A Day-In-The-Life: Investment Banking Interview Edition

First-year Jason Arican recently (and successfully) wrapped up recruiting for an investment banking summer internship.  One of the great strengths of Booth is the number of investment banks which recruit on campus for summer internships and full-time positions all over the US and the world.  This gives Booth students incredible access to firms and a one-stop-shop for internships, with the ability to interview at a number of firms all in one place over the course of a week in January.  Jason shares what the interview experience was like in one of his busier days, and reflects on the great preparation he got from his classmates, the Investment Banking Group, Career Services, and coursework at Booth.  For more on Jason's investment banking recruiting experience, check out his post on his Bank Week recruiting trek to NYC last quarter.

--Matt Richman

4:35 am: Unlike during Bank Week, I will not be hitting the snooze button today. Today is the first day of on-campus recruiting and, as much as I want to, there is no way I can go back to sleep.

4:50 am: I'm out of bed, so that's a solid start. Except now I am I just pacing back and forth across my living room, asking myself the same interview questions out loud and practicing my anticipated answers. I try to outsmart myself by asking a slightly different question, or challenging an answer with a tough follow-up. I pause and laugh at the thought of the proverbial fly on the wall observing a man who has seemingly been driven to madness.

6:56 am: I get a ride today from a fellow classmate who is also recruiting for banking. If all goes well, I will be invited back for final round interviews that take place either this week or next. For as much as this process has been a marathon, now we sprint.

7:50 am: My first interview is not until 9:30 am, so I set up shop in a group study room that a few friends and I have reserved for the day. When we arrived at Booth, students had the option of selecting a second-year student as a mentor and my mentor has been a tremendous help. Last week when we sat down for a mock interview, she gave me a ton of useful tips, including the importance of having a quiet space during interview week as a home base to decompress.  

9:15 am: I arrive at the Career Services wing of the Harper Center. The check-in desk is a bustling central nervous system of Career Services staff, some of whom are directing traffic, while others are doing last minute reviews of resumes and cover letters. I have always been so impressed with just how well-run Booth is. All the details matter, even down to the fact that interview rooms have reverse peep holes on the doors (yes, just like Seinfeld) so that you can look inside to see if an interview is currently in progress before knocking. Maybe I'm just easily impressed but I find that so cool.

9:30 am: For all the nerves that build up in the moments just before the interview, there is a calm and confidence that sets in as I get started. The stakes are high, yes, but we have spent almost a month in formal preparation and informally, we have been preparing for this moment since we arrived on campus in September. This interview in particular is case-based and it requires me to take everything I have learned about valuing a company and apply it to a theoretical scenario – the type of questions for which Booth classes prepare us so well. 

11:20 am: After my first interview, I go back to the study room to hang out with a few classmates and cram in some additional last-minute prep. As I head upstairs for my next interview, I feel the need to pick my energy up so I impulsively slap myself in the face. It gets the adrenaline pumping, but I slap myself a little too hard and now my ears are ringing. I am also worried about now having a red hand mark on the side of my face. This is bad, but I suppose I will be lucky if this is the worst thing that happens to me today.

11:40 am: Mike Tyson once proclaimed, "Everyone has a plan-- until they get punched in the mouth." My next interview is going wonderfully, until I am knocked off guard by a tough finance question. I go blank. I have to pause for a moment and remember that these technical questions are not about getting the right answer, but more about showing how you reason through challenges. I think back to all of the technical mock interviews I had with my classmates, compose myself, and give it my best shot.

1:15 pm: My last interview of the day kicks off and ends up being a breeze compared to the others, and I’m thankful for that. 

1:45 pm: Afterwards, I walk out into the Winter Garden and chat with classmates. People are visibly relaxed at this point and the conversations are a lot more laid-back. We share notes, joke about our slip-ups and regrettable answers, or just try to talk about anything but interviews.

6:03 pm:  My heart jumps as my phone rings with an unfamiliar number on the screen.  I pick up and one of my interviewers from earlier in the day calls with the good news that I’ve been invited to a final round tomorrow in their Chicago office (the nice thing about attending business school in Chicago is that whether you are recruiting for Chicago or other cities, many of the interviews happen here). Can I drop everything to join them for a few hours downtown?  Absolutely.

