Guides

Finance recruiting, explained by a practitioner.

Clear, current guides on how finance recruiting actually works, from PE timelines to stock pitch structure. Written to answer the questions candidates actually ask.

Software Engineering10 min

Software Engineering Interviews at Trading Firms and Banks

The algorithms round looks familiar. Almost everything around it is asking a different question.

Read guide
Data & ML9 min

Data Science Interview Questions in Finance

The methods are the ones you already know. The constraints are what the interview is really about.

Read guide
Venture Capital10 min

Venture Capital Interview Questions

The modelling is easier than banking. Almost everything else about the assessment is harder to fake.

Read guide
Corporate Development9 min

Corporate Development Interview Questions

The same technical toolkit, pointed at one company forever, with nobody to hand the model to when it closes.

Read guide
Quant11 min

Quant Interview Questions: Trading, Research and Dev

Three different jobs share one label, and the interviews differ more than the job titles suggest.

Read guide
Private Equity9 min

Private Equity On-Cycle Recruiting Timeline (2026-27)

What actually happened in January 2026, how the headhunters work, and how far ahead you need to be ready.

Read guide
Private Equity7 min

Off-Cycle Private Equity Recruiting in the US

The continuous, proactive path to a buyside seat that most candidates underuse.

Read guide
Hedge Fund9 min

Hedge Fund Stock Pitch Template and Framework

The structure PMs actually evaluate, from thesis to risk, with the variant perception that wins.

Read guide
Investment Banking6 min

Spring Week vs Summer Internship vs Industrial Placement

Which early finance programme is which, who each is for, and how they ladder into a full-time offer.

Read guide
Private Equity9 min

Paper LBO Example: A Full Walkthrough, Step by Step

The exact sequence to run in your head, a fully worked example, and the shortcuts that make the maths fast under pressure.

Read guide
Investment Banking8 min

Investment Banking Superday: How It Works and How to Prepare

The format, the interviewer mix, what each round is really testing, and the 48-hour preparation plan.

Read guide
Private Equity7 min

How to Answer "Why Private Equity?" (With Frameworks and Examples)

The three-part framework, what strong and weak answers sound like, and the follow-ups that catch memorised scripts.

Read guide
Investment Banking10 min

Top Investment Banking Technical Questions (With Answer Frameworks)

The questions that actually get asked, the frameworks to answer them, and the traps inside each one.

Read guide
Private Equity9 min

The Private Equity Modelling Test: What to Expect and How to Prepare

The formats by fund type, what graders open first, and a two-week preparation plan that actually fits around a banking job.

Read guide
Investment Banking7 min

Goldman Sachs HireVue: Question Types, Format and How to Prepare

The format, the question mix, how the AI screen actually grades you, and a preparation plan that beats a canned script.

Read guide
Investment Banking9 min

UK Spring Weeks: Timeline, Assessments, and How Offers Are Decided

When applications open, what is actually in the assessment at each bank, and how a week of work experience turns into a summer internship offer.

Read guide
Investment Banking8 min

Investment Banking Case Studies: Spring Week vs Analyst vs Associate

Four different exercises share one name. Preparing for the wrong one is the most common way candidates waste a month.

Read guide
Investment Banking12 min

The 2027 Investment Banking Recruiting Timeline

Several calendars occupy the same year. The expensive mistake is following the wrong one.

Read guide
Investment Banking7 min

Bulge Bracket vs. Boutique Superday: What Actually Differs

Same day, same format on paper — different people in the room, and a different thing being tested.

Read guide
Investment Banking6 min

"Tell Me About Yourself" in Investment Banking Interviews

The first ninety seconds of the interview, and the one answer nearly every candidate under-prepares.

Read guide
Investment Banking8 min

DCF Interview Questions: The Ones That Actually Come Up

From "walk me through a DCF" to the follow-ups that catch people who only memorised the steps.

Read guide
Investment Banking7 min

Comparable Companies (Comps) Interview Questions

Picking the comp set, choosing the right multiple, and the follow-ups that expose a memorised answer.

Read guide
Investment Banking10 min

Investment Banking Cover Letters: What Actually Gets Read

It gets thirty seconds, if that. Here is what to do with them.

Read guide
Investment Banking6 min

"Why This Bank?" — Building an Answer That Isn't Generic

Interviewers hear the same three generic answers all day. Here is how to not be the fourth.

Read guide
Investment Banking8 min

M&A Interview Questions: Accretion/Dilution and Beyond

The accretion/dilution shortcuts, the cash-vs-stock logic, and the follow-ups that separate memorised from understood.

Read guide
Investment Banking7 min

Enterprise Value vs. Equity Value, Once and For All

The most-asked valuation concept in finance interviews, and the bridge, pairing rules, and follow-up traps that come with it.

Read guide
Investment Banking14 min

Analyst to Associate: The Promotion, and Whether to Take It

The offer arrives wrapped as a reward. It is one. It is also a career decision, and those are not the same thing.

Read guide
Private Equity8 min

Off-Cycle PE Outreach: The Emails That Actually Get Replies

Off-cycle roles are filled through inboxes, not job boards. Here is what to put in them.

Read guide
Private Equity8 min

LBO Interview Questions: The Conceptual Ones Behind the Maths

The paper LBO tests your arithmetic. These questions test whether you understand the machine.

