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IB Interview Guide, Module 1: Your Interview Checklist

Table of Contents:
Your Checklist (TL;DR Version of This Entire Guide) ...................................... 1
What to Do Before the Interview ................................................................... 5
What to Do After the Interview ..................................................................... 9

Your Checklist (TL;DR Version of This Entire Guide)

Before you walk into an interview, what must you absolutely, positively do?
If you have extremely limited time, here are the must-do tasks:
1. Draft Your “Story” – This one is your answer to the “Walk me through your resume” or
“Tell me about yourself” question. You need a short outline and a full version.

o 100-150-Word Outline – Follow our templates here.

o 200-300-Word Full Version – See our many examples here.

2. Outline Your 3 “Short Stories” – You can use these to answer questions about your
leadership skills, work experience, challenges, failures, etc. See the “Fit” guide for the
full tutorial.

3. Select 3 Strengths and 3 Weaknesses – Again, see the “Fit” guide for the full tutorial
and try to link these to your short stories above.

4. Prepare for the Key Objections Bankers Will Raise About Your Background – See the
section in the “Fit” guide for more on this one. Compare yourself to the “Ideal
Candidate” that bankers are seeking, and see where you come up short.

5. Look Up One Deal the Bank Has Worked on Recently – Find something from the past 6
months on the bank’s website or via Google searches. You’ll use this deal in your
“story,” and to answer questions that test your knowledge of the firm.

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6. Prepare for 1 In-Depth Deal/Market/Company Discussion – See the example

discussions in Module 3 and follow those. Combine your deal, market, and company
research and use the same deal for everything to save time.

7. (If Applicable) Prepare for 2 Discussions of Your Own Deals – See the Deal Discussion
Guide in Module 3 and follow the examples there. Do this only if you’ve had previous IB,
PE, or Big 4 experience (or anything else where you worked on large transactions).

8. Learn as Much as You Can of the Technical Side – You will not be able to learn all the
technical topics in a week. Candidates often spend months learning these concepts in-
depth. However, you can take an 80/20 approach to learning the key points and then
testing yourself. The most important topics are:

o Core Concepts – Read the entire (short) guide and take the quiz.

o Accounting – Read all the Key Rules and take the quiz.

o Equity Value, Enterprise Value, and Multiples – Read Key Rules #1-9 and take
the quiz.

o Valuation and DCF Analysis – Read Key Rules #1-10 and take the quiz.
If you have more time, you can also read the M&A and Leveraged Buyout technical guides and
complete the practice case studies.
Here is this same list in “fill in the blank” format:
1. Your “Story”
o 100-150-Word Outline
▪ The Beginning:

▪ Finance “Spark”:

▪ Growing Interest:

▪ Why You’re Here Today and Your Future:

o 200-300-Word Full Version –

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2. Your 3 “Short Stories”

o “Success” Story –

o “Failure” Story –

o “Leadership” Story –

3. 3 Strengths and 3 Weaknesses

o Strength #1 –

o Strength #2 –

o Strength #3 –

o Weakness #1 –

o Weakness #2 –

o Weakness #3 –

4. Key Objections Bankers Will Raise About Your Background

o Objection #1 –

▪ Your Response –

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o Objection #2 –

▪ Your Response –

o Objection #3 –

▪ Your Response –

5. 1 Deal the Bank Has Worked on Recently

o Background Information –
o Deal Rationale –
o 1-2 Financial Stats –
o Your Opinion –

6. 1 In-Depth Deal/Market/Company Discussion

o Deal Background Information –

o Deal Rationale –

o Financial Stats –

o Your Opinion –

o Approximate Market Size –

o Trends and Drivers –

o Fragmentation and Key Players –

o Your View or Recommendation –

7. (If Applicable) 2 Discussions of Your Own Deals

o Deal #1: Company Background –

o Deal #1: Deal Motivation –

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o Deal #1: Your Personal Contributions –

o Deal #1: Current Status –

o Deal #2: Company Background –

o Deal #2: Deal Motivation –

o Deal #2: Your Personal Contributions –

o Deal #2: Current Status –

8. Technical Prep

o Core Concepts
▪ Did you read the guide? (Y / N)
▪ Your Quiz Score:

o Accounting
▪ Did you read the guide? (Y / N)
▪ Your Quiz Score:

o Equity Value, Enterprise Value, and Multiples

▪ Did you read the guide? (Y / N)
▪ Your Quiz Score:

o Valuation and DCF Analysis

▪ Did you read the guide? (Y / N)
▪ Your Quiz Score:
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What to Do Before the Interview

I gave you a detailed checklist above, but I’ll add a few more tips in this section.

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When it’s right before the interview (e.g. 2-3 days before, or the day of), you should minimize
logistical problems.
That includes finding the interview location, preparing your clothes, and scanning the news to
make sure you haven’t missed anything big.

