When preparing for investment banking interviews, using real-world case studies can be extremely helpful. By analyzing actual deals and transactions, you gain practical experience conducting valuation analyses, building merger models, crafting investment theses, and thinking creatively about business strategy. This allows you to demonstrate technical skills as well as strategic thinking to interviewers. Additionally, investment banks frequently use real case studies during interviews to assess your capabilities. Being familiar with industry case studies ensures you can smoothly work through these cases when prompted.
Leverage precedents from high-profile investment banking deals
Many investment banks publish detailed overviews of landmark deals they have advised on. For example, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley regularly showcase high-profile M&A transactions and IPOs they managed on their websites. Similarly, boutiques like Evercore and Centerview discuss major client successes. By studying the valuation analyses, deal structuring, and strategic rationale behind these real-world cases, you gain practical investment banking skills you can apply in interviews. For instance, if asked to walk through how you would advise on an IPO or merger situation, you can use knowledge from previous deals to construct a thoughtful response demonstrating your capabilities.
Find public information on recent M&A deals and IPOs
In addition to investment banks’ published cases, you can find information on recent transactions in financial news and public filings. For example, coverage of the Zoom-Five9 merger and Coinbase IPO detail each deal’s timeline, pricing, investors, regulatory issues, and strategic rationale. As another example, studying the SEC S-1 filings for Snowflake’s IPO provides invaluable perspective on the IPO process. By absorbing public information on the investment banking work behind major recent deals, you equip yourself to analyze similar situations during interviews.
Practice modeling and valuation methodologies with real comps
You can take your learning a step further by actually modeling precedent transactions yourself. For example, build a merger model for a recently announced industry deal using public information. Or perform a comparable companies analysis leveraging real public comps. This allows you to practice technical skills like valuation, DCF modeling, LBO modeling, and merger consolidation with real companies and deals – ensuring your skills are grounded in practical, relevant precedents versus purely academic examples.
Apply lessons learned to fictional interview case studies
Once familiar with real cases, apply this knowledge when practice investment banking interview cases. For example, when prepping a fictional LBO case, draw inspiration from real LBO deals in structuring debt and crafting an investment thesis. Or when reviewing industry data for a mock M&A case, leverage observations from recent in-sector deals to inform strategic conclusions. This bridges the gap between real precedent cases and fictional interview situations to take your preparations to the next level.
Studying actual investment banking cases provides unparalleled practical experience in valuation, modeling, structuring, and strategy that will prove invaluable during interviews.