The video provides highly specific and actionable advice for a niche but highly sought-after career path (investment banking internships). By breaking down common interview questions and offering concrete strategies for answering them, the creator addresses a clear pain point for their target audience, making the content valuable and shareable.
Summary
This video provides tips for undergraduate investment banking recruiting, focusing on common screening and first interview questions. The creator advises balancing behavioral and technical answers, using the STAR method for behavioral questions, and researching the company's website and internship programs. Key questions covered include "tell me about yourself," "why investment banking," and behavioral scenarios like team successes and failures, emphasizing the importance of demonstrating learning from negative experiences.
Structure
1Introduction and purpose of the video
2Importance of balancing behavioral and technical questions
I'm back with another Investment Banking Undergraduate Recruiting prep video that I hope is helpful. In one of the past videos, someone asked me what are the common questions that you might get asked in a screening call that's about 20 to 30 minutes or a first interview that is about the same. I'm going to respond in this video with questions that my mentee prep for when she was going through some of these first round interviews. Of course, in a screening or first interview, you're going to have a healthy balance between behavioral and technical. You'll probably will swing a little bit more behavioral than technical, but you never know your interviewer and who you're going to get that day. So it's always my best recommendation to be prepared in both. These 15 questions that I'm going to walk you through are a combination of both and should help if you are a sophomore or even a junior. So first, tell me about yourself and walk me through your resume. Why are you interested in this program and why are you interested in working at this firm? Why are you interested in working in investment banking? Why did you pick your university? Why did you pick your major? What are your hobbies and passions? What book are you reading? Tell me about a class you were taking and what you've learned. Tell me about an extracurricular class you are participating in. Tell me about a time you worked in a team and had a successful outcome. Tell me about a time you worked in a team and had an unsuccessful outcome. What are the three main financial statements? How are these financial statements linked together? What are some ways you can value a company? What is a deal you find interesting? How would you determine the value of a tree? So these are 15 questions that you should have responses ready and should be able to answer adequately in any screening call or even first interview. When it comes to the tell me about yourself and walk me through your resume, I recommend that your response between 1.5 and two minutes. It shouldn't be really long. When you're interviewing for some of these programs, you can bring in more of your high school experience because you don't have much in university. I remember when I was interviewing as a sophomore, I had talked about how I participated in case competitions, a competitive swimmer, track and field athlete, all of that kind of stuff. If you are a part of any extracurricular organizations like an investment clubs, a Wall Street club, either through your school or independently, also make sure you mention that in your about me. Similarly, when it comes to why you're interested in this program and why you want to go into investment banking, please, please, please read the company's website. Go to the landing page where they talk about their internships and they talk about some of the insights programs that they run. You'll also see pictures from all of these programs, maybe they're not on this landing page, maybe they have a blog where some of this gets posted or any other social channels like LinkedIn. Try to pick something off of what's publicly available that deeply resonates to you and refer to it when you're responding to this question. Similarly, make sure you pick reasons for why you want to go into investment banking. You have to have a good reason for why this is the career path for you. Do not pick something that is too cookie cutter, too generic, or too simple. The last tip I'm going to give is on the behavioral question of, can you tell me a time when you worked on a team that was unsuccessful? Anytime you get a question that is leading to a negative outcome, you always flip it back to the positive. Here is what I mean. Maybe you were on a team with an unsuccessful outcome, but there was a learning lesson in that experience and a takeaway that you will not do again in the future. And that is exactly what you want to mention. I hope you found this video helpful. I can keep making more videos. And please leave questions in the comments.
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