Technical Interviews

Technical interviews are becoming more common for finance-related roles. Technical interview questions test your knowledge of relevant concepts, calculations and programs. You could be asked 1-2 technical questions within an interview or an entire interview could consist of technical questions. All technical interviews are not created equally – they can vary significantly across different areas of finance. Follow these tips for success:

Knowing what the tasks and responsibilities of the position are, anticipate the types of questions that will be asked. Start to build and plan answers in advance.

Pause and collect your thoughts before jumping straight into your answer. Deliver your answer in an organized manner. For example, if the interviewer asks you to walk them through the three main financial statements, start out with “The three main financial statements are the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows, and I’ll walk you through them in that order…”

▪ How do the 3 financial statements link together?

▪ How do you value a company?

▪ What is typically higher – the cost of debt or the cost of equity?

▪ How do you calculate the cost of equity?

▪ How would you calculate beta for a company?

▪ How do you calculate unlevered free cash flows for DCF analysis?

▪ Where do you see the market heading?

▪ What do you think of the latest economic data?

▪ What is value investing and how is it different from growth investing?

▪ Which investors do you admire?

▪ If you had $1 million to invest, what would you do with it?

▪ What are the most common multiples used to value a company?

State what you do know that is relevant, and how you would proactively go about figuring out the answer. Don’t talk yourself into a corner or try to fool the interviewer – you won’t be able to!

▪ How would you determine the creditworthiness of a company?

▪ If you were asked to analyze a set of financial statements, what would you do?

▪ Name some important credit metrics.

▪ Where do you think interest rates are headed?

▪ What’s more important, the income statement, balance sheet, or cash flow statement?

▪ Tell me about a recent news story related to the financial markets and your opinion of it.

▪ Pitch me a stock (or FX, option, bond, or other trade ideas).

▪ If you had $1 million to invest, what would you do with it?

▪ What’s the S&P 500 / Dow Jones / other index at? How has it trended over the past year?

▪ What is the sum of the numbers 1 to 100?