One of the more advanced technical topics that can come up during interviews is the concept of accretion dilution.

This is essentially one of the key metrics that bankers look at anytime they’re working on a M&A transaction. It’s not the only thing that matters in determining whether it’s a good deal, but it is something that shareholders care about.

But how do you calculate accretion dilution? What are the different inputs that can affect the outcome?

Hear me coach one of my students through this during a mock interview.

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Our client Tyler started at a community college and transferred to a non-target school, after which he graduated into a role at a small valuation firm.

After a year there, he realized he wanted to lateral into investment banking.

As a father of a 3-year-old, he didn’t have the ability to quit his job and going the traditional MBA route.

So instead, Tyler joined WSMM and accomplished the same thing for a tiny fraction of the cost.

Hear how Tyler was able to land an offer from a reputable middle market bank.

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Private equity internships are one of the most relevant internships you can do to give your resume a boost for investment banking.

If you’ve done one already, congrats! Chances are you probably got to work on 1-2 LBO deals during your internship.

But now comes the hard part - how do you talk about that deal experience during the interview? What kind of questions will your interviewer grill you with?

Hear me do a mock interview with my student as I grill him on a LBO deal that he worked on.

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Our client Bowen studied at a target school but hadn’t joined any of his school’s professional orgs or investment banking clubs.

He felt like he was unsure how to secure the job he wanted.

After hearing about how other students from his school broke into banking through WSMM, he was convinced this was a viable path for him too.

Hear how he landed three different offers before eventually accepting a job at a top middle market bank.

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Usually we advise our students to network with bankers so that they can get referrals to interviews. But the other benefit is that you can glean talking points from your networking conversations for your actual interview answers.

For example - when you’re answering “why are you interested in our bank” - it’s always good to weave in positive things that current employees have said about the bank.

But what if you haven’t been able to network with anyone at the firm? What do you do in that scenario?

Hear me coach one of my students who had an interview coming up the next day but had this exact same issue.

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Excel is one of the most important skills you can have as a junior investment banker. In fact, you’ll probably spend more than 50% of your time on the job in Excel.

So what do you do when an interviewer asks you how good your Excel skills are? Especially if you’re not exactly an Excel whiz?

The key is to strike a balance between being humble, but not too humble. What does that mean exactly though?

Here me coach one of our students on how to answer this exact question.

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One of our students recently got asked “what about investment banking as a job makes you nervous?” during an interview. He wasn’t sure how to answer the question.

The most obvious answer is the hours, but that’s a tricky one that needs to be handled carefully. After all, you don’t want to come across as someone who’s lazy or can’t handle the hours.

But what else can you say for this question? I actually gave him one other idea that could potentially work even better.

Hear me brainstorm some answers for this question with him.

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Our client Alex came to us from a non-target school during senior year, after failing to secure a junior summer internship in investment banking and working in a middle office role.

After we helped him improve his interviewing skills, he went on to secure a full-time offer from a private equity firm.

Hear him talk about the challenges he had to overcome along the way, and how you can do the same too.

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A lot of people want to start their career in investment banking just so that they can break into private equity. After all, having investment banking experience has been a prerequisite for private equity for a very long time.

However, some bigger PE firms are starting to hire PE analysts directly out of undergrad, so it is possible to skip investment banking altogether now.

What are the differences in breaking into PE through these two different routes? What are the pros and cons of each? Which path is better for you?

Hear me answer these questions for one of out students.

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Have you ever tried to write a cover letter, or tried to prepare your answer for “why do you want to work for our firm” … but you don’t know what to say because you haven’t networked with anyone from the firm yet?

If so, you’re not alone. In fact, a lot of students find themselves in this situation. While networking ahead of time is ideal, sometimes it’s just not possible.

So what can you do to get around this problem? Are there other ways for you to still sound smart about the firm?

Hear me coach one of my students on exactly how to overcome this challenge.

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