Intern

I interviewed with an industry coverage group in a one-round super day style interview. The process was off-cycle for a FT Associate position. I initially made contact with the firm by cold emailing alumni (top-target b-school) for informational interviews during my summer. It took time to build traction, but eventually met with 8 different associates across different IBD groups. Later on in the networking process I heard about an opening in a group that made sense given my background. I reached out to several of the alumni contacts I had met and eventually one forwarded my resume to the recruiter in charge of FT recruiting (not the same recruiter listed by b-school career management). Recruiter contacted me and requested my resume, shortly after receiving my resume replied that the team would be interested in meeting me (ie. an interview). I prepared for the interview with the M&I 400 question guide and also by speaking with summer associate 2nd Years at my school. The day of the interview when I arrived I was escorted into a conference room by a person from HR. The interview began with a 2-person interview (Associate & MD), followed by another 2-person interview (2 VPs), and then 2 more 1-on-1 interviews with 2 Associates, the interview concluded with a final interview with the business unit manager. All of the interviews with the exception on the BUM were a mix of behavioral and technical. The first interview consisted of the typical walk me through your resume followed by accounting technical questions and on LBO theory. The second interview consisted of behavioral questions follow by an M&A analysis requiring the calculating, exchange ratio, accretion/dilution, etc. followed by theoretical questions with regard to dilutive M&A deals. There were a ton of behavioral questions ranging from the typical questions to very challenging questions specific to my background (all of the questions were fair play and not meant to be tricky). I was also asked to mention a few recent M&A deals, I mentioned a deal the group had worked on that was recently announced and they made me mention another deal (seemed like they were testing the depth of my knowledge). There were no brain teasers. All the people that I interviewed were very impressive and extremely well polished, a cut above the other bankers I have met with. Overall a good experience although naturally very stressful.