comment_k1to5ry
Comment_k1to5ry
Sure thing - no need to be afraid. At the end of the day, these are just school clubs and you’re just interacting primarily with other students, not the Senior Managing Director of Money and the CEO of Capitalism.
I was in 50Five’s e-board, so I can speak from their side. IMG is another great organization, and I’m sure they look for similar qualities in their candidates with a few minor differences that I will delve deeper into later.
Technicals
Technical questions for student organization interviews are generally fairly straightforward, as it’s usually simply a matter of studying publicly available material.
- 50Five: Expect questions akin to those encountered in S&T interviews, unless you’re specifically applying to their Equities Team, where the questions might align more closely with what I’ll elaborate on in the IMG section.
- Find a brief overview of the expected questions here.
- For specific asset classes, I recommend that you run through Bloomberg Market Concepts, which Baruch provides access to here.
- Focus on the macroeconomic environment, rather than getting lost in the weeds of popular, publicly traded companies.
- Unfortunately, many do get lost in the aforementioned weeds and subsequently fail to deliver much beyond “I am passionate about the tech/healthcare sector”, which is really a shame, since those are wonderful industries that are more than just buzzwords.
- IMG: Questions are closer to what is expected during an investment banking interview.
- See here for a brief overview of the sorts of questions this entails.
- Truly understand how a valuation methodology functions and the purposes it serves, rather than simply memorizing terms. Aswath Damodaran, a renowned professor at NYU, has a free online course here for learning basic corporate finance concepts and valuation.
For both clubs, read the WSJ the entire week following up to it. If you are constantly on-the-go, consider listening to markets podcasts like FT News Briefing or WSJ What’s News.
Answer questions in this manner. If you have more time, this video may be more helpful.
Behaviorals
Here are some tips for the behavioral questions:
- Be honest with yourself. Often, when interviewing fellow students, I inquire about their career goals, and the most common response is “investment banking.” However, when I ask them to explain what investment banking entails, their answers are often inaccurate (sometimes confusing it with wealth management or an imaginary chimera of various trading roles). From this, I’ve noticed that many students, especially finance majors, might not be entirely truthful with themselves regarding their desired career.
- While it is the fault of a crooked education system that has failed to instruct their students about the field they are pursuing, at the end of the day, claiming to want to do one thing without knowing what it is technically counts as a lie, which is not the greatest look for the interviewee. Sadly, it is possible that they are more attracted to the idea of the career than the actual profession.
- This video encapsulates these interactions very well.
- Have a succinct elevator pitch with a cohesive narrative. This is fairly self-explanatory and you can find tips here and here.
- Avoid being a “headass”. Unfortunately, this is the best term I have for this sort of character, but think of it as a cross between being a hardo and cringe. If you’ve ever encountered a student who talks excessively about investment banking, the stock market, cryptocurrency, or The Wolf of Wall Street, a headass reflects the same disposition.
- Here is an example of this character in action: there was a time I was greeting an acquaintance of mine, and a stranger approached me to ask who I was and where I interned over the summer. It perplexes me why anyone would do this in the first place (whether it be immediately asking about work upon first meeting, or assuming that I had even worked over the summer). Nonetheless, I obliged and answered that I lived in Chicago. As soon as I mentioned the location, he, as if by instinct, “guessed” my place of employment, as well as what I did, and immediately informed me that he was at an elite boutique investment bank (without me asking, and with the additional incorrect assertion of his bank’s status). For a brief moment, I contemplated to myself if I should pivot into a different field, like tourism or pottery - those sound quite pleasant. Maybe it is not too late to put my statistics degree to use and enter data science. Perhaps such a change would spare me from further interactions with these individuals. Do not do anything this person would do.
- Here is a page devoted to helping Baruch students avoid becoming headasses.
- Based on my understanding, 50Five and IMG have distinct priorities when it comes to the qualities they look for in their members. 50Five leans towards valuing cultural fit and the potential for growth, meaning that they are primarily seeking individuals who are personable and open to learning. IMG, on the other hand, prioritizes the existing skill set of prospective members and tends to maintain a more reserved and formal culture.
- Before the interview, make sure to prepare a few questions beforehand, just about the club or the experience in it.
While this all seems really excessive for a club, it’s also a great way to practice for real-world interviews down the road. I know many Baruch students are curious as to why these organizations have interviews; it is because student-run programs are limited by capital, time, and experienced members, so in order to ensure a fair distribution of hands-on learning, interviews are set in place to most efficiently allocate existing resources.
I wish Baruch had the capital (or administrative competence) to expand these opportunities, but unfortunately, this is what can be done right now and I’ve tried my best to make resources a bit more accessible. It’s not the end of the world if you aren’t accepted into either club, and quite honestly, you don’t necessarily need them. They’re nice to have to secure internships, and 50Five’s members were all super supportive and instrumental in helping me receive the opportunities I did, but I do wonder if I would have been happier if I never started caring about my career, or where I stood professionally. If comparison is the thief of joy, ambition is its accomplice. Contentment, like the water that flows through expanding cracks in a reservoir, drains away the moment you begin to pursue more competitive pathways.
I hope this helps. Feel free to comment below if you have any further inquiries.
Cited In
- Chapter 3 Microscopic Outline - 3.5.2 Peer Knowledge Systems
- Analysis/Chapter 1/Medieval Universitates Findings 20250914 - Cross-Campus Knowledge Networks