Practice Your Answers Aloud and Record Yourself

Ideally, you should do a few practice interviews with friends, classmates, or co-workers.
They won’t necessarily be able to give you useful feedback, but you will benefit greatly from
saying your answers out loud.
If you can’t do that, record yourself speaking your answers.
Go through 5-10 questions on a topic like DCF analysis, record your responses to each one, and
then play them back and evaluate your performance.
Pay attention to the length of each answer (ideally 30 seconds or less) and your diction and
tone. Avoid ending your answers in rising tones, and resist the urge to speak more quickly or
slowly than usual.
You should also record your “story” and your responses to the key “fit” questions
(teamwork/leadership, strengths and weaknesses, and your real weaknesses).
It’s easy to read a guide like this one passively, but you need to practice – even if you can’t do
mock interviews – to get the most out of these materials.

Find the Interview Location At Least 48 Hours Before the Interview

You do NOT want to think about logistics on the day of your interview.
To avoid last-minute surprises such as traffic jams and difficult-to-find buildings, you should pull
up the address, make sure you can find the building and room, and then go back home.
Yes, physically go there, taking the subway, bus, car, or whatever else is necessary.
If you’ve flown into a new city and the interview is the next day, navigate to the address the
night before to make sure you can find it.

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Prepare Your Outfit 48 Hours Before the Interview

After you find the building, you should prepare your interview clothes.
Doing so a few days in advance prevents disasters such as:

• Realizing that your favorite suit or tie has a stain and needs to be dry-cleaned.

• Realizing that you’ve gained or lost weight and that your old clothes no longer fit.

• Realizing that you lost your tie on your last weekend trip.
If you’re male, you need to wear “business formal,” AKA a suit and tie.
You don’t need to buy a $3,000+ suit, but you shouldn’t be wearing a wrinkled hand-me-down
from your older brother, either.
If you don’t look presentable, interviewers might conclude that you’re not serious about the
job.
If you do not know how to tie a tie, look it up on YouTube or ask a friend to help you.
Make sure your shirt is wrinkle-free by ironing it or paying for dry cleaning.
If you’re female, “business formal” also means “wear a suit” – do not wear a dress or
something else that’s out of place in a professional environment.
The same advice about wearing fitting, presentable, non-wrinkled clothing also applies.

Always Scan the News the Morning of Your Interview

You don’t need to know as much about the markets as traders do, but you still need to be
aware of major news:

• Financial scandals?

• Banks or other companies failing and being bailed out?

• A recent election?

• Important legal rulings?

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• Massive M&A deals or IPOs?

• General economic news, such as changes in the unemployment rate or GDP growth?
You should already be reading The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times, so on the day of the
interview, scan them quickly and make sure you’ve seen the major news.
I’ve seen clients go in for interviews, get questions on a news story from the past 24-48 hours,
and look out of touch when they don’t know about it.

Camp Out 1 Hour Early and Bring Paper, Pencils, and Copies of Your Resume/CV with You
Yes, that’s right: Camp out near the site of your interview.
To avoid unexpected traffic jams, misplaced directions, and other nightmare scenarios, you
should go to the interview site one (1) hour before the interview begins.
Go to a nearby coffee shop and read through the market news on your phone, look up more
information on the company and your interviewers (if you have their names), and practice
telling your “story” one last time.
Bring a folder with hard copies of your resume/CV, a few extra sheets of paper, and a pen or
pencil in case you get questions where you need to write something down.
A calculator is overkill for investment banking interviews, but you could take it if you want.

Set Your Expectations Low

Always maintain low expectations in interviews. If you walk in expecting nothing, can never be
disappointed.
When you walk in, all you should think is: “I view this as an opportunity to improve my
performance for my next interview.”
You should expect that some interviewers will be “bad cops,” others will be reasonable, and
others will be in between.
It won’t be a disaster, but it also won’t be a huge success – at least your first time around.
Most successful candidates go through at least a few final-round interviews before winning an
offer.

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You should NOT place all your hopes on a single interview because random misfortune could
derail your chances, even if you perform perfectly.
Networking is a numbers game, and so is the interview process.
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What to Do After the Interview

After the interview ends, you can’t do much to affect the outcome.
However, if you’re a “borderline candidate,” and so are a lot of other interviewees, you can use
a few tricks to tip the odds in your favor:

Ask for a Business Card

Always ask for the interviewer’s business card at the end – you never know if you’ll run into the
person again or if he/she can tell you something useful.
And it never hurts to follow-up and stay in touch, even if you don’t win an offer at the firm.
When you get the person’s business card, put it in the folder that you’ve carried to the
interview rather than crumpling it and putting it in your pocket or suit jacket.
First impressions still matter, and you should seem thoughtful when collecting cards.

Write Down as Many Questions and Answers as You Can Remember

Most likely, you received several questions that you weren’t sure how to answer, or that you
could have answered more effectively.
Write down as many of these questions as you can remember, as well as your rough answers.
Study them, look them up on our site, and ask us about them you so you can improve your
performance the next time around.
Just one word of caution: Don’t obsess too much over random technical questions you
couldn’t answer.

