Friday, December 21, 2007

LBS MiF Interview Experience

I'd better write about my LBS interview before I forget about it. Hey, is there a better day to write about it night before your wedding reception anyways? JK

Here's my LBS application timeline:
- Nov 5, 2007: Emailled MiF admissions about eligibility (basically sent my resume)
- Nov 16, 2007: Submitted my application just in time for the Round 1 application deadline. (Actually it was 5 hours past the deadline. Don't try this at home!)
- Dec 6 2007: Received confirmation from LBS that I was shortlisted for an interview
- Dec 15, 2007: Interviewed with an alumnus

Prep work:
I did two things. First, I read about the finance industry. This is not something you can do overnight. Prepare yourself by reading Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist. Read the industry guides from Vault. Also read some of the books I've listed on this blog. They give you a great insight about the industry. Secondly, I had been reading forums and blogs about others' interview experiences. I'd especially recommend Business Week's forums, accepted.com, admissions411.com etc.

Attire:
I had no idea what to wear, since the interview was with a 2007 graduate, on a weekend, and near his home. So I asked him. He said he didn't care what I'd wear, but he said if I'd feel better by wearing formal he'd be fine. We agreed on business casual. I went to the interview with dress pants, button down shirt, and a jacket. Not a suit, and no tie. I think it worked well.


Questions:
Both technical and behavioral questions. Mainly, we went through my resume. The toughest question was why I was interested in Finance. (My background is high-tech) You need to explain where your interest in finance stems from. It needs to be genuine and real. You need to have a story to tell.

Another important question was what I wanted to do after I graduated. Again, need a good story to tell. "I want to work in Finance industry" is not good. "Investment banking" is better, but not specific enough. Research the departments within the type of company you want to work for, and have a couple of words to say about the position you want to take. I also explained him my plan about job search, which would begin even before the program would start. I'm planning to get a summer internship, and get CFA qualification.

What about my long term plans? I already had an answer in my essay, but I had to defend my position. Your interviewer may try to convince you that you had a boilerplate answer, and the worst thing you can do is accept to that.

Some technical questions about finance. What are derivatives, options, value at risk, proprietary trading. Don't make things up. If you don't know the answer to a question just admit it, and say you are eager to learn what the answer is. Although you're not expected to already know everything that would be thought during the program, you need to have some knowledge.

How can I use my current background in my future career in finance? I said I can use my strategy and sales experience if I were to work for a trading grouo in an I-bank. He said I-Bank trade desks do not do much sales. I told him that as I get higher in the group I believe I would have more sales responsibility to mutual funds etc. He bought into that.

Being in the US, why am I applying to LBS? Did I think about the finance programs in the US? Now be careful. This is a trick question. Here's why. The finance programs in the US (not talking about finance oriented MBA programs here) are geared towards churning out quants. For example Berkeley's Haas is a great program, but it's financial engineering. He was basically trying to gauge whether I knew what I wanted. So I gave him the answer he wanted. (I think). I said I was interested in a leadership role in a finance organization, not being a number jock. (Nothing wrong with being a number jock, I just don't want it). The only program similar to what I wanted was Princeton in the US, but I'd prefer LBS over Princeton due to many reasons.

What would I bring to the student body and the program? Need some creativity here. I think these boring questions are designed to see your out of the box thinking. They want to see sparks in your eyes when telling a story. Some originality needed here. Not sure if I was successful, but I said being a manager in a public company, I know what the shareholder expectations are, and I know how these requirements translate into daily work load. I also bring significant international experience (I live in the US, but I'm not American), and I've had this kind of experience already once. Finally, I'm technically savvy and can help people. He said these were all great reasons, but don't try to over emphasize technical background much. MiF is more technical than MBA, but you're not going there to be a quant. So don't brag about your technical qualifications much.

The interview took about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The original allotted time was 45 minutes, so we went over a little. He answered a lot of my questions. I realized most of my questions had one "official" and one "off-the record" answer. Off the record answer was universally more useful.

