Investment Banking Interview Questions Why Work For Us?

This article is about answering the question, "Why do you want to work for this bank?"

Preparing For This Question

You must be thoroughly engaged with each company you interview with before interview to really impress your interviewer. Researching companies is fairly simple. Company websites host a great deal of useful information. For example, many companies have a careers section and a "Why Work Here" section, which you will need to look at.

You should also study bank's graduate training programmes specifically, so that you can discuss things such as secondments and training that may interest you.

You can also use websites like WikiJob to find out about companies, and discuss companies in greater detail with other candidates and current employees.

Further Research

It is important to do some in-depth research in to the companies you interview at. This can be done through Google, searching for the company's name in financial papers and magazines (such as the Financial Times) and reading articles in trade press. You need to do this to keep you commercial awareness knowledge up to date. Good things to research include:

• The bank's position globally.
• Their broad financial platform.
• Any major international company developments.

Company Culture and Contacts

It is always a good idea to discuss how much you enjoyed meeting people from a company you are interviewing at, and what a good impression you have of company culture and working life there. Bringing up employees names that you may know through friends, or have met at company careers fairs or on-campus company presentations is also a very good idea.

Answering The Question

Most companies will sum themselves up in a simple phrase or paragraph on their website. For example, a company may describe itself as: flexible; approachable; and, entrepreneurial. If this is the case, you should describe yourself with these adjectives during your interview, and importantly qualify this by giving examples from your life, academic and/or work experiences.

You should also come up with a list of things you want for from your job/internship and a goal to be achieved in the next five/ten years. You can then answer the question by talking about what you want from your job/internship and how the firm offers that and how it fits in with your goal.