What are the various topics one should be prepared with to be successful in any finance interview. While one can never be more prepared for any interview, the following areas are core areas while preparing for an interview in the finance domain.

Core Concepts

1) Core Domain Understanding: Needless to say, any domain and role you are applying to, requires a detailed understanding of that domain. If you are applying for a role in Investment Banking, you need to have conceptual understanding of how investment banking works, how financial markets function, various valuation methodologies, and financial statement analysis. If you are looking at Equity Research, a good understand of listed companies and their financial statements is useful. While looking for Banking or Wealth Management Roles, an understanding of Banking Products, Mutual Funds, and other investment Products is useful

2) Financial Markets