Read guide
Investment Banking7 min

"Walk Me Through the Three Statements" — And Every Follow-Up

The most-asked accounting question in finance interviews, and the $10 depreciation follow-up that comes with it.

Read guide
Investment Banking8 min

Restructuring Interview Questions: Fulcrum, Waterfall & Beyond

RX interviews add a layer on top of standard technicals: capital structure under stress. Here is that layer.

Read guide
Sales & Trading8 min

Sales & Trading Interviews: What Actually Gets Tested

S&T interviews are not IB interviews with different logos. Different skills, different questions, different prep.

Read guide
Investment Banking8 min

UK Assessment Centres: The Full Day, Stage by Stage

The final round of most UK spring week, internship and graduate processes, and the stage candidates prepare for least.

Read guide
Equity Research7 min

Equity Research Interview Questions: The Coverage Mindset

ER interviews test whether you think like a coverage analyst: estimates, calls, and what changes them.

Read guide
Hedge Fund8 min

Hedge Fund Interview Questions Beyond the Stock Pitch

The pitch gets you in the room. These are the questions that decide what happens next.

Read guide
Investment Banking7 min

Finance Networking Emails: Templates That Get Answered

Bankers answer a predictable kind of email and archive everything else. Here is the predictable kind.

Read guide
Financial Modelling11 min

Financial Modelling Best Practices: The Conventions That Make a Model Auditable

A model is a document other people have to read. These are the conventions that make that possible.

Read guide
Financial Modelling13 min

How to Build a Three-Statement Model That Actually Balances

The build order matters more than the formulas. Get the sequence right and it balances on the first try.

Read guide
Financial Modelling12 min

How to Build a DCF Model: Build Order, Terminal Value and the Sanity Checks

A DCF is 70% terminal value and 100% assumptions. Build it so both can be defended.

Read guide
Financial Modelling13 min

How to Build an LBO Model: The Build Order That Survives a Modelling Test

Under a 90-minute clock, the build order is the difference between a returns number and a half-finished model.

Read guide
Financial Modelling11 min

How to Review a Financial Model Before It Leaves Your Desk

Reading through a model looking for what seems wrong is not a review. This is what one actually looks like.

Read guide
Financial Modelling12 min

How to Build a Merger Model: Purchase Accounting, Financing and Accretion

The accretion number is easy. Everything that produces it is where models go wrong.

Read guide
Financial Modelling11 min

Working Capital and Quality of Earnings: Where Deal Value Actually Moves

The headline price is agreed early. Working capital and QoE decide what actually gets wired.

Read guide
Financial Modelling11 min

Credit and Covenant Modelling: What a Lender Actually Tests

A sponsor models the upside. A lender models the case where it goes wrong. Both live in the same file.

Read guide
Financial Modelling10 min

Scenario and Sensitivity Architecture: Building a Model That Can Be Stress-Tested

Anyone can change an assumption. Architecture is what lets someone else change it safely.

Read guide
Financial Modelling13 min

Real Estate Financial Modelling: Why Corporate Finance Mechanics Break Here

The Excel mechanics are the same. The economic logic is not, and that is what catches people.

Read guide
Financial Modelling12 min

Project Finance Modelling: Cash Flow Waterfalls, DSCR Sizing and the Debt Sculpt

No corporate balance sheet stands behind the debt. The cash flow waterfall is the entire credit.

Read guide
Investment Banking10 min

Psychometric Tests for Finance: Numerical, SJT and Game-Based

Most candidates are rejected before a human sees their application. This is the stage that does it.

Read guide
Investment Banking9 min

The US Answer to a Spring Week: Sophomore Insight Programs

They exist, they matter as much as a spring week does, and almost everything about the timing is different.

Read guide
Investment Banking10 min

The US Finance Resume: One Page, No Photo, GPA On It

The American format is stricter than the British one, and the differences are not stylistic — several of them will get your resume set aside.

Read guide
Investment Banking9 min

The Finance CV: One Page That Survives a 30-Second Skim

A screener gives it half a minute. Every choice on the page should be made with that fact in mind.

Read guide
Investment Banking10 min

How to Become an Investment Banker: Applications and Interviews, Start to Offer

The pillar guide to investment banking recruiting: which route is yours, what each stage filters on, and how to prepare for the stage you are at.

Read guide
Investment Banking11 min

Banking Cover Letter: What Banks Read and What They Bin

The four-paragraph structure is the same for every bank. The evidence is not. What a screener checks, the paragraph that changes by division, and a worked corporate banking example.

Read guide
Interview Prep7 min

How to Learn a Technical Topic From Video

Ten deliberate minutes usually beat forty-five at 1.5x speed. Here is the difference, and how to run it.

Read guide
Interview Prep9 min

The Revision Loop That Survives Three Weeks

Most revision fades within a fortnight. Four stages, six prompts, and about forty minutes a topic change that.

Read guide
Interview Prep9 min

Everything That Works Feels Wrong

The best ways to study often feel worse while you are doing them. That explains a surprising amount of what goes wrong with revision.

Read guide
Investment Banking9 min

The Investment Banking Career Path, Rung by Rung

What each level does all day, how long it takes to leave it, and where the people who leave go instead.

Read guide

Looking for curated external resources? See the reading list

Read the guide. Then go and be asked about it.

Guides give you the map. A discovery session tells you where you actually are on it, and the bootcamps get you the rest of the way.