Month of Interview:
March
Industry Detail:
Private Equity
How long did the interview process last?:
2-3 months
Intern
Group/Division/Type:
Mergers and Acquisitions
What did the interview consist of?:
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
How did you get the interview?:
In-person
What were the most difficult or unexpected interview questions asked?:
The most difficult questions I had were :
Why did GE choose to be a conglomerate and can you tell me how would you do the valuation?
Are GE shares underpriced or overpriced?Would you invest in GE?
Would you invest in the Real Estate industry and why? Do you think it is a good investment compared to Tech?
If I gave you 1 million to invest in one single industry, which one would choose? don't tell me tech companies.
How a tax-free company such as GlobalBlue makes money and how is it profitable? would you invest in it and why?
Can you tell me about a deal that happened recently and you think was a bad strategic move?
Overall, how would you describe your interview experience?:
Positive
No votes yet
Please describe the interview / hiring process.:
The interview consisted of three rounds :
Phone interview first, then I got called after a week. the first round was with an MD only which consisted of fit questions such as why PE, why Fidelity, tell me about your story and so on. very classical question and no tricks. however, on the tech part, it was more challenging since he asked me about my previous internship and how did the company business model be, and if I would invest in the company or not and why. the tech questions mostly consisted of testing me if I had an investor mindset or not.
the 1 on 1 interview was a lot trickier since it involved walking through a DCF that I mentioned on my resume. it was a Senior Associate and while I was going through the DCF he asked me technical questions such as: why did the company preferred high-yield and not banking bonds? how did you estimate it? the fit part was much similar to the first part such as tell me your story, why PE, why Fidelity.
Then I had another 1 on 1 interview with a VP, this time it was mostly tech questions on LBO and IRR, he also asked me on which industry I would invest and why. he also asked me some brainteasers.
Overall, how difficult was the interview?:
Difficult
Official Undergrad School Name:
Overall Undergrad GPA:
3.0
Undergrad Class Year (or expected):
2016
Official Graduate School Name:
Overall Grad GPA:
3.5
Grad School Class Year (or expected):
2019
Degree 1:
MSSc
Major 1:
Finance
Degree 2:
MSSc
Major 2:
Business
Varsity Athlete:
No
Millitary Program (ie. ROTC):
No
Race:
Asian
Sex:
Male
Outcome of Interview:
No Offer
Year of Interview:
2017
How did you answer each of these questions (please be specific)?:
The first two questions about GE, fortunately, I was quite accustomed to the company. GE is a diversified conglomerate that went through a strategic revamp since the end of 2009 and focused on its main core business. it chooses to be a conglomerate after a supply chain and horizontal merger strategy, in fact, he acquired competitors in the same industry for financial synergy. the conglomerate business model was popular decades ago and recent strategic turnaround of GE shows that the conglomerate business model is old and has to be updated.
GE share is currently underpriced, in fact, its P/E forecasts are optimistic and equity valuation shows higher per share price. however, I would not invest in GE because it is too diversified and hence very difficult to assess its Cash Flows.
I would invest not invest in the Real Estate industry because its inflation rate is slowing down, making it less attractive. I would go for Tech companies since they have higher growth rates even for the mature companies (GAFAM).
I didn't answer well this question, it was following a discussion about NOL and I said in niche market without being specific...
Tax-free companies have commissions margin since they do not make the 100% tax return, I was not sure about the answer at all too...
I did not have any answer for a "bad M&A deal"...
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