teams structured here? What is the mix of pitching to live transactions? What is the typical path for Analysts/Associates? What separates a good from a great

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Analyst/Associate (they really like ambitious people so this type of question so long as you do not come off as arrogant is valuable)?

3.1 Interview Dos and Donts 3.1.1 Dos:

Dress nicely. Appearance matters. Do all the preparation noted above, you will be surprised how much of it and more is asked of you over the course of the interview process. Truly ask yourself if you can handle the great stress and hours of the job and have a deep interest in finance and deals. If you honestly say you can and do, then go for this job with full fervor, they will see this in the process and want you as well. If you do not, this is not an industry to take lightly and I have been exposed to too many people unwilling to do this before and they were very unhappy in banking and soon left. Learn as much as you can about finance and accounting in school and research, this will both help you in the interviews and separate you in the job. Send thank you notes after the interviews. This diligence is noticed and appreciated. If there is a question you really mess-up they will appreciate it if you email them shortly after with the answer. Do not over apologize for the error, you have lots to learn and the job will provide that. They will notice the diligent effort.

3.1.2 Donts:
In the interview itself DO NOT come off as arrogant. That is the kiss of death. Be Confident but not arrogant. I would caution against disagreeing with the interviewer unless you are certain you are correct. Unlike consulting interviews, investment bankers view the process as less of a date than a right and wrong answer. Bankers are proud people that generally do not take well to being questioned. DO NOT fake something in your interview. For example do not just pass off that you think the deal will be accretive without knowing what that word means and how to calculate it.
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Bankers can smell weakness and will likely pounce on it asking follow-up questions that uncover your lack of understanding. Thus, study hard and choose your words and areas of conversation carefully. Do not discuss compensation. The job pays well. You already know that.

3.2 Interview Questions that an Investment Banker should be prepared for

1. Name one company you would invest in and why? 2. Name one company you would not invest in and why? [Expect numerous follow-up questions on these so know these companies cold]. 3. Explain to me what happened in the most recent financial crisis. [Expect this question in most interviews and have a very detailed, thorough understanding.] 4. Why do you want to work at this firm? [Be prepared to discuss how you think they differ from their peers do your homework on them as well.] 5. What is the best and worst pieces of financial advice you have ever been given? 6. Describe to me the time when you worked as hard as you ever have. [Investment bankers, especially junior ones, work grueling hours (often as much as 100 per week), showing you are willing to do this and demonstrating you have worked hard in the past will be important.] 7. What is free cash flow? Why is it important? How does it differ from EBITDA? 8. You may also be asked a question that requires you walk them through the debit and credits resulting from a situation.

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4.0 Interview tips by alumni

At InterviewBay, we have a fantastic network of alumni from top banking firms in the world, who conduct interviews with our customers. Below are several interview tips articles by alumni, which will definitely come in handy when applying to an investment-banking firm.

4.1 Goldman Sachs Interview tips.

Understanding the Goldman Sachs Interview Process. Context Goldman is notorious for extremely tough and meticulous interviews. You will likely meet several people starting at the Associate level (tend to be more Technically focused) to the MD / Partner level (tend to be more focused on fit). People who are successful will show resilience and not get worn down by the seemingly endless rounds of interviews. Goldman more than any bank prides it self on its culture and as such are looking for people who understand it well - know its Business Principles before you go into the interview The interview will be focused on Technical knowledge in the earlier rounds and fit in the later rounds. This article will briefly touch on the Technical aspects - this is standard across all banks and you will be expected to know your technicals cold. Most of the article is focused on the "other stuff" that is actually different about a GS interview Technicals Technicals are tested to see if you understand the basics. Most of the questions asked will be easy to answer if you understand the fundamentals of finance e.g. I over stated depreciation by $10 - walk me through the impact of this on the Income Statement, Balance sheet and Cash Flow Statement Sometimes harder technical questions maybe asked to see how you react to pressure - the important thing to remember is not to crack under pressure but rather say ok this is something I don't know but try and demonstrate your thought process on how you might approach it. You will find your interviewer is a lot more likely to help if you don't crack under pressure

