Rajvir's Substack: Networking Primer & Tell Me About a Deal
Understanding the networking life-cycle and nailing your coffee chats. Plus, a focus on how to crush your business acumen interviews.
Hey there,
Midterm season—is this still a thing, or are we past that somber stage? Honestly, it’s all a blur at this point.
But, let’s focus on the present. For this week, I come bearing two gifts:
A handy primer on the art of networking, because in a world of opportunities, it's not just about what you know, but who you know.
A list of resources to help you conquer the “tell me about a company or deal you’re interested in” question you will inevitably face in investment banking, private equity, and hedge fund interviews. And stay tuned, I promise I’ll do a full write-up on this soon.
The Networking Primer (also available here on LinkedIn 🤝):
Tell Me About a Deal (or company, industry trend, LBO Candidate):
I’ve got to admit, these are my favorite interview questions to answer. They’re hard, requiring you to shovel into the granular details of a company or deal—a process that can take you hours of prep.
But, if there’s one thing I can firmly attribute to my relative success in both sell-side and buy-side interviews, it’d be my relatively in-depth knowledge of the technology industry and the companies pushing it forward.
And you can get there too. Professionals in banking and consulting are pleasantly surprised when you can explain, in-depth, the unit economics of a company and the trends in its industry that are catalyzing its growth. Here are some resources to help you do just that (warning: a lot of these will be tech-centric due to my past experience):
Axios Pro Rata (read about the latest PE/VC/IB deals. Make notes on interesting ones).
S&P Trends in TMT 2023 (see thorough research on current technology trends. S&P also produces these reports for other industries).
stratechery.com (general technology industry analysis).
HL Insights (Houlihan Lokey publishes their banker books here, some are very useful).
Acquired (podcast with deep-dives into tech companies, IPOs, and M&As).
Bank Podcasts (this was HUGE in helping me stand-out in interviews. I used to listen to these podcasts on 2x speed and made notes on any interesting ideas. Then, I’d consider how they applied to the companies I wanted to pitch or any of the deals I’d work on in the past during internships. Find more of these by just looking around on YouTube).
Finance Clubs (if you’re able to join a finance club where you can pitch companies or perhaps even compete in case competitions, you force yourself to organically research companies and trends in different industries. This can be pivotal in helping you pitch ideas or deals during interviews).
💭 That’s it, thanks for reading! If you found this content to be useful, I’d appreciate you interacting with the post here on LinkedIn and subscribing to the Substack. Look out for more content soon and happy midterms!
Thanks for this---really appreciate your work.
Great work!