The overallprocess of completing interviews varies based on your location (e.g., North America vs. Europe) and the level of roles you’re applying to (e.g., Analyst vs. Associate).
If you’re inNorth America and you’re applying toAnalyst roles, the investment banking interview process usually goes like this:
- Network months in advance and submit your application online.
- Complete a HireVue or other pre-recorded video interview, or possibly a phone interview with a human.
- Then, come into the bank’s office for a “Superday,” where you interview in-person with many bankers at all levels (Analyst through Managing Director).
If you get an offer, you’ll hear back quickly; if not, they may not say anything, or they may drag out the decision.
At theMBA level (for Associate roles), it’s similar, but banks tend to focus on on-campus recruitment at the top business schools.
If you’re applying outside of these formal processes – for example, you’re working at a Big 4 firm or valuation firm and you apply for full-time IB roles – then the process will be a series of interviews over a long period, with unpredictable timing and less reliance on HireVue and other automated assessments.
HireVue questions tend to bevery generic (“What are your strengths and weaknesses? Why our bank? Why investment banking?”), so they should not require additional preparation.
For more, see our HireVue interview guide.
Real interviews are far more challenging because they could ask you anything, and they’ll judge not only your responses but also your body language and “cultural fit” with the group.
InEurope, and especially the U.K., this process is different because:
- You will have to complete online math, logic, and verbal tests, along with competency questions(written versions of “fit” questions); and
- Instead of a Superday, you will go to anassessment center in the final step.
At this “assessment center,” or “AC,” you will complete exercises such as group presentations, report writing, role-playing, and e-tray/in-tray (to simulate your responses to emails) in addition to the standard interviews.
ACs test your ability toperform in real life more effectively, but you’ll have to spend additional time preparing for them because the tasks are different from those in standard interviews.
In other regions, such as Asia and Australia, the interview process is somewhere in between these two.
We cover the details of this process in the articles on EMEA recruitment, assessment centers, and competency questions.