Something negative happened during the interview as well. My cell phone started going off in the middle of the interview. It was on vibrate, but after a couple calls, I started getting annoyed. So I excused myself and pulled out my cell phone and turned it off. Later when I was walking out, I was able to take a peek at his notes. One of the notes he jotted down was "cell phone". You can imagine what I thought. "What a douche bag am I? I just got myself dinged!"

Well, luckily that wasn't the case, and I got the admission a couple of days ago. Phew!!

PS: Don't forget to send a thank-you letter after the interview.




12 comments:

Sriram said...

I am currently applying for my MBA and since i am looking for a career in finance i have lately started considering the M.Fin option. I am currently working with Fidelity investments as a Lead programmer(IT). I sent my resume for a pre-app evaluation to MFin and was discouraged to apply. I am now considering LSE M.Fin...do u know how this course is and can you suggest other possible options.

T said...

I've heard a lot of good things about the LSE programme as well, but LBS is regarded higher than the LSE programme in general.

My take is LSE is more academic and oriented towards a Ph.D. degree whereas LBS has more ties to the "city".

Depends on what you want, but I would suggest waiting perhaps a couple more years before applying to LBS. I've already got an MBA degree and I know that getting a degree that does not have a very high ranking is not a good thing at all.

Anonymous said...

congratulations!
could you please send me an email to jrodrig06@gmail.com?
i have something to ask you. I did the MIF interview last 28dec . THANK YOU.

Anonymous said...

Hello. I am a junior at Union College, NY with a 3.4 GPA. Major: Managerial Economics, Minor: Mathematics and Philosophy. GMAT: 740.

[1] Can you please share your thoughts from the Oxford MFE interview as well?

[2] Given my college stats (& summer analyst at JP Morgan, Fixed Income Structuring Dept., do you think I have a shot at either of these schools, i.e. Oxford and LSE?

Thank you so much!

vS said...

Hi.. Thanks for sharing the experience. I am planning to do my masters starting next year but am confused about choosing between a MBA and a M.Fin. The point I am confused on is that how different will my career prospects/salary prospects/growth prospects be in the I-Banking industry if I were to to a M.Fin (say from LBS) instead of a MBA? I currently work for an Indian subsidiary of an I-Bank and have a technical educational background. I am not sure with how much certainty you can answer that but any feedback is most welcome. Thanks

Anonymous said...

hello agent kermit,

am from india - working with one of the largest banks in the country as an analyst in the corporate banking division. got 28 months post mba experience. am planning to change over to another organisation - same profile but more back office - planning to do the MiF after another year or so - say 2010 batch maybe. think this background helps at LBS and acceptance? i want to join cos i want to leapfrog into asset management.

Anonymous said...

Nice post , very entertaining and informative. Just want to ask : How high is the level of quant knowledge required , surely it would be limited to basic products and not what a practising quant would use.

I have quite a bit of experience in trading vanillas and derivatives both in Equities and IR's. How much weight would LBS put on this?

T said...

I guess the point is if you already had a deep quant knowledge you would not need a MIF. I think you should be fine coming from a trading background

Anonymous said...

OK , thanks and please do keep the posts coming. We all appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

Hey man, you're a natural in writing and explaining things smoothly, so first of all congratulations and thanks for sheding some light on this suject.

So my top choice is LBS but I am also considering Oxford and Cambridge as options. Would you make any comparison between these two?

Thanks.

Unknown said...

I am also from the states and thinking about the LBS MiF and would like to ask you a few questions about it if you don't mind please send me an email at jcrobbins@gmail.com ... just looking for a "rainbow connection".

Thanks,

Clay

kjoshi said...

Hi, I am planning to do my MiF(LBS), I have about three years of equity research experience and want to switch to corporate finance. I wanted to know on what points will the personal statement be evaluated and should I include real life examples to put up my case. And would the personal interview round be mainly based on past working experience? Many thanks in advance.