Prep
Opens Dec to Mar, sophomore year
Investment Banking
Advise companies on deals and raising money.
Goldman Sachs
J.P. Morgan
Morgan StanleyEvercore
Centerview Partners
Build financial models, format pitch decks, run comparable company analysis, and turn comments from a VP at 11pm. Junior work is mostly execution and formatting. The judgment comes later.
Earliest and most structured of all paths. Summer analyst applications for the junior summer open 15 to 18 months ahead, from December through March of sophomore year at elite boutiques and bulge brackets. Rolling. Networking matters: coffee chats before the application are expected at most banks. Interviews are technical (accounting, valuation, DCF, LBO basics) and behavioral.
What you will drill
- BehavioralsYour story, why banking, why this bank and group, and the STAR questions.
- AccountingThe three statements, how they link, and what moves when one line changes.
- Enterprise and equity valueThe bridge, what belongs in it, and which multiples pair with which value.
- ValuationComparable companies, precedent transactions, and when each method fails.
- DCFFree cash flow, WACC, terminal value, and what each assumption does to the answer.
- Merger modelsAccretion and dilution, purchase price allocation, synergies, and deal structure.
- LBOsSources and uses, leverage, debt paydown, returns math, and the paper LBO.
- Brainteasers and mathQuick math and logic asked to see how you think under pressure.
- Markets and dealsA deal you follow, what rates are doing, and why the market cares.