You need a good answer for this one – because you’ll get it in every single interview.
But you probably have a poor idea of how to answer this one, at least if you’ve read other guides.
-You want to learn a lot.
-You like corporate finance.
-You need a fast pace to keep yourself entertained.
They’re not wrong – but these answers are all too generic. You sound the same as everyone else.
So if you want to succeed in interviews, you need to be more personal and give answers that make an interviewer remember you and more likely to “go to bat” for you in the future.
There are two main ways you can do this: the “Big Picture” method and the “Slice of Life” method.
Use the “Big Picture” method if you’re a career changer, you don’t have a finance background, or you don’t have a specific story that made you interested in finance.
The formula is: Background in One Field + Experience in Finance = Long-Term Success.
So maybe you’re an engineer and you want to do investment banking so that you can go into venture capital one day; or maybe you came from healthcare and you want to do investment banking so that you can advise healthcare companies on major financing decisions.
If you don’t have “long-term goals,” then make up some to fit the situation – just make sure you’re consistent with what you tell interviewers.
The other method – the “Slice of Life” – is better if you’ve been a finance major, or you have some full-time experience in the field.
With this one, you start off with the event that made you interested and then explain how that interest developed over time.
-You observed some family members trading stocks when you were younger, so you got interested, started following the market, and did some trading internships.
-You went to a summer leadership camp and met top female executives at investment banks, which sparked your interest in the field.
You can combine these methods as well – but keep your story short if you want the interviewer to listen.
Aim for 20-30 seconds at most, keep it brief and on point, and you’ll be well-ahead of 90% of interviewees.
Riyan Richter writes about the career search process, how to successfully network, and how to get into the finance industry at Mergers & Inquisitions, the internet’s top resource for investment banking and answering the why investment banking question in interviews.
