How to Tell Your “Story” in Investment Banking Interviews in 5 Simple Steps
So we’ve talked a lot about your “story” in interviews, how important it is, and the mistakes you could make that will cost you an offer.
But now I’m going to go beyond that and actually give you a blueprint that will let you tell your “story” effectively and win offers no matter what level you’re at.
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And if you want to read rather than watch, here’s the text version:
Why Does This Matter So Much?
Three reasons:
- Your story sets the tone for the entire interview, and a poor first impression is impossible to overcome.
- Interviewers often make offer / no offer decisions subconsciously within the first 2-3 minutes, based 100% on your story.
- It’s easier to fix your “story” than to “fix” your lack of finance/accounting knowledge. We’re talking hours vs. weeks.
What Is This “Story” Business?
It’s your answer to the “Walk me through your resume / CV” or the “Tell me about yourself” question that you get at the beginning of every interview.
Sometimes it’s phrased differently and sometimes it’s not always the first thing they ask, but the idea is always the same:
Who are you and why are you here?
So How Do You Tell Your “Story”?
You structure it around these 5 points:
- The “Beginning”
- Your Finance “Spark”
- Your Growing Interest
- Why You’re Here Today
- Your Future
The “Beginning”
You want to start your story… at the beginning! Sorry, this is not a Quentin Tarantino film and even if Pulp Fiction is your favorite movie you still can’t jump around chronologically.
There are 3 good places to start your story:
- Where You’re From / Where You Grew Up
- Where You Went to University
- Where You Went to Business School
#1 is good if you’re still an undergraduate, #2 is better for the MBA level or beyond, and #3 is better if you’re way beyond that (which should be almost no one reading this, but hey, just to be complete…).
Don’t dwell on this part if it’s not particularly interesting or relevant – but you do need to mention it because every story needs a beginning.
Your Finance “Spark”
Depending on when you got interested in finance, this one might be combined with your “Beginning” – e.g. if you started day trading when you were 12, then you would combine them.
Otherwise, make this a separate point and be as specific as possible.
Ideas for finance “sparks”:
- Information Sessions / Case Competitions / Activities / Clubs
- Specific People You Met Through Networking / Classes / Activities
- Any Investing / Trading of Your Own You’ve Done
- Family Businesses / Learning About It From Other Family Members
- Summer / Other Special Programs
Specificity is key.
“I was in an investing competition and had fun.”
Eh.
“I was in this investing competition, did some in-depth research on the pharmaceutical industry and recommended investing in Pfizer – their stock later rose by 50% and our team won 1st place.”
Ok, I like the sound of this.
If you don’t have a specific event, person, or activity it’s not the end of the world – but look through your resume and figure out what you can spin into sounding like the real reason you got interested.
Your Growing Interest
Here’s where you explain how each of your internships, full-time jobs, or activities led you in the direction of investment banking.
You need to logically connect each one and go in chronological order to avoid “story fail.”
Two important points here:
- With each experience, you want to mention something that you liked and something that could use improvement.
- If you have a complicated history of career changes, resist the urge to go into detail on everything – keep it to 2-3 “hops” at the most.
So let’s say you’re a university student who’s looking for an investment banking summer internship right now.
You started out working on-campus, then you worked in marketing at a local company, and this past summer you did private wealth management at a bulge bracket bank.
You might say something like this:
- “I started out with just the usual on-campus work, which I did well at, but I wanted to do something more relevant to my major and get some experience in the real world…”
- “So I went to [Name of Local Company] and did marketing there for the summer. I did well, liked the business aspect, and helped improve their online marketing campaigns by 20% over 2 months but I also wanted to do something that was more quantitative and closer to finance…”
- “So the next summer I did private wealth management at [Bank Name] and analyzed clients’ portfolios and made investment recommendations. I enjoyed the investing aspect and the analysis a lot more – but I wanted to work with clients on a larger scale…”
And then you would lead directly into why you’re here today (see the next point).
This is just a sketch of what you might say – since your story should be 2-3 minutes long, you will have to go into more detail on each point or you’ll run out of stuff to say.