In retrospect, I thought the day went well. As a class, we have spent hours and days together getting ready for this important phase in the business school time line. This has truly been a team effort in all aspects, ranging from second-year students who have been generous with their time and guidance, as well as the world-class team in Career Services. I am certain that, on the whole, we will all find the best internship for our goals.

Speakers, Networking, and Tiny Crab Cakes: Just a Normal Day During Bank Week

Chicago Booth is a major recruiting target for Wall Street investment banks. For most of the recruiting process, banks come to Chicago for networking events, but right after finals, we make a trip to New York to visit them on their turf. This trip is known as "Bank Week". This year, about 80 first-year students from Chicago Booth's Investment Banking Group (IBG) made the Bank Week trek to visit potential employers and make a final recruiting push before interviews for investment banking summer internships. The trek is meant not only for those pursuing a career in New York, but also those who are recruiting for Chicago, West Coast, or even global offices of NYC-based firms.

First-year Booth MBA Jason Arican just finished up his trek, and offers a glimpse into his experience with a “day-in-the-life” diary of Bank Week. As Jason shows, recruiting is a tough process for anyone, but the key to Booth students’ success in landing investment banking internships comes from a combination of strong relationships with an active alumni base in banking, a supportive and collaborative environment among the first-years (as well as between the first-year and second-year classes), and great support from Booth’s Career Services.
--Matt Richman

7:50 a.m.: The alarm on my phone goes off. I have an informational interview with a firm at 9 a.m. and figure that I can eke out a ten minute snooze and still make it on time. The nights during Bank Week are late (with some events that are scheduled by banks and others that... are not), so right now ten minutes seems like an eternity.

8:54 a.m.: After a brisk twelve minute walk, I arrive to the building. All of the banks are in skyscrapers that require you to show ID when you arrive and I am stuck waiting in line at the security desk. I did not budget enough time for this and am starting to sweat knowing that I might be a few minutes late.

Booth On-Campus Interview Week: The Superbowl of Recruiting

The Winter Quarter is such a busy time for first-year students because most are interviewing through the on-campus program for internships. This week, Matthew Richman gives a first-hand perspective of what the investment banking interview process is like.

Dana

***
We huddled together, nervously clutching our leather portfolios, adjusting ties and name tags, and spending one last minute going over the finer points of corporate valuation. Suddenly, with a pronounced “click,” a nearby door opened and a head poked out.

“Matthew? We’re ready for you.”

I bid farewell to my classmates and entered the interview room.

Over the past few weeks, this scene has repeated itself over and over again on the second floor of the Harper Center. Beginning in mid-January, hundreds of companies—recruiting for roles from consulting to banking, marketing to investment management—have traveled to Hyde Park to conduct interviews with Booth students. One of Booth’s strengths is the relationships that Career Services maintains with some of the most sought-after firms around the world, as well as smaller boutique firms and startups—and the affinity that alumni at these firms have for Booth job-seekers.

Moreover, the on-campus recruiting process means that Booth students can interview with a variety of firms, all in one place. I saw the benefits of this arrangement in my own recruiting for investment banking. The banks were the first firms to come to campus in January, and spent a week conducting first round (and often final round) interviews in the Harper Center’s dedicated interview suite.

Interviews were stressful. After a long four-month recruiting and networking process, it would come down to 30 minutes. Would the interviewer be the one person we didn’t meet at the firm? Would he or she be having a bad day? Would one misstep or interview flub flush months of hard work down the drain?

After the first rounds concluded each day at 4:30pm, many firms conducted final round interviews the same evening. We were often told to wait for a phone call inviting us to the next round. We milled about the Winter Garden, obsessively checking our phones. All of the sudden, the calls would begin. Being one of the less fortunate candidates was tough, but on the flipside, getting that call for the final round was exhilarating; even more so was the late-night follow up call, often on the way home, from potential future colleagues with good news about a summer offer.

To be prepared for these pressures, we had plenty of help from Career Services, and crucially, our fellow classmates. During winter break, students got together in groups to grill one another on case studies or accounting technical questions. I didn’t expect to spend my holiday break camped out at the Gleacher Center with classmates for hours each day, sweating the finer points of the financial statement impact of a $10 increase in depreciation expense—but it really paid off when it came time for interviews.

