This portion of the interview serves as a quick screen for the interviewer to see if you pass the “vibe check.” This is worth preparing for so that you don’t find yourself rambling from a question you weren’t expecting.
Let’s dive in to some of the most likely questions to be asked. The majority of these can be found in any Wall Street interview guides, including WSO or Vault.
I won’t go through every question, as the comprehensive list is available in the guides. Instead I will go through the most popular Q’s and point towards some hints as to how to answer them, what to avoid, what to keep in mind etc.
Behavioral Q’s
Walk me through your resume/tell me about yourself
I was born in xx, go to xx University and study xx. Last summer I interned at xx doing xx (keep it short). I’m the VP/president/xx of the xx club/org at my school where I do xx. In my free time I like to publish free substacks for my jungle animal frens because WAGMI.
Why investment banking(or other Wall St. career)?
tough to really “nail” - if you have a personal story be sure to tell it and circle it back to an aspect of investment banking that you know you’d enjoy
Talk about your experience working on something for countless hours in a day to show your understanding of the workload you’ll have. Then talk about how it would be worth it in an effort to understand the markets, which fascinates you, and investment banking would give you the opportunity to learn more about the underlying factors driving the markets such as financial modelling, excel, valuation etc.
Ex: I understand the feeling of working relentlessly on a project, day and night, week after week to eventually see it come to fruition. Working on my ecommerce store I set myself very ambitious guidelines and understood nothing about marketing or sales. Despite the hard work I put in, seeing the project come to life at the end of it made it all the more fulfilling. My interest in the financial markets is even more than that of ecommerce. I understand the hard work needed to understand the underlying factors driving company valuation, like financial modelling and analyzing comparable metrics, will be necessary to see a project come to full completion. I’m eager to start my path on this journey. - you get the idea
tip: ask this question when mock interviewing others - take some ideas from each if they interest you
Biggest strength(s)?
don’t look this one up. put everything away, sit in a quiet room for 10 minutes, and think about it. What are your actual strengths compared to others? These could be skills, habits, personality traits etc.
The interviewer is looking at your level of self-awareness, so if you can’t think of any strengths unique to you, you have bigger problems to tackle. But if you’re unsure, ask your friends/family what they think you’re good at
Say you’ve quickly learned how to remain calm and perform well in during periods of stress/pressure. Take them through it.
ex: I work very well under pressure, so much that sometimes I actually seek it out. There is something about the sense of urgency that enhances my attention and focus. Through my experience as President of xx club, I deal with multiple deadlines on a weekly basis. I think of tackling these deadlines as an air traffic coordinator. I focus on the highest priority task at hand until it is absolutely complete because multi-tasking is less efficient, can often lead to disaster, and by definition puts the highest-priority task in the backseat.
Biggest weakness(es)?
for the love of all that is good.. please don’t say perfectionism
the goal here is to list a true weakness and turn it into a strength, or let them know what steps you’ve taken to take care of this weakness
ex: I’m often over-critical of myself. Even when a project or assignment is returned to me with a stellar grade, it feels as if I could have done better. Sometimes when an objective system to gauge my efforts isn’t in place, such as a grade on a test, it often leads to this cycle of negative self-talk. What I’ve done recently to combat this is to celebrate the victories instead, no matter how small. Its given a boost to my self-esteem and raised my confidence levels enough to want to tackle more ambitious ventures.
Where you see yourself in 5/10 years?
NOT PE. Do not say PE.
say something along the lines of:
So far everyone I’ve spoken to has told me of what a great culture this bank has, and I can certainly see it! They’ve all enjoyed their experience so far, and with my fascination of the markets and drive to understand xx, I know I have my work cut out for me and will look forward to eventually becoming a meaningful contributor to adding value at the firm.
don’t outright say “I will work at this bank until I retire!” - that’s just clearly BS. At least the response provided above is passable as non-BS. That’s really the goal here
Tell me about a time when…
There are INFINITE variations of these, impossible to memorize them all. This is how you should prepare for them
Jot down as many situations relating to collaboration, leadership, and obstacles you can think of. Some things that may help you think of situations:
Working with or leading others: on a project, team sport, in a meeting, at your job etc.
Facing obstacles: all the above or schoolwork, your side hustle, hobbies etc.
think of 6 total situations. 2 for working with others, 2 for leading others, and 2 for facing obstacles
Try not to make them overlap. 6 is not a lot
Think of a situation for each where you’ve both failed and succeeded. If you are asked for a situation where you failed, make sure you end it with the lesson you learned from it.
These will cover a lot of “tell me about a time where you…” questions, but not all of them. If they ask for a time where you’ve encouraged someone to see your way, you can use the Leading others + successful situation you noted and tailor the response to the question. Like magic!
Is there anything you’d like to ask me?
say “no” and you’re NGMI.
you should prepare 3-4 questions for this part, although you’ll ask just 2 or 3
the best way to go about it though is re-circling with the interviewer on something you discussed earlier in the interview
ask for a curious elaboration of some sort - this will show your interest in the interviewer’s expressed thoughts and the industry!
the last thing you’ll ask is for the business card. “If it’s OK I’d like to get in touch with you over the next couple days, do you happen to have a business card?”
boom. you use the biz card for their e-mail address so you could follow up with them in 2 days, thanking them for their time and looking forward to the next step in the interviewing process
This is not an exhaustive list by any means, not even close. These are just the questions that are sure to come up in your interviews and show you the best ways to prepare for them.
Any questions drop a comment or DM me on twitter @bowtiedfeline and we’ll make some waves.