Why You’re Here Today
Luckily you don’t have to be a philosopher to tell this part of your story – you just need to be very explicit with what you say.
Yes – you should actually say, “I’m here interviewing today because…” and spell it out in clear terms.
An interview is not the time for subtlety or subterfuge. It’s time to sell yourself with everything you’ve got.
You need to answer 2 questions with this one:
- Why this bank / group specifically?
- Why now?
If you’re a student, #2 is easy: you need an internship / full-time job. If you’re already working full-time, talk about how you’ve achieved a lot but feel you’ve reached your limits and that your talents would be better put to use in banking.
#1 is easy to answer if you have a background that matches the group you’re interviewing with (e.g. tech/healthcare background going to those respective groups): you want to combine your expertise with finance.
If you’re coming in with more of a finance background, talk about the advantages that this bank / group presents over other places you’ve worked at – whether that’s the type of companies you work with, the culture, the people, the added responsibility, or anything else.
Your Future
This one is closely linked to the previous point about Why You’re Here Today, but you need to add something at the end that shows:
Your Background + Investment Banking = Future Success
Popular “future plans” include being an investor or advisor to companies in a particular industry or region, or working with a certain team at a bank.
Two points:
- If you’re interviewing for Analyst-level positions, you don’t need to have concrete plans – just some idea of what you want to do.
- At the Associate level you need to show more commitment and say you’re here for the long-term because they don’t want people to jump ship to PE after a year.
So What Do You Do Now That You Know How to Tell Your “Story”?
Go through your resume and all your previous experience and figure out what you’re going to say for each of these 5 points:
- The “Beginning” – Where You’re From? University? Business School?
- Your Finance “Spark” – Person? Event? Club? Program?
- Your Growing Interest – Which 2-3 Jobs/Internships/Activities Will You Mention?
- Why You’re Here Today – Why This Bank, and Why Now?
- Your Future – What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
Make a quick 5 bullet point outline, then practice your story with a friend or anyone you know in the industry.
Aim for 2-3 minutes – 2 minutes if you speak quickly (like I do in all my videos) or 3 minutes if you speak more slowly.
Whatever you do, do not memorize it word-for-word or try to script out everything.
And then go forth, conquer your interviews, and land investment banking offers.
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great post, thank you so much for sharing this!
But I think “your future” ie career plan should become before why youre here, so you can argue 1) this is what i want next, eg. become an investor 2) and this is why I’m here today because this role..
Also 2-3min. seems very short if you have already done a few years of IB, isnt 5min. decent for someone experienced?
Thanks for your question. If you talk straight for 5 mins, it is highly likely that interviewers will be distracted whether you have experience or not. And you want to keep the interviewer as engaged as possible. Don’t forget that interviews are more like a “dialogue” – while you want to present yourself in the best light possible, it isn’t a presentation.
You can structure the pitch however you want. We just think our suggested structure is probably clearest to interviewers
I am about to interview on-site for a Sales and Trading interview soon. I am studying both Finance and Computer Science at a top 20 school, but most of my past internships have been engineering related roles at tech firms. The reason I am interested in S&T is because of a few classes I took in school that I found really interesting. I think I come across as someone who wants to try S&T, but is not 100% sure whether this is the right fit for them. From the articles/comments on this website, it seems to me that firms are mainly looking for interns who know for sure that S&T is their thing. How do I spin my story in a way so that I come across as someone in the latter category?
Read up on S&T and know why you want S&T
Demonstrate your *passion* in markets. Difficult for me to help you spin on this forum because I haven’t personally worked with you.
This link below should help though:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/sales-trading-resumes/
Hi,
Just curious – I’m interviewing for a VC analyst post in a bit – but in all truthfulness, the reason my interest/curiousity about VC was sparked off was a off-the-cuff-line in a movie. Since then, I’ve learnt more about the industry, culture, read about startups and love it and I’m generally at a good place for technical knowledge. Does a movie sound too flippant for a spark, though?
I think this sounds like a good story!
Fantastic article!
