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 , this will be great help for SA interviews this January. My question is: How, if at all, are S&T interviews different from IB interviews?
The technical questions are more focused on math and probability rather than corporate finance. And they want to see more of an interest in the markets.
I think you mentioned this before, but I just want to double check. It’s generally okay to round a 3.43 to a 3.5 right?
Honestly I don’t know and I’ve stopped giving GPA rounding advice because no one can agree on it. I think you’re fine doing this but other people will tell you that you’ll be murdered…
This is a great post!
Great article!!
OT question: For a IB resume should each bullet point lead off with a past tense verb rather than a present, even if I am currently still pursuing that career and/or activity?
It doesn’t really matter, I always do it like that to be consistent but opinions vary. It won’t impact your interview chances at all.
I know you say you can round your GPA up from 3.79 to 3.8, etc. What about the opposite – I have a 3.89 but don’t want to seem too smart or nerdy, can I write a lower GPA like a 3.7?
Uh there’s no reason to ever do this for investment banking.
@ Consultant’s message. Can I at least round down to 3.8? I know 3.89 rounds up to 3.9 but is it ok to round down if its above the 5 mark?? Just will make me more confident going in the interview
C’mon man. A 3.89 usually isn’t even considered above average for banking (average GPA is 3.93 or so for Bulge brackets with a 3.9 cutoff or so) so round it to 3.9
Common man….
There are other things you should focus on rather then on marks ;)
I wouldn’t worry, problem is my experience isn’t great – I had an internship at blackstone m&a freshman summer but after that I did more study abroad stuff and didn’t have a soph internship so I’m looking for a junior internship and worried.
I don’t see your problem. You had an internship and then focused on something else now you’re interested in IB again. If you get that into your CV I don’t see any problem.
That is idiotic. IBs mix with people with than kind of GPA all the time. They will think you are trying some kind of lie and cant even get your details straight. If that’s you legit mark, just list it as is and move on.
Just curious – what would happen if you were working on an undisclosed transaction and you went around emailing the company employees telling them that their company was about to get bought out and giving them the valuation/pitch information to prove it?
You’d be publicly executed
Great article!
Behavior/competency questions have always been popular in interviews. Do you have any advice on how to handle those questions?
Also, I encountered the “tell me a joke” question during an interview. Do I have to give a joke that is related to finance?
Thanks!
See the interview guide. This article in the comments for joke question:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-interview-mistakes/
I’m a senior and interviewing with a boutique/MM that solely focuses on cross-border M&A. If I want to move to PE later, do you think this niche is more or less helpful than being at a more normal small firm?
More helpful if you also move to a cross-border investment PE firm, less helpful if you want to move to a different type of PE.
I’m extremely attractive. Do you think that I should put on some weight before interview season (“round up”)? I don’t want interviewers to realize that I’m God’s gift to women and consider me competition.
Thanks, and great post!
Sounds like a plan…
Hey M&I, first I just wanted to thank you sooo much for making this site, you are a genius and I love your sense of humor.
Now, if an interviewer asked me to “walk him/her through my resume” and I followed ur guidelines, could he be annoyed that I started with where I was born and talked about my dreams and aspirations even though he only asked me to “talk about my resume” essentially?
Thanks!
Don’t spend a lot of time on that first part… keep it short because you want to focus on your growing interest.
Hey M&I,
I’m a third year industrial engineering student also minoring in Economics at university of toronto and I know that none of the big Investment Banks do campus recruitment at my university. I will be doing a one year internship between my 3rd and fourth year at a big management consulting firm and would like to join an Investment Bank as a summer intern right after my consulting internship.
-Last summer, summer after second year, I did research on advanced mathematical algorithms that pertain to portfolio creation and management.
-Do you think I would have a chance at getting an interview since they don’t formally do campur recruiting at university of toronto? even though my school was ranked 8th in the world for engineering this year.
-Do you think its to my disadvantage that I am doing a one year Co-op in management consulting and applying for an Ibanking summer internship after?
-I was in a different engineering program first year of my studies and then switched to Industrial Eng, my CGPA is 3.77 but my Industrial engineering is 3.97 do you think I can get away with putting my Industrial Eng GPA on my resume?
