Presenting BankonBanking’s Survival Guide For: The Banker Interview
After many questions and bit of delay (more than I would have liked), it is finally here: The BankonBanking Survival Guide For: The Banker’s Interview. A 32 question (actually it’s more than 32 questions, since many questions have 2 or even 3 related questions combined) interview prep guide designed to fill you in on the explanations, tactics and answer components necessary to crack all of the most common fit/behavioral and technical investment banking interview questions. Additionally, the majority of the questions includes sample answers, or, at the very least, a point for point layout to craft the ideal candidate response. Regardless of your background, and whether you are applying for an analyst position or an associate position, this guide is sure to provide you with the tools, strategy and blueprint necessary to not just answer the most common interview questions, but to absolutely own them (pardon the pun, since you will, after all, literally…own them) during your next interview – a surefire way to impress even the toughest of interviewers.
To touch on just a sample of the questions captured by this comprehensive guide, let’s look at a few behavioral questions and topics:
“Why banking”
“Why bank X”
“Strengths, weakness, failures and leadership success”
“Job responsibilities and stresses”
“Goals and other fields of interest”
And some technical questions:
“Tell me about a recent M&A deal you’ve taken an interest in”
“Why would Company A want to acquire Company B”
“Why would a company use debt to partially fund the purchase of Company X if it has enough cash to buy it using 100% cash”
“What are you 3 primary means of valuing a company, and which one is most generous (to the company being valued) in terms of results”
“If I asked you to evaluate whether company X would be a good investment using just one financial statement, which one would you use and why”
This guide isn’t just for the hopeful bulge bracket banker by any means. Whether you are looking at investment banking positions with bulge bracket firms, middle market shops, or any boutique, this guide is an essential tool to conquer every interview.
Furthermore, this guide can be applied to more than just investment banking – if you are looking at strategy, advisory, corporate finance, commercial finance, credit products and so much more, this guide (with just a bit of tweaking for some of the more banking-specific questions) will be an incredibly valuable tool (and ideally the only major tool you will need) in your pursuit to nail the interview and take that big step towards achieving your goal and earning that position!
No longer will you be left in the dark before your interviews. No longer will you have to pay big prices for guides that cover the exact same material in far LESS detail and without the thorough explanations, point for point answer structure and sample answers. Quite frankly, we were due for a change, and a change has come – don’t fall victim to the trap that a higher price means a higher quality of service; here are a few misconceptions that need to be cleared up:
A higher price means better quality – False! Don’t believe that paying a higher price means you will get something of better quality. The fact is, bigger sites that are only out to pump out products and sell services, such as Vault and so forth, can and frankly have to charge higher prices due to their subscriber base (why they can), and advertising expenses and overhead charges (why they need to). I am not trying to make a ton of money on everything I put out and I don’t have any overhead – I am working on the site in my spare time from my laptop – I am interested in putting out the best product that I can to help aspiring bankers land and thrive in this business (but before anyone asks, this is not a charity either and I am a businessman, so yes, I am charging for it – but not $50+ dollars).
All guides are created equal – False! I have put together this guide based on my experiences as a banking interviewee, and, more importantly, based on my numerous experiences as a banking interviewer. I know what bankers want to hear, I know what they DO NOT want to hear, and I can keep you on the right path so that you don’t shoot yourself in the foot the next time you are asked to describe one of your failures (for example). Don’t be so quick to trust all of those guides written by professional interviewers, or resume writers who are outside of banking, or even outside of finance. If you haven’t sat through numerous banking interviews, and haven’t conducted numerous banking interviews you shouldn’t be putting out a guide that claims to be able to conquer the banker interview.
A 32+ question guide cannot cover the material I need to succeed – Absolutely False! Remember, this guide is designed to provide you with the tools necessary to conquer the most common and frequently experienced interview questions. While many other guides claim to offer more questions, most of the time they are simply: 1) separating every single question (rather than combining multiple parts of highly related questions into 1 question as I have), and 2) ask the same question in 10 different, although pretty damn similar ways. I provide you with the explanation, blueprint and sample answers necessary to handle any of these slightly verbally modified questions (since the question itself is still essentially the same) – bankers can think on their feet, and I didn’t think it was necessary to charge a higher price for a product simply because I am giving you essentially the same answer 8 different time by just slightly changing the phrasing of a question – you can recognize a “why banking” question or a “weakness/strength” question and I didn’t see a reason to charge you a higher price for the same product (excluding the otherwise higher word count).
Furthermore, regarding the last misconception, I am already working on another guide that will be entirely technical questions for those candidates that feel they might need a more detailed and finance/accounting-specific guide that is still geared strictly towards conquering the technical aspects of the banking interview. I know that some of you will ask why I decided to not combine the guides, well that answer is simple: not all of my readers will need a guide to advanced technical questions, and, on the other hand, not all of my readers will need a guide to the most common/frequent interview questions. Rather than paying a bigger price for a guide that you will only use half of, you can choose to purchase one guide or both (since the combined guide would have been priced the same as both guides combined will be priced) and ultimately decide where you need the most work. More will come on this topic soon – but I just wanted to let all of you know that I am hard at work to provide you with all of the tools necessary to land that dream job in investment banking, and this inaugural survival guide is absolutely essential if you are serious about breaking into banking (but can admit that you might need a little help with the interview).
So now that we’ve gotten all of the pitching, sample questions and misconceptions out of the way, let’s get down to the real issue – the price. How much does it all cost? As I came close to finishing this guide I really started thinking about pricing, and what I should charge for it. I decided that I want a lot of people to be able to afford this guide if they want to, and that I would reward those people that get on board early.
The price: just $17.95!
Let me just say that this price will eventually go up (not to $50 or anything like that), but I wanted to try to reward the supporters of this growing site by offering, what I consider, a pretty low introductory price.
My last point, the process itself: quick and simple. You purchase the product through Paypal (the link is below), and then within a few hours I will send the guide to you (by “I”, I mean either I will send it to you or someone that I know will forward it to you from my site email address – just so that you’re not thinking you will have to wait for me to get out of work to send it out to you). That’s it. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can, as always, shoot me an email, and feel free to post any comments that you might have below! For the main Survival Guide page, click Here.
Learn what to say, how to say it, and, just as important, if not more so, learn what not to say. Stop waiting for the offer to simply fall into your lap and start dominating your interviews with BankonBanking’s Survival Guide for: The Banking Interview today!
Is this guide aimed at analyst level interviews or associate as well?
Although applicable to analysts and associates, the technical questions are aimed more at analyst-level questions, since MBAs will be expected to have a more in-depth understanding and should expect more complex problems (in addition to some of these common questions). The behavioral, brain teaser and other questions, however, are equally applicable to both potential analysts and associates. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions or need further clarification.