<h1>8 (I have a feeling this is a weeder question.)</h1>
<h1>11 (Is the question "Why could this happen?" or "What would you do in this situation?")</h1>
<p>Page 12, questions:</p>
<h1>16 (How do I go about this without coming off as pretentious?)</h1>
<h1>21 (What would be a good way to answer this?)</h1>
<h1>26 (Do I provide several anecdotes for this one or what?)</h1>
<p>Two questions I have in general:
What would you suggest for a student to do during the summer of his freshman year?
What are some good ways to approach a professor to get him on friendly terms with you?</p>
<p>Definitely a post relevant to the banking forum, but I’ll answer it:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I would play it safe and list something else similarly related like private equity (involves financial modeling, making investment recommendations) or consulting (strategic recommendations).</p></li>
<li><p>It’s why could this happen. IMO, you need to say that you see no reason why this would happen and give a few reasons why you are certain to excel at the internship. A riskier approach could be to take a joking route… “If you weren’t hiring any interns!” I would be surprised if you are hard-pressed for an actual answer unless the interviewer is a d-bag. I honestly didn’t encounter any serious d-bag questions this past recruiting season – they want to give a good impression just as much as you do so you pick their firm.</p></li>
<li><p>This is just a disguised “what are your strengths?” question. Some would say the interviewer is looking for 2 strengths and 1 weakness. If you believe this, use two strengths and one weakness you’ve prepared.</p></li>
<li><p>If you’re in Ross, it’s easy. If you’re not, say you didn’t know what you wanted to do when you made your decision (i.e. perhaps you picked it for, among many reasons, its strong academic standing in many departments), but have since tailored your studies toward the profession (i.e. by majoring in Econ, taking some Ross courses, etc.) after you decided you wanted to do banking.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, absolutely anecdotes. Make sure to mention you know exactly what the hours are like.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Summer after freshman year? Try to get the most relevant internship possible. Boutique IB is probably best (you won’t be able to get BB), but PE, consulting, trading, AM/IM/PWM, corp. fin. are all good as well. Event marketing or sales could be good – you want something finance/business related. If you can’t a decent relevant internship, I suggest doing relevant research with a professor. All else fails, take a class or two and enjoy your summer. Your goal is to build a resume that will set you up for that BB junior year internship/full-time job. When a banker reads it, you want it to scream: “This kid will make a great analyst”. Not getting an internship after freshman year is not the end of the world. Regardless of what you do, make sure you network with people in the industry and continue to research investment banking. You don’t really need to waste your time learning modeling yet; you can do that a month before you anticipate having interviews. Edit: Oh, and I almost forgot: read mergersandinquisitions.com in its entirety.</p>
<p>Easy: office hours. Show a deeper interest in the course/his research/something relevant you’ve come across on your own.</p>
<p>I’m sure a few others will chime in with their opinions, but those are mine. Hope they were helpful. Good to see you’re getting interested early – it will ensure you are ahead of most come huntin’ time junior year.</p>
<p>Thanks. But isn’t it incredibly difficult to get an internship at one of those firms as a freshman? How would one go about doing this? I won’t have access to iMpact until I’m in Ross so I won’t be able to drop my resume in a pile that recruiters look at.</p>
<p>Also, do you think it is a better idea to interview at lesser firms you don’t really mind getting dinged at just to get comfortable with the interviewing process before tackling places like the bulge brackets or MBB?</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about any of this, but I would imagine if you’re instate, I’d think it would be reasonable to say you decided on Michigan for the reasons one would go to an instate school.</p>
<p>It is incredibly difficult to get an internship at the top firms (BB + MBB) as a freshman. You would likely need connections to do so. Do you/your parents/your relatives/friends’ parents/friends’ relatives know anyone who works for boutique IB/PE/consulting/finance firms? If not, you’re going to have to contact regional boutiques firms and ask about internship availability. I suggest starting early (i.e. Sep/Oct). All you need is for one place to say yes, whether you contact 20 places or 200 places.</p>
<p>If you’re well off, try the Analyst Exchange. They guarantee internship placement.</p>
<p>I can’t emphasize enough reading mergersandinquisitions.com, as much of it as you can, in order to learn more about networking, the industry, and how to break in.</p>
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<p>Lol… least you’ll have it soon. Try going through junior year recruiting w/o it.</p>
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<p>You could… but I would supplement it with the path you “have had in mind”. What you want to do in an interview is have everything point to “I’m perfect for this position”.</p>
<p>The problem is, I don’t have any experience so I don’t think even the regional boutiques would take me. I would probably have to go through a lot of cold calling and cold emails but even then, what could I say? If I started in Sept/Oct, wouldn’t I only be able to market my high school achievements (which are frankly unimpressive and impertinent)? I probably won’t be able to land anything even near a leadership position in a club my first few weeks.</p>
Why debt vs. equity?
This is such a banking/financing question… unless they are trying to say “Why Equities product/FICC product?”… but if they mean the typical “why use debt vs equity” banking question, they need better people putting together a guide.</p>
<ol>
<li>Who is your favorite trader?</li>
</ol>
<p>Who the hell would ask this question…Traders who get famous (outside of the professional circle) are typically prop traders/hedge fund PMs (buyside trading). S&T is sell-side trading. This is similar to going into a banking interview and the interviewer ask you “who’s your favorite MD in PE?” Irrelevant!</p>
<p>Another great one: “probability that the batter will hit a ball if he has a .333 batting average?” You’ve got to be kidding me.</p>
<p>“I want you to do the talking. Over the next twenty minutes please tell me why we are here.” That’s a little ridiculous. I can’t believe BoA actually asked that.</p>
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<p>That’s why freshmen rarely get decent internships w/o connections. Yes, you would have to do a lot of cold calling/emailing. </p>
<p>General tip: Another thing you could do if you’re ambitious is to hit up some of information sessions focused on summer internship recruiting that are held in the fall (Oct-Dec) at Ross, if you have the time. It’s never too early to start networking.</p>
<p>I’ll write this in every post for the purpose of making sure it sinks in: read mergersandinquisitions.com.</p>
<p>I thought batting average was the probability you would get a ‘hit’, not hit the ball… it’s obvious someone was typing this in a hurry. It is a bad question either way.</p>