IBIG 03 How to Discuss Your Own Deals in Interviews

How to Discuss Your OWN Deals in Interviews How to Bankify Like a ProThis Lesson: Refer to the Written Doc These questions could be VERY important for you, or they could be completely irrelevant – it all depends on your experience! We lay it all out in the written guide, but I’ll add a few more points here and give several examples.How to Discuss Your Own Deals in Interviews • Prior Transaction Experience: These questions are important! • “Prior Transaction Experience”: You worked in IB, you advised clients at a Big 4 or law firm, you worked on credit analysis, you worked on Purchase Price Allocation, you were in consulting… • Time Required: Probably need 3-4 hours to prepare thoroughly, possibly up to 8-10 hours for the two deals we recommend • These Questions Are Not Relevant When: You’re a 1st year undergrad, you have no prior client/transaction experience, etc.How to Discuss Your Own Deals in Interviews • We cannot help much with information gathering – they’re your deals, and you have the documents, so we’ll focus on: • How to Select the Right Deals – Select the two best deals based on your personal contributions • How to Structure Your Discussions – Same 100-150-word outline and 200-300-word discussion • How to “Bankify” Deal Experience from Non-IB Roles – How to make corporate law experience sound like M&A dealsThe 5-Step Process for Deal Discussions • Step 1: Understand what bankers want to hear • Step 2: Select two deals based on your contributions and, if possible, on their status and “fame” • Step 3: Review the deal documents such as the CIM, model, and activity log; a few hours is fine, but don’t spend days on this part • Step 4: Spend a total of 30 minutes outlining your discussion and planning for possible follow-up questions and your answers • Step 5: Practice your discussions so that they last 1-2 minutesHow to Select the Right Deals • We recommend picking two deals and preparing discussions • Focus on deals where you made the biggest personal contributions • Closed deals and ones that involve well-known companies are good as well, but what you did matters most • Often: You’ll have to spin early-stage deals and pitches into sounding more significant (e.g., with super-early PE recruiting) • But… you still want to focus on unique tasks and contributions