Bank interview questions answers

Investment banking interviews are not about finding your soul mate or having a deep heart-to-heart with the interviewer. 

You’re there to sell yourself.

Interviews are a chance to fix your flaws, highlight your strengths, and spin your experience in the best way possible.

There’s a ton of information about answering “fit” and technical questions in the investment banking interview guide, in The Banker Blueprint, and on Mergers & Inquisitions, so I’m not going to repeat all of that here.

Instead, I’m going to teach you how to fix your weaknesses and highlight your strengths by applying spin to common interview questions.

Spin Strategies

We’re going to look at 3 strategies to fix your weaknesses:

1. Omit Information
2. Blame a 3rd Party
3. Introduce New Information

And then 3 strategies to highlight your strengths:

1. Magnify Small Events
2. Re-Adjust the Focus
3. Hedged Exaggeration

We are NOT lying with any of these strategies – we’re simply presenting the facts in a different way.

Omit Information

Let’s say you went through recruiting last year and didn’t get any offers – you took some time off, got other work experience, and now you’re back at the interview table because you really want to get into investment banking.

Do not mention that you didn’t get any offers or that you’ve been through recruiting once before – instead, just say that you had planned to go into a different industry but realized that you’re more interested in banking.

Sometimes you can’t do this – like if the same person you spoke with a year ago is interviewing you – but otherwise the field is wide open.