Behavioral Interviews: Formulating Your Story

                                    

Almost 80% of the questions you are asked during the behavioral portion of your interview are related to your story. Candidates never win offers based solely on their technical skills. In my previous post, I explain how to structure your story. This post addresses the two main points you should remember when formulating your answer.

Be Interesting
Interviewers look for candidates who can pass the “airport test”. Are you the type of person I wouldn’t mind being stuck in an airport with? The key to having a causal conversation is being a “well-rounded” person. Have interests outside of finance. I’m sure you’re all every interesting people, but remember this is still an interview.

  • Pick a few interests that demonstrate your potential leadership, creativity, stamina, or intelligence. Here are a few examples:
  • Games are awesome. Pick a sport you’ve played. I’m guessing that you know about the sport so you can converse about the stamina, leadership, as well as competitive spirit needed to partake.
  • Pick a hobby that requires intellect or strategic thinking. Personally, I’m an FAA certified pilot.
  • Do you have a study/ work abroad experience? This is a great conversation topic. Be sure to focus on the studying part and less on the partying.
  • Mentioning you know a language is pretty cool as well. Just be sure you can speak the language in the fluency you portray. Be honest for all of your interests, because you will have to talk about them.

Remember playing those icebreaker games in high school? Thinking about what you’re known for and talking about that will set you apart from the rest of the candidates.

List these at the bottom of our resume under the interest portion. I once had an interview where I spent 30 minutes talking about Bob Barker and the Price is Right because I have “game shows” listed as an interest.    

Spinning Your Background Story
The great thing about you story, you can frame it how you want to. Are you going into the interview with non-finance experience? Similar to “bankifying” your resume, you need to be able to connect your story to the banking job you are applying for. Turn your experience’s associated weakness into a strengths.

  • Engineering - Focus on your communication skills
  • Arts and Science or Lawyer - Explain your analytical attributes
  • Pre-Med - Demonstrate how you’re outgoing
  • Corporate Finance/Sales/Consulting - Have the work stamina

On the other hand, if you have worked in banking, your interview will be monopolized by questions about your deal experience. Spend time creating a list of projects you worked on, your impact, and the outcome.

Q:While I think of myself easily being able to conquer the advertising world as dapperly as Don Draper, I'd rather quit shaving and grooming as well as my current Network Engineering job and walk the Appalachian Trail for the rest of my life.. any suggestions on having some Venture Capitalist financing it and turning it into a grotesque display of marketing gone awry? -spaz

spaztech

Hahaha awesome!

I would recommend getting your story consistent until you land the $$$ (i.e., showering, shaving, and slaving away looking ideal).

After funding, have a blast and don’t forget to invite me to the parties. Also, try not to get in trouble and end up on CNBC’s American Greed. Cheers!

Behavioral Interviews: Tell Me About Yourself

Man Your Story is AwesomeTelling your story is a guaranteed question in any interview. Sometimes this question can be rephrased as, walk me through your resume. Below are a couple of key points I like to remember when answering this question:

  • Tell your story in a chronological manner.
  • Tie the story directly into how you became interested/involved in finance. A good practice method when preparing for interviews is to make sure you can connect each activity on your resume to finance.
  • Wrap up the story by giving specific reasons as to why you want to be in banking and why are interviewing at that firm.
  • Keep answers between 2 to 3 minutes.
  • Since this answer should be the most practiced, it is important to focus on keeping the delivery natural.

The information above is common advice. I try to make my story personal, memorable, and relevant to finance as to separate me from my competitors.  Making it personal isn’t difficult since I use events and people in my life that have lead me on the path to banking.  Making the story memorable is more difficult. I achieve this by simplifying my story and focusing on what is important. To accomplish this, I jot down a couple sentences in a chain of six steps that I use to make sure I have covered all the pertinent information.  

For example, I come from a very entrepreneurial background. 1) (Beginning) Both my parents started their own businesses. That inspired me to get involved in business. I created my own website design company when I was in High School. From there I decided to go to college and get a better, well-rounded education.  2) (Spark) Eventually, I got involved in my school’s investment club. It was there that I got the opportunity participate in an intercollegiate stock pitch competition. My involvement in the club gave me the opportunity to gain exposure to accomplished alumni in finance and present on various financial topics. However, I hadn’t fully realized my passion for finance. 3) (Growing interest) A year latter I started my second business. During the grueling stage of raising seed capital, I met with XYZ at ABC Venture Capital. He graciously told me about his days as an investment banking associate, and introduced me to a couple deals he worked on. I was hooked. 4) (Evolution of interest) All of the pieces fell into place after doing more research and talking to friends in the industry. I knew I wanted to do banking. I immediately started interviewing and found an internship at a boutique investment bank where I got experience working with a team to close a $100 million EBITDA technology acquisition. 5) (Why IB?) I enjoyed learning about the business-side of technology so much that I chose to elongate my internship for another 4 months. There is really no other field that provides someone my age with the exposure banking provides. 6) (Why this firm?) I am interviewing here today since I talked to Mr. MD and am interested in working in this company’s excellent technology practice for a minimum of 10,000 hours (committed for the long-term).

There, that was my example. Of course, I do go into a little more detail when I actually deliver my story, but it is important to remember to keep the story short and conversational. The key is to nail each of the numbered points and make them your own. Additionally, I like to have a three sentence elevator pitch (will be covered in a future post) ready for networking events. I hope this helps when telling your story.