In “Why You’re Here Today” part, after I tell my story, does the interviewer usually ask “So why are you interested in firm X”, or should I take charge after the story and immediately say “So, why firm X you’re wondering…” and let them know why?
Each interview I have had in banking and other industries were different. Sometimes they would ask, where others we were left with a bit of an awkward silence before the interviewer posed the question. It is the awkward silence part that I want to avoid.
Thanks!
It would be good if you can tell them why you want to join their firm and why their firm specifically without them having to ask you because it shows you’ve done your research and your initiative!
Thanks for the prompt reply! One more question, is it alright to include positions not mentioned on your resume into the story for the sake of completeness?
Yes, it’s fine, but anything major you should list on your resume anyway.
Sure though not ideal because interviewers might be curious as to why such experience isn’t on your résumé. If it isn’t perhaps it isn’t that important to mention it in the first place!
Great article, really informative. I just finished my finance undergrad in Canada, and planning on staying in the country. I’m looking to go more into asset/wealth management as opposed to IB. Was wondering if I could get some feedback on parts of my own story.
Since I just finished undergrad, I start off by saying where I’m from and where I did my degree. My “spark” would be that I started trading/investing in my 2nd year, and won an investing competition later that year.
In terms of my growing interest, I haven’t done any internships with any of the Big 5 banks, but I did an investment management internship and last summer I was an analyst for an oil and gas company. I’ve also placed 3rd in two other competitions, one in equity research/valuation and one in portfolio management. Should I include these somewhere?
I plan to tailor the ‘why I’m here’ to the company/firm I’m interviewing with.
So that leaves my future. Planning to do the CFA. I know your oppositions about the CFA, but since I am looking to go more into portfolio management and AM than IB, its a necessity. Basically want to have a career in wealth/asset management.
——
Any feedback/advice would greatly be appreciated! Thanks
I think having the CFA will help you. Your chances are decent, though your application can be improved if you gain more relevant experience
When the interviewer asks “So tell me about yourself” (or a variation of that), is that the appropriate time to launch your entire story (beginning, spark, interest, why you’re here today)? Or, should the last part of the story (your ask) be placed somewhere else in the interview and if so, where?
Thanks!
“Tell me about yourself” and “Walk me through your resume” are both the same question. Yes, keep your story short (aim for 60 seconds if you tend to ramble), but still end with why you’re here… otherwise it’s not convincing.
Brian, so you recommend staying to 60 seconds now? Or is 2-3 minutes still acceptable?
2-3 minutes is acceptable, but I would still aim for 60 seconds because most of the time it will end up being longer… so better to aim for shorter at first.
Hi Brian,
I was curious, how much in depth should one go in the “Why this bank” part of the story? I mean, I don’t know if I should go full-out with the answer I have prepared for the “Why our bank” question (http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/why-our-bank-investment-banking-interviews/), as that would greatly lengthen the time it takes for me to get through my story, but at the same time, I don’t want to talk about “Why this bank” in just a few sentences in my story and regret it later for not coming off as very eager to join the bank. So far I have been leaving out the “Why this bank” part altogether from my story so that the interviewer inevitably asks “Why our bank”, at which point I go full-out.
Thanks for your help!
Personally I would leave it out or only touch on it very briefly – otherwise, as you said, it makes your story too long. And the interviewer will ask about it anyway.
I’m trying to career switch into real estate private equity after having worked a couple of years in M&A investment banking (currently an associate).
I’ve got good answers for the RE interest “spark”, why I like real estate, and why I’m leaving M&A, but I’m struggling with coming up with an answer to the question of why I didn’t just work in RE after graduating if I’d had an interest in it for so long instead of banking like I did.
The truth is that at the time I thought banking was interesting (and potentially lucrative), but don’t feel this way any longer.
Suggestions on how best to frame a response?
Maybe you’ve had some experience with real estate clients/corporates during your experience in banking. You may want to talk about how you want to work w real estate companies over the long term, and that you want to get exposed to operations of real estate and understand all aspects and how to evaluate whether the real estate can deliver solid returns. Emphasize on your passion in real estate. You can address your last few years by saying you want to gain experience in the sell side in your first few years to hone your valuation skills first