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Form small interview focus groups to gather as many Technical questions are you can and quiz each other. This is the best way to get prepared for Technicals - this will expose you to new questions and help you think on your feet Know and understand the sections of a pitch book and what goes into them especially if you are applying for a role in IBD. For markets roles, have defend-able opinions and thesis. Fit / Behavioural Questions This is what is going to get you in the door once you have passed the Technicals round. Working in Banking is tough and working at GS is even harder and they want to see if you have what it takes Someone who is a good cultural fit is someone who is able to demonstrate his/ her fit with each of the business principles. This doesn't mean that you memorize the business principles and regurgitate them in the interview but rather think about examples that will demonstrate that you have those qualities and try and "check off" various principles in the examples / answers you provide One of the things you will likely experience in later rounds is situational questions - GS use this a lot. The key thing to remember here is that there is no right or wrong answer. They want insight into your thought process and often give you very real situations that can occur in the workplace. Some examples are below You are travelling with your MD to a very Sr. Client meeting and pass out the presentation to everyone. Your MD starts speaking and you notice there is a mistake 4 pages into the presentation. What do you do? You are in the elevator with th.... Access the rest of the article. http://www.interviewbay.com/interview_tips/Goldman-Sachs-Interview-tips.php

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4.2 Credit Suisse Interview tips.

An interview with an alumnus from Credit Suisse explaining How to Become an Investment Banker at Credit Suisse. InterviewBay: A background about you. I graduated from a top undergraduate business school. I did a summer internship with Credit Suisse and spent nearly two years there after graduating from undergrad. I worked in the Los Angeles office and was focused on leveraged finance and M&A. I spent the bulk of my time working on deals for many of the largest private equity firms in the world. After my time at Credit Suisse I decided that I wanted to complement my finance skills with strategy capabilities. I joined one of the leading management consulting firms, rising to the position of Senior Case Team Leader. I completed my MBA at one of the top programs and I now work at a leading middle market private equity firm, a role which combines both my finance and strategy skills. InterviewBay: Why did you choose Investment Banking? Skill set development is extremely important to me. In business I consider finance and strategy the two paramount capabilities requisite in rendering strong business decisions. Unequivocally the best training out of undergraduate and MBA studies to develop a financial skill set is investment banking. It enabled me to become fluent in everything from financial statements to valuation to investment logic to transaction execution. This is a skill set that can only be achieved through the experience of doing deals. Furthermore, investment banking allowed me at a very young age to have deep exposure to the senior executives of Fortune 500 corporations. These exposures were both stimulating and great learning experiences. Investment banking also enables varied exposures. I worked on industries spanning energy, entertainment, health care, industrials, manufacturing and more. I also worked on product groups spanning equity raises (IPOs), bank and bond raises, leveraged buyouts, dividend recapitalizations, and strategic acquisitions. It is very rare in business to have such varied exposures so quickly and this breadth of experience meaningfully motivated me to banking. More than anything thought was that I knew it was a much respected profession that would be a great springboard to whatever I ultimately decided I wanted to pursue in business.

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Access the rest of the article. http://www.interviewbay.com/interview_tips/Credit-Suisse-Interview-tips.php

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5.0 Feedback given by our interviewers

5.1 Criteria
In terms of feedback, our interviewers provide answers to the following questions after mock interviews are conducted with our clients: 1. Please provide the candidates strengths. 2. Please provide the candidates weaknesses. 3. Please provide the key areas that candidate needs to improve to address the target companys/business schools requirements. 4. Other comments/suggestions/remarks that you want to add to help the candidate in his/her interview preparation.

