How to Dominate Your Industry-Specific Interviews: Real Estate, Energy, FIG, and More

You’ve applied to over 100 banks, networked with 230 bankers, and have been pounding the pavement since August.

And now you’ve lined up 10 first round interviews, most of which are for the M&A and generalist pools.

But then you notice that you’re also set to interview with a mysterious FIG (Financial Institutions Group) banker, followed by 2 oil & gas bankers from the Houston office.

And who knows, maybe you’ll land a real estate, mining, airlines, or healthcare interview to make things more fun as well.

So how will it be different? And how can you get up to speed on all the accounting and valuation differences, recent deals, and everything else if you only have a few days – or a few hours – to prepare?

Lightning Q&A: Placement Agencies, Live Deals, Age, Racism, Lifestyle, Recruiting, Day Trading

The reader questions continue coming in, and we’ll take a similar approach to the most recent Rapid-Fire Q&A. Lightning Q&A, Round 2, now commences.

1. What do you think of paid placement agencies? I’m about to write a check to one, since they promised they could get me an internship at any bulge bracket bank.

Don’t send the check! Anyone that makes such a “promise” is lying because there’s no way you can make such a guarantee – there are simply too many variables involved in the job hunt process.

While you can significantly boost your chances by doing things such as reading this site, having your resume reviewed and practicing interviews, there are no guarantees.

In short, they’re a scam. Avoid.

How to Break Into Investment Banking as an Engineer

“It’s something very personal, a very important thing. Hell! It’s a family motto. Are you ready Jerry? I wanna make sure you’re ready, brother. Here it is: Show me the money. SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Jerry, it is such a pleasure to say that! Say it with me one time, Jerry.”

-Rod Tidwell, Jerry Maguire (1996)

If you’re like Rod here, you’ve come to the right place.

You’ve done engineering or you come from a technical background, but now you want to break into finance. Show me the money!

So here’s how you break into the industry: