Interview reminders - investment banking jobs

INTERVIEW REMINDERS

General

Go in on fire. Impressions are made in the first few minutes. Be energetic. The energy in the conversation must come from you. Sell yourself. ENJOY TALKING TO THE PEOPLE YOU ARE MEETING WITH AND ABOUT WHATEVER YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

If there is one and only one thing you do in your interview it should be to smile. No matter how things are going, smile, be positive and stick to your story.

Know the 4-5 major points/themes you want to get across and make sure that you work them into your answers.

Remember, you need someone to stand up and say, "We should hire this person."

Keep the goal in mind - getting to the next round or getting the job offer.

Be prepared

You know the questions you are going to be asked. What would you do if you had final and you knew all the question in advance. This is no different.

The more time you spend preparing, the more you will find out about yourself and the more sincere you will sound during the actual interview.

Focus on your story and make sure that you fill in the obvious gaps. Know how they will respond to your story and be prepare with your counter-response.

Know yourself well, they will probe beneath the surface.

If you have a weakness, they will find it. Be prepared with an answer that addresses it without whining?

Do not, under any circumstances, be overconfident. They delight in crushing overconfident candidates.

Again, know your weaknesses and be prepared to explain them. We can't emphasize this enough.

Know and be ready to talk about everything on your resume. Know your resume inside out. You will be asked speak about anything and everything on it.

Be clear and concise

Keep your answers short and to the point. Bankers are conducting the interview! Find a way to get across the information you want to convey to the people with possibly the shortest attention spans on the planet.

It's fine to structure your answers like an interview. It helps you keep on track and it ensures that they will take away what you want them to take away.

Be confident

Think of positive reasons for everything.

Don't apologize for anything - grade, GMAT scores, GPA, or xxxx - but have a reason to back it up.

It's okay to say, "I don't know, but this is how I think I'd do it..."

Keep cool

Don't forget - they're asking questions to find out about your line of thinking and to find out how you will react under certain conditions.

When in doubt, take a deep breath and talk it out.

Practice, practice, practice

What sounds good in head may not necessarily sound good out loud. Therefore...

Practice out - in the car, to your friends and family, in the shower, to your dog, etc.

Have second years mock interview you. If your mock interviews are tough, you will be better prepared.

Last words

Eat and sleep right.

Relax and have fun.

HINT: Just before you walk into a banking interview, ask yourself your favorite question you would like to be asked. It could be about your family, baseball, your car, whatever. Just make it something you are sincerely interested in and makes you happy. This technique will help you to come into the room positive and happy, and ready to answer any question.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. If a firm asks me whether I will take an offer from them if it is made, what should I do?
A. Tell the truth. If the firm is your top choice and you would take an offer if it were made, tell them that. This is not a trick question, but should not be used to make yourself appear to be more interested than you actually are. If the firm is not your no-brainer, first choice, let them know that you are still conducting your due diligence and learning everything about the various firms before you make a decision. This is fine. This is a long, arduous, sometimes humiliating process and therefore there is nothing wrong with you learning as much as you possibly can before you make a decision. But, always stress how interested you are in the firm.
Q. Can I accept offers from more than one firm?
A. No. Once you accept with one firm, you must take yourself out of the process, or CSO will kill you.

APPENDIX: LIST OF INVESTMENT BANKS

New York
Bank of America*	Goldman Sachs*	Morgan Stanley*
Bear Stearns*	ING Barings	Citigroup*
CIBC Oppenheimer	J.P. Morgan Chase*	The Blackstone Group*
CSFB*	Lazard Freres	UBS*
Deutsche Bank*	Lehman Brothers*	BNP Paribas
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein	Merrill Lynch*	Credit Lyonnais
Barclays	Rabobank
San Francisco
Broadview	Thomas Weisel Partners*
Dain Rauscher Wessels	W.R. Hambrecht
SG Cowen
Regional
A.G. Edwards	Gruntal & Co.	Robert W. Baird
Adams, Harkness, & Hill	Houlihan Lokey	Robinson Humphery
U.S. Bancorp	Piper Jaffray Legg Mason*	Stephens, Inc.
Wachovia*	Morgan Keegan*	Tucker Anthony
Freidman, Billings, Ramsay	Raymond James	Wit Soundview

APPENDIX: RESOURCES

Read the financial press and try to focus on an industry and a few companies

Really understand an industry and/or company that you are interested in and be able to talk intelligently about it/them.