Second-year MBA students were critical in sharing insights from their interview experiences, and helped us with mock interviews informally or as part of Career Services’ Interview Training Program, where we got formal feedback and a video of our performance.

The bottom line is that Booth’s on-campus recruiting and interviewing provides students an incredible opportunity to be part of the one-stop interviewing shop for interesting companies. One can’t overstate the convenience and advantage that comes from being able to spend a week in the Harper Center being considered for many of the different positions for which we applied, with no more travel than the ten feet between interview rooms. After the first round was conducted on campus, some firms flew candidates to their offices for a final round. However, in my case, apart from visiting the firm in New York during Bank Week, the internship I ultimately secured didn’t require that I even leave Hyde Park, since the firm came to campus in October for recruiting and also conducted first and final rounds here.

Of course, in addition to on-campus recruiting, Booth students can apply for some of the thousands of job postings from companies that are interested in hiring Booth talent, but either lack the recruiting resources to come to campus or need to wait until later in the spring to assess their hiring needs.

When considering a business school, it is important to evaluate its on-campus recruiting capabilities to ensure that you’ll be best positioned for your ideal job. At Booth, there is something for everyone in terms of function and sector. While this stage of my career transition to investment banking has required a tremendous amount of hard work, Booth—with its amazing Career Services team, collegial students, and dedicated alumni—provided me all of the resources to successfully land an exciting internship with a firm that is a great fit for me.
Matt Richman Matthew Richman UPenn TCNJ booth

Booth Career Trek Opportunities: Investment “Bank Week”

The second perspective on Bank Week is from Matthew Richman, a first-year student and member of the DSAC Communications team. Although it sounds like Matt had a very busy week attending events, he still had some time to enjoy New York and to get to spend time with classmates!

Dana
***

Matt Richman is a first year MBA student at Chicago Booth concentrating in finance and accounting. Prior to Booth, Matt founded and managed the federal government and defense contracting division of a company which provides foreign language services. He came to Booth to make a transition to investment banking, and is recruiting for a Summer Associate position.

For MBA students interested in investment banking, Chicago Booth provides top-notch opportunities. Because of Booth’s reputation and the relationships that Career Services builds with employers, our MBA program is a recruiting target for all investment banks, large and small. Booth Career Services and student groups organize a variety of career treks after finals are over. Booth students pursuing investment banking spend “Bank Week” in New York attending formal events and cocktail receptions, conducting informational interviews with bankers, and networking.

My experience during Bank Week was the culmination of all the networking I had done during the recruiting process. Beginning in September, Career Services and the student-run Investment Banking Group (IBG) organized about 50 events with many different investment banks. These events gave us an opportunity to get acquainted with all of the firms looking to recruit Booth students, and to begin the networking process.

During Bank Week, I began most days at 8am with a walk uptown for a breakfast networking reception hosted by one of the banks. Wanting to focus on the networking part and not the breakfast, I usually ducked into a deli on the way to pre-game with a bagel and lox. The days’ subsequent receptions and office visits were set up back-to-back, so I strategized with classmates who had lived in NYC previously to figure out the best way to hustle to the next event without being late or looking too undignified running through Midtown Manhattan. Bank Week evenings featured cocktail events and dinners hosted by individual firms.

After the formal portion of the week was over, I rounded out the trek with a couple of last minute meetings that I’d managed to schedule and happily, but exhaustedly, flew back to Chicago in time for the holidays—and to begin preparing for interviews.

One thing that prospective students may hear about Booth is that apart from the LEAD course, we don’t have a strict cohort system for our first year’s studies. While formally true, Booth’s flexibility provides us the ability to form our own cohorts. During investment banking recruiting, I’ve developed close friendships and camaraderie with many of my classmates, whether sharing good news or frustrations. You might think that students pursuing finance jobs would be competitive with one another, but I’ve found that most Booth students are well-versed in game theory, and have reasoned that the optimal outcome for each of us comes from cooperating. We often share emails or business cards from people we’ve met, information about each bank and its process, and pass on all manner of rumor, speculation, and innuendo to help each other strategize through the process.

Here are a couple of great (non-finance related) experiences with my classmates from Bank Week:

• Spending an evening off the grid with a few of my classmates at a Korean BBQ, chowing down on an experience called “Meat Mania.”
  