5.2 Feedback Examples

Below are anonymous examples of feedback provided by our interviewers: Example 1: 1. Please provide the candidates strengths.
a. Very intelligent - Amiable; you smile and your strong interpersonal skills shine

through.
b. Excellent listening skills - Analytical - Strong macro and consumer trends knowledge

(very important for Consumer & Luxury research within GIR).

c. Strong knowledge of middle class growth within China, India and Brazil (and how

this impacts disposable income and thus consumer spending). 2. Please provide the candidates weaknesses.
a. Pace of speech - slow down and enunciate. b. Your grammatical mistakes should be fewer as a result of slowing down. - You said "I

would say this example." Instead of "Let me give you this example". When I asked you, "Did you meet with the management?", you said "Yes, I do." You could say, "Yes, I did and worked closely with them throughout the process."3.
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3. Please provide the key areas that candidate needs to improve to address the target companys/business schools requirements.
a. Be more structured in your responses:

For example, when someone asks you, "Which three adjectives would your professors use to describe you? you respond, "One: analytical, Two: industrious and Three: inquisitive". Another good adjective to cite is "collaborative".
b. Interviewer(s) may ask you to cite an example of failure:

You could use an example of how you didn't manage communication effectively but that you learned from this and made a concerted effort to communicate more effectively with your team thereafter.
c. Flexibility and international interest will help you at Goldman Sachs.

IF they ask you to describe your medium or long-term goals, you can say that you'd be very interested working for Goldman Sachs beyond the summer and that you are flexible to work in NY, Hong Kong or other offices where they have GIR teams. 4. Other comments/suggestions/remarks that you want to add to help the candidate in his/her interview preparation.
a. You can mention talking to a GS alumna who worked in four offices including Japan

and developed a truly global perspective and knowledge base as a result.

b. When discussing financial and analytical skillsets, you can tell them that you plan to

hone your skills in financial statement analysis and also in corporate finance (M&A, corporate actions, etc).
c. Be sure to mention your having worked with Chinese pharmaceutical companies. d. Do NOT mention anything personal or your personal life/relationship status. GS

employees know these questions are NOT permitted!

e. Write a nice/succinct thank you email within 24 hours of each interview RELAX, BE

CONFIDENT, SMILE and GOOD LUCK!

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Example 2: 1. Please provide the candidates strengths.

a. Ability to learn/grasp new things as evidenced by all your academic degrees,

coverage of multiple segments, etc.

b. Exceptional quantitative/analytical skills as evidenced by your quantitative degrees

(finance, math, economic) as well as you performing financial analyses on your jobs
c. Teamwork/leadership work with large global teams, taking one for the team to

deliver the task 2. Please provide the candidates weaknesses.

a. Difficulty delegating want to do things yourself so you can learn, but you realize

that you will have to learn to delegate as you move up in your career...plus other need to learn as well.
b. Taking too much on your plate accepting too much work just because you want to

learn as much as possible; also you are a people pleaser and rarely say no o Consistent team at being able to prioritize you do everything perfect, but you will reach your maximum capacity 3. Please provide the key areas that candidate needs to improve to address the target companys/business schools requirements.
a. As discussed every story/example that you mentioned try weaving in multiple

competencies. Also, keep in mind that you want to substantiate everything with facts/evidence number of people of the team that you have worked with, number of research published, number of restaurants research QUANTIFY QUANTIFY QUANTIFY! Be sure to know what are your strengths and weaknesses. 4. Other comments/suggestions/remarks that you want to add to help the candidate in his/her interview preparation.
a. A pleasure to work with and I believe she will be a good fit at GS.

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b. She needs to continue learning from folks with experience in whatever space she is

looking to move into as she learns well from others experiences and can benefit greatly as a result of pursuing this mode of educating herself.
c. Know the facts on GS and have a few questions prepared for your interviewers.

Example 3: 1. Please provide the candidates strengths.

a. X is an impressive candidate and I expressed to him, what I believed were his

strengths during the interview.

b. I urge him to continue on the path he is on preparation wise - but also to ask more

questions of his interviewer.

c. He learns fast and takes feedback well. This will make him a strong analyst. d. Most importantly I was impressed by his detail orientation and his background. e. He has achieved strong goals experience wise, he just needs to continue on this

trajectory 2. Please provide the candidates weaknesses.

a. X is a strong candidate but he will benefit from tightening up in three areas. i.

He must gain a stronger knowledge of weighted average cost of capital calculation - to the point where he can deal with theoretical situations thrown at him.

ii.

