You obviously would not just take out a note card in the middle of the interview and start reading from it (although, with the way that smartphones have destroyed peoples’ social skills, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen…).

This note card is for *your preparation* and should be a way for you to quickly prepare for the key points and details right before you go in. If the person asks for very specific numbers that you don’t remember, then *maybe* you could ask if it’s OK to review your notes, which you have with you, and get your answer there. But you should never take out documents unprompted in an interview.

Are we actually supposed to break out these cards within the interview? Couldn’t this be considered cheating as all of the deal points are right there in front of me, as opposed to having to recall them off the top of my head?

Thanks

Focus on the different financing possibilities you looked at, e.g. 2 Term Loans vs. Mezzanine vs. Term Loan + Senior Notes, and how you analyzed each possibility and then recommended the best one for the client based on its objectives. Make your contributions more about helping the client pick the best financing option and maybe also about getting the deal approved internally.

Thanks for another great article!
How you would prepare a deal sheet to present a leverage finance deal (mostly arranging debt/advising on how it should be structured)?
For the transaction rationale would you just focus on what the investment/credit highlights were?
And for key contributions, what areas do you think are important if most of the work is focused on getting internal approvals?

Thanks!

Sponsor Banker

Yes, these are still useful to discuss and talk about so I’d list your deals in the cards

I work at a boutique and a lot of my work are on the earlier stage of a deal – pitching, valuation, prelim DD, i.e. no closing deals. Should I still be making these cards? Thanks.

You’re welcome.

I had the interview today, must say, I was asked fairly random set of questions, what color would you choose? which car best represents you? etc. Very random indeed – anyway, many thanks for your help Nicole :)

A boutique bank is probably more entrepreneurial. People maybe more “tight-knit” and fit is probably more important. You are likely to take on more responsibility if the bank is not structured, and you may have to be a jack of all trades (i.e. be responsible for many things.) So I think what you mentioned in the paragraph works (i.e. referring to your entrepreneurial background) but I’d probably change the last sentence as it seems to dry. You can also talk about people you’ve met at the bank and how you think you can fit in.

Thanks Nicole – really interesting about following the dress code.

Just a quick follow-up question, I’ve been getting a lot of “Why a boutique than a BB bank?” in my interviews and I’ve never managed to give a solid response. What would be the best way of going about tackling this?

I’m not exactly in a position of making a fully-informed decision given that I’ve only have experience of boutiques. I normally go along the lines of – “Given my entrepreneurial background, I feel as though the entrepreneurial culture of smaller banks really suites my characteristics. I enjoy the prospect of making a tangible impact on the bottom-line and materially contributing towards the outcome of a transaction(s) etc..” I know this is really general and is far from watertight.. How can I make a convincing case?

Thanks in advance!

Al