Investment Banking Analyst Intern

I am from a target school so Barclays recruits directly on campus. I have a solid group of mentors that have interned and currently work at the firm. Already having heard a great deal of information on the internship experience at Barclays, the people, the office, etc. I decided during my junior fall that I was going to apply. I reached out to my mentors to coordinate a visit with the HR department.

During my winter break, I spent an entire day at the firm. I met as many people as I could from all different divisions...I-banking, S&T, Syndicate, back office, etc. I established a great deal of e-mail contacts with members of the firm. This is when I realized how networking intensive breaking in to wall-street really is. To get that first interview, to make sure that the HR department gives your resume a second look, you really need to get your name out there.

Once back on campus, I attended various networking sessions with the firm--coffee chats, formal presentation, etc. I made sure I always spoke with the campus recruiter. I also made sure to continue keeping contact with the analysts that I had met over break. They offered to look at my resume and really helped me prepare myself for the formal application submission.

Sometime in the middle of January, I received an email that I'd been selected for a first round interview.

The first round was pretty easy. The interview was very behavioral. I got the run of the mill questions: Tell me about yourself why investment banking, 3 strengths, what's your greatest weakness? I also received very market centered questions like so "what have you been following in the markets". The key to nailing an interview is to really just know yourself well. That sounds so easy, but as I'll explain in a bit, i actually messed this up in my final round. You really need to know how you are trying to market yourself. Especially in my case, I am not a econ major, or an engineering major. As a public policy major, the interviewer really wanted to know why do you want to slave away this summer instead of working on something more applicable to policy? To answer the market questions, I not only described WSJ articles that I had read, but I tied them to my interests in policy and my family. The interviewer also asked about basic corporate valuation methods and asked me if I could explain to her what a DCF was. She then gave me a question that required me to apply my knowledge of financial statements. I do not remember it exactly, but she asked me something along the lines of if I would invest in a company given their weak balance sheet, but strong potential for growth.

The final round consisted of two 30-minute interviews, each with 1 MD. One was an alum of my school while the other was not. Both interviews were very behavioral. This followed suit of my first round interview. Although, they dug deeper into the less noticeable parts of my resume. I was asked the same questions about valuing a corporation. One interviewer asked me how I would value a supermarket. The key is to really not get overwhelmed and just throw out all that you know and ask questions to obtain more information. The right questions and and an accurate description of the methods will ensure the interviewer that you know what you're talking about.

The people I met at Barclays throughout the process were awesome. The office has a very college feel to it. I visited at a less formal time around the holidays so think less suits, but still bright "fratty" colors. I believe this has roots in the ex-bearstern culture. The interviewers were really personable and although things didn't work out, I really enjoyed the process.