Secondly - he must speak like a banker when addressing his preparedness for the role. By this I mean - he should improve his vernacular so that he is "speaking more of the same language" when interviewing. The correct use of terms that bankers use will definitely help in his interview.

iii.

Lastly - he must make his story more believable. His attraction and experience in entrepreneurial settings will set alarm bells off and thus he must make it

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clear that he is committed and passionate to pursue banking as a career and prepared to accept and excel in the lifestyle 3. Please provide the key areas that candidate needs to improve to address the target companys/business schools requirements.
a. As mentioned above, X will benefit from making his story believable, touching up on

his technical knowledge (accounting and valuation readings will help in this regards) and also reading some material that will allow him to make the classic Wall Street banker feel more at ease with his ability to transition into the atmosphere.
b. I suggest that popular books out in the space such as Monkeys business and

Barbarians at the gate be read in order to give him some insight into the minds of people he will be dealing with and the world he will be living in. Although these may seem humorous or outdated as books, they are still different and valued perspectives which he will be able to digest and dwell on. 4. Other comments/suggestions/remarks that you want to add to help the candidate in his/her interview preparation.
a. X and I will follow up with one another as I am interested in viewing his progress. b. Nevertheless - I feel he has a strong resume and story - as he said he is obsessed with

doing - I urge him to tighten, tighten, and tighten some more his preparedness in anticipation of the interview.
c. Reading a few things such as the economist and barrons, as well as hitting the books

on valuation and accounting - will make him a stellar candidate and stand out. Example 4: 1. Please provide the candidat es strengths.
a. The Candidate seems sincere. b. Is qualified well through education and experience.

2. Please provide the candidates weaknesses.

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a. Needs to sharpen understanding of valuation concepts. b. Needs to develop better explanation of his interest in investment banking.

3. Please provide the key areas that candidate needs to improve to address the target companys/business schools requirements.
a. Needs to tighten up answers on preferences for large global banks. b. Needs to have a stronger command of the details of his work at his last summer

internship. 4. Other comments/suggestions/remarks that you want to add to help the candidate in his/her interview preparation.
a. Needs to project his voice and be more confident. b. Doesnt come across as aggressive enough in his presentation.

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6.0 Interviewees Testimonials

6.1 Examples
Below are several testimonials provided by our clients in regards to the mock interview service they purchased. 1. Student from London School of Economics, Goldman Sachs mock interview You are the greatest! I have never ever met anyone who has been so helpful in my entire job hunting experience! You really get the best out of my resume (and my life) that I haven't yet thought about. I will tailor every experience into a story showing my multiple selling points. I will contact you if I meet any difficulty. I will keep you updated, and if at all possible, looking for your advice even after crazy job hunting season.

2. A Banker from New York, Harvard Business School, Class of 2011 Well, I have a bit of good news..I'll be attending HBS this coming fall! Thanks for your preparation help.very useful. No feedback on the service, per se, but I will definitely refer to all of my friends applying/interviewing.

3. A consultant from USA joining Oliver Wyman, New York I would like you to thank Julien. I have just accepted an offer at Oliver Wyman. I am grateful for his help. Thank you

4. A graduate from Germany after receiving an internship offer from McKinsey. Thanks again for your great work and feedback! I got the job (internship)! Your suggestions were really helpful and I think they made the difference! Thanks a lot!

5. An undergraduate from France, received a full-time offer from McKinsey I have just passed the last round in Paris and got an offer from McKinsey, Paris! I am so happy about it. Thank you very much for all your help! Thank you very much again!

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7.0 What next?

If you want to become an investment banker and wish to be fully prepared for the real interview, then take a mock interview with InterviewBay.

InterviewBay was created for those who have interviews and who wish to prepare for the opportunity through exceptional mock interviews with ALUMNI of the organization. Interviewees can work with alumni to 'perfect' their pitch and prepare for banking, consulting and graduate school admissions interviews.

We conduct interviews with alumni from top firms like Goldman Sachs, J P Morgan, and Morgan Stanley etc.

Click on the link below and get fully prepared!

Website: Email: US and International: UK:

www.interviewbay.com Customerservice@interviewbay.com +1 203 541 0444 +44 203 002 0322

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