- Also, I was thinking of writing my CFA level one exam in june, do you think that matters at all?
I profoundly appreciate your help and thank you again for creating this blog.
Ok, there are basically 2 problems here:
1) You need to network your ass off to have any chance at getting an i-banking internship. So it all depends on that.
2) You can’t do an internship when you’re set to graduate… so you have to re-think that part of the plan.
For your GPA and CFA questions, see the FAQ:
http://mergersandinquisitions.com/faq
Should your “story” be exactly same regardles if they ask you “walk me through your CV” or “tell me about your self”. I ask because in the guide you say that we should talk about why we want to work for the bank and group, but none of this information is on the CV, and I am worried that the interviewer will think I’m getting ahead of myself.
Also, if he asks me to run through my resume and then I chronologically tell him my story, wont he get annoyed/lost if I start by talking about my college which is on the top of the paper, and move on to my finance spark, which is at the bottom of the paper and then continue moving up on the pape.Ofc, assuming he is looking at the CV as I speak. Or am I just worrying too much?
It’s the same question, so yes your story should be the same.
Hardly anyone actually looks at your resume when they ask you that question, otherwise they wouldn’t be asking you to walk them through your resume… they would just read it themselves.
So I did all the five steps and in the end got an offer from BlackRock. Thanks!
Congrats!
I have a lot of trouble answering the “Whats your weakness/shortcoming?” question.
Can you tell me some Safe Weaknesses that will not intimidate or lower my chances of an offer/
This one is covered in the interview guide – just say something like sometimes you get too close to the work and have trouble seeing the trees for the forest.
Thanks for this article. I have been practicing telling my story using those steps. Do you mind looking at my short script via email?
I don’t offer 1-on-1 consulting services at the moment – if you’re a customer of BIWS you can email or post a comment through there and I can take a look at it.
About the beginning, if I’m an undergrad, then according to your article I should start with my background, which in my case would be something like I was born in country A from parents that come from country B and moved to country C (where I’m applying) when I was 4. However, I also have this story (which I think is great) that starts off 5 years ago (the beginning) while I was working at company XYZ that was involved in B2B. I moved up the ranks and that’s when I know I wanted to get into finance (spark). I then go through the growing interest part leading towards an IB internship I’m currently doing.
My question then is do I absolutely have to start with my “where I was born” part and then fast forward 18 years to the relevant part or can I just start at 5 years ago with my experience in B2B? Seems like the “where I was born” part brings nothing to my story and doesn’t fit. My international background is obvious anyway + my internship is in my native country. Thanks.
You don’t need to start with where you’re born, especially if it’s obvious / doesn’t add much – I would go with the 2nd option.
Hi, I have an upcoming interview soon with a hedge fund of funds. I’m sure there is a good amount of technical/qualitative analysis that goes into picking funds to invest in, but I’m assuming if I get the job I won’t be doing too much financial statement analysis, cash flow modeling etc. (maybe I’m wrong). Are there a certain set of hard skills that they are looking for me to emphasize at the interview that may be more relevant than those I mentioned?
Not really, you still need to know accounting / valuation and so on at a fund of fund, even if you do less modeling
If I’m a post-MBA coming from an IM background and want to pursue an associate position at a bank, what skills are they going to expect me to demonstrate or discuss given that I have no deal or banking experience? I worked with a lot of IPO deals on the buy-side and learned about what bankers did, so that’s the angle I plan to take when explaining my interesting in switching over to banking. Thanks for the info.
Modeling/valuation knowledge, leading analysts, understanding the deal process even if you haven’t worked on them directly before
You mentioned that it’s always better to name specific people at the bank we’ve talked to during interviews. But should I still mention if I’ve only met/spoken to contacts once or twice? Didn’t have enough time to go through the mating rituals. I heard interviewers might come back to your contacts and ask for their opinions, so I don’t want to hurt my chances if they say they don’t really know me or don’t even remember having spoken to me and stuff like that.
You can say that but I would just follow up with your contacts quickly and say that you are applying to their firm, just to remind them and let them know.