• Arriving to a Starbucks in Midtown to prepare for meetings I’d organized with bankers in the neighborhood, to find it filled with fellow Boothies camped out for the same purpose.
  
• Relaxing at the end of the week at a Booth Fusion happy hour event, where I ran into friends from the Banking Trek, the Retail Trek, and Investment Management Trek happening concurrently, and some alumni based in NY.

The success of my time in New York confirmed that Booth was the best choice for me for business school. Bank Week was the perfect mix of structure and flexibility. Booth provides access to top firms in finance through formal programming, but gives us enough room to customize the recruiting process to our own needs and goals. On top of that, I’m building a great network of colleagues and friends for the future.
Matt Richman Matthew Richman UPenn TCNJ Booth

First experiences at Booth: my first campus visit, Random Walk, and my first quarter

It's hard to believe that this is the last week of classes for the fall quarter. Especially for the first-year students, the fall quarter has been packed with memories and exciting opportunities on the horizon. In the following post, Felipe Marin, a first-year student and Country Captain for Cuba, recounts the highlights of his first quarter at Booth and how the experience has been for him thus far.

Dana
***

It almost feels surreal, but the end of my first quarter at Booth is almost here and the experience has been all that I expected, and then some. I first thought about applying to business school in 2009, but multiple factors did not allow the goal to materialize until I began to study for the GMAT in mid-2011 – from then on, time seems to have flown and somehow I’m here, reliving the process through this blog.

My first visit to the Harper Center, and to Chicago, was only ten months ago, but as soon as I walked into the Winter Garden I knew that I had found the place where I wanted to be for the next two years.

At Booth, many of us participate in one of the twenty-five Random Walk trips that take place before orientation, and I would absolutely recommend this exciting adventure to all future members of the Booth family. I had the opportunity to visit Russia for Random Walk and I am convinced that I made friendships on that trip that will last well beyond my on-campus experience. Having heard many Soviet stories while growing up in Cuba, I had always wanted to visit the Kremlin, and I’m thankful that I was able to visit Moscow with classmates who were also interested in seeing the evolution of Russia’s new capitalist society.


Statue of Peter the Great and the Russian Random Walk team

Many exciting things have happened since our arrival on campus, but I’d have to admit that our orientation retreat to Wisconsin tops all other experiences thus far. It is difficult to summarize the retreat on a blog; more than being read, it has to be lived: the outdoor adventures, the games, and the group exercises all converge into a mélange of unforgettable memories. To be perfectly candid, I really did not have many expectations from a three day trip to the woods in Wisconsin, but there’s just something about high rope obstacle courses, improvisational acting lessons, and hanging out by a camp fire that makes people bond – even when the group is as big as 576 new Boothies.

Before coming to Chicago, many people familiar with the business school process told me that the first quarter would probably be somewhat overwhelming, and they did not exaggerate. Since I had been working as a Financial Analyst at a REIT for some years, I wanted to join Booth so that I could switch into a career in investment banking. The banking recruiting process begins three weeks into the quarter and it is all about adaptability: one has to juggle classes, group meetings, the endless array of bank presentations, and social events, which of course, happen quite regularly at Booth. Recently, I’ve learned the true meaning of the phrase drinking from fire hose, but we all get through it. As a matter of fact, not only do we get through it, but we also help each other in the process. I’ve gotten contact information of recruiters and bankers from many classmates, and I’m convinced that other Boothies have been helped in this regard as well. In the end, we know that more than competitors for the same jobs, we’re a family of 576 rooting for each other. I’ve even heard some former students say that they wish they could do this process again, so I’m enjoying it as much as I can because I’m sure that, at some point, I will miss it as well.

All in all, the quarter has flown by, but I am thankful to be part of a community that has been extremely supportive throughout this initial process. From a professional development perspective, I have to say that our Career Services office has impressed all of us – yes, I really mean all of us. My classmates and I feel that the school does everything within its power to prepare us not only for the interview process, but also for a career post Booth. As a true baseball enthusiast, I would like to summarize my Booth experience with words from Dean Kumar’s welcome speech: “Swing for the fences, Chicago Booth has your back” – he means it!