Behaviorals
General Overview - Suggestions
“Tell Me About Yourself”
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Same as “Walk me through your resume”
Set the tone of the interview
Formalized structure
NEED TO MEMORIZE - CANNOT TRIP UP
By far, the most important question
NUIBC | 2
“Why Banking”
• Extension of TMAY
• Consider a three-pronged approach
• Common aspects to hit on:
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Interested in valuation
Want to learn how to analyze companies critically
Wanting to work on large deals
Playing the role of the company advisor
NUIBC | 3
“Why [INSERT BANK NAME HERE]”
• Get your answer through networking
• Talk about specific deals on the news
• Mention group dynamics
• Ex: Allen & Co. is a firm with extremely lean deal teams, yet still win
some of the largest deals (like AT&T-Time Warner), which would allow
me not only a large amount of responsibility, but also a fantastic learning
experience
• Location specific**
• If in Chicago, need to differentiate between Why [INSERT BANK]
Chicago
NUIBC | 4
Strengths/ Weaknesses
• Need three of each
• Need to back up with a short anecdote
• Cannot simply list strengths/ weaknesses**
• Need real weaknesses
• Don’t say “I’m a perfectionist”
• Try and cater them towards relevant ‘Banker Skills’
NUIBC | 5
Analyst Questions
• “What do you think a day as an analyst looks like?”
• “What makes a good analyst?”
• Another from of strengths question
• Almost will always follow up with “Do you exhibit these qualities?”
• Common aspects to touch on:
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Attention to detail
Being a good team player
Good communication skills
Being organized
Good at time management and multitasking
NUIBC | 6
Tell Me About A Time...
• Most of them are centered around failures
• “Tell me about a mistake, when your team wasn’t working well, etc.”
• Utilize STAR method
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Situation
Task
Action
Result
Include what you learned, and how it made a permanent change to
yourself
NUIBC | 7
Tell Me About an Industry Trend
• Read the WSJ Daily***
• Very obvious if you read it daily vs. reading an article the day before the
interview
• Need to understand an industry trend - not just an article
• Potential topics:
• Chinese Tariffs
• Brexit
NUIBC | 8
Pitch a Stock
• Understand your most recent IMG/ NCM pitch front to back
• Qualitative
• Investment thesis, risks, catalysts, industry overview, why is it not priced
in?
• Quantitative
• Comps, DCF**
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Includes WACC, method of terminal value calculation, revenue
projections, how you calculated margins, etc.
NUIBC | 9
Tell Me About a Deal
• Same as pitching a stock - choose one and research it front to
back
• Need to understand the rationale behind the deal
• Competitive positioning, why it makes sense for the buyer, synergies
they’re trying to realize, etc.
• Quantitative aspects
• Purchase price, structure of the deal (all stock vs. cash, etc.)
• Market reactions - why did the buyer’s stock react the way it did
when the deal was announced?
NUIBC | 10
General Tips
• Polish is key
• No stumbling, stuttering, ‘being jumpy’
• Write things down
• Makes it easier to not get rattled, stumble, etc.
• Ideally should be more of a conversation than just Q&A
• Interviewer will subtly slide in the questions
NUIBC | 11