3 Interview Mistakes to Avoid in Finance

Whether we would like to admit it or not, all of us make mistakes in interviews. The key to acing your I-Banking Interview is to avoid the mistakes that students frequently commit. However, in order to do this you need to understand what those common traps are so that you can prepare and learn from the mistakes of others. This is why we wrote “The Ultimate Guide to Wall Street & Silicon Valley Careers”, to give you a glimpse into how it should be done from folks who have been there!

In this blog post, we will dive deeper into the advice given in Chapter 3: Interview Questions & Suggested Answers. Here are the 3 most critical interview mistakes to avoid in order to land the job.

(Ever made one worse? Own up to it and share in the comments section!)

Mistake # 1 – Lack of Preparation

This tops the list of I-Banking Interview mistakes. Most of the candidates are not well prepared for facing the Investment Banking interview. The problem primarily lies with the technical questions. Candidate needs to be prepared to answer questions about valuation techniques, basic accounting, and formulas in MS Excel without wasting too much time.

Mistake # 2 – Too Prepared or “Robotic”

Second on the list is sounding too rehearsed in your interviews. Candidates memorize the answers to the level that for interviewer it becomes very easy to identify that whether candidate is speaking naturally or just giving a memorized story. An interview must come across as a natural conversation and not a script. How else is the interviewer supposed to assess whether or not you are a cultural fit for the bank? You should strive to remember high level points while studying, but not a word for word response.

Mistake #3 – No research of the company

If you are in the middle of an interview and you have not done enough research on the bank itself then, you are committing the third big mistake. One should do proper company analysis, its competitors, market position, company culture, and anything else that will help set you apart from other candidates.

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Got it? Good! Now go get started prepping to crush your interview for a prestigious summer internship!