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Bankers don’t decide on your offer status based on a single technical question; it’s more about
the overall level of competency you presented.
So, if you had no idea how to walk through a DCF or value a company, that’s a problem.
But if you answered 19 / 20 questions correctly and weren’t sure about 1 / 20, chill out.

Follow Up Within 24 Hours and Answer Questions You Couldn’t Answer the First Time Around
If you have no idea how to answer a technical question in an interview, you should admit that
you don’t know, give it your best shot, and then offer to respond with an answer after the
interview ends.
That part is easy, but what’s harder is following up and responding.
Write down any technical questions you were unsure of on the sheets of paper you brought
with you and note the interviewer’s name right next to them as well.
Afterward, you can look them up in our guides, do Google searches, or ask us directly if you’re
still not sure.
Once you’ve found the answer, include it in your Thank You note to each interviewer.
Thank You notes don’t necessarily make a big difference, but they take 30 seconds to send and
can never hurt you, so you might as well send them.
Keep your notes very brief and do the following:

• Email each person you met individually – no group emails.

• Use a subject like “Thanks for the interview” or “Interview today.”

• If you’re in a more conservative region, you can use “Dear Mr. / Ms.,” but in North
America, it’s usually fine to use the person’s first name instead.

• Thank the person for his/her time, say that you enjoyed speaking, and remind him/her
of anything unique that came up. For example, if you both studied abroad in Africa, you
could bring that up.

You can also submit the answers to any technical questions you didn’t know the first
time around.

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• Say that you enjoyed meeting everyone at the firm and that you look forward to hearing
from them soon.
Example “Thank You” Email:
“Subject: Interview Today
John,
Thanks for taking the time to interview me today – I really appreciate it.
I enjoyed meeting you and everyone else on the team, and it was great hearing about your
mountain climbing – good luck on your trip this weekend!
Also, I wanted to follow up with you on one question that I could not answer in the interview
(regarding private company valuation). The main differences in private company valuation are
that you often apply a higher discount rate in a DCF to reflect the reduced liquidity and higher
risk, and you often discount the multiples from the public comps to reflect reduced liquidity for
the private company. As a result, private companies are often less highly valued than similar
public companies.
Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thanks,
[Your Name and Contact Information]”

When You’ll Hear Back

Generally, you’ll hear back quickly – within a few days or a week – if they’re giving you an offer.
If you don’t hear back within a week, it usually means that you didn’t get the offer or that
you’re “on hold” while they assess other candidates.
But this general rule does not always apply. It works well for undergraduates and MBA students
in on-campus recruiting, but it doesn’t work as well for:
1) Lateral Hires – The schedule is much less predictable if you’re switching from one bank
to another, especially if there’s no pressing hiring need.

2) Smaller Firms – If you’re interviewing at regional boutiques, firms have little incentive to
respond quickly because they know you probably don’t have offers from larger banks.

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3) Small Buy-Side Firms – Small private equity firms and hedge funds also tend to run
extended processes and take a long time to get back to you.
The bulge-bracket banks, elite boutiques, and middle-market banks are all incentivized to
respond quickly because they know you’re likely to receive competing offers.
But that’s less true in the scenarios above.

What If You Don’t Hear Back?

If you don’t hear back after a week, all you can do is follow up and continue to express your
enthusiasm for the role.
Send a message each week, and switch to the phone if they stop responding to emails.
You can “make” them move more quickly only if you bring news of other job offers you’ve
received and say that you have to respond to those offers by a certain deadline.
But this strategy tends to work well only in on-cycle recruiting processes, such as the ones run
by large banks at target schools and by private equity mega-funds.
It’s almost impossible to use this strategy at smaller firms and in off-cycle processes because
the processes take a long time and may not line up with each other.
Never lie about receiving an offer somewhere else – it will come back to haunt you.

What If You Don’t Get the Offer?

If the bank gives you a firm “No” – which isn’t that common – then you could give up there.
Sometimes, though, you do have a chance at changing their minds and going back in for
additional interviews.
You should do this only if there’s a specific reason you feel you were misjudged.
If you couldn’t walk through a DCF analysis or you couldn’t link the financial statements, don’t
bother. You need to learn the fundamentals first!
An example of a “specific reason” might be that you answered all the questions correctly, but
one interviewer in a large team held a grudge against you because a mutual acquaintance made
negative comments about you.

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If you’re confident that that one person sunk your chances, you could go back and ask for
another chance.
Some candidates do win offers after being rejected multiple times, but it’s not common.
In 99% of the cases I’ve seen, there is some legitimate reason that explains why you didn’t
receive an offer – you just have to admit what it is.
If you did not receive an offer, but you still want to stay in touch with one or more of your
interviewers, that’s fine.
It can be helpful for future networking purposes, especially if you came close to receiving an
offer or you connected well with a few interviewers.
It’s especially useful to go back to them with news of offers elsewhere; that type of news, plus
continued networking, sometimes leads to future interviews.
Return to Top.

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