Investment Banking Help

johnwesley
Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:30:51 +0000

Well, don’t take my word for it. Here’s a powerpoint presentation from the Goldman-Sachs website. They’re a pretty good investment banking firm. According to them, there are three basic types of business interviews: 1) Historical, 2) Behavioral and 3) and, Case Study.

Historical Format -

If you remember anything about your college interview, this will sound very familiar; it’s about you and what you bring to the table. Poise and presentation skills are important. Your resume will pretty much guide the discussion in the same way that your application might have guided your college interviewer.

Behavioral -

NOTE: Goldman Sachs says, that their interviews are “typically” of this type. The Behavioral style of interview is also known as a “competency interview”. Be prepared to give past examples of teamwork, leadership and problem solving. Nowhere does it mention a need to know double-entry bookkeeping.

Case Study - Tests your problem solving ability; the basic factual situations are supplied by the interviewer and you are given an open-ended question that may involve basic math skills. The emhasis is on how you arrived at your answer rather than it’s correctness. The Goldman website (and virtually every other website I’ve visited) suggests that this format is most commonly used by management consulting firms.
[Goldman Sachs | How to Apply - Interview Skills](http://www2.goldmansachs.com/careers/how-to-apply/internships-and-entry-level-positions/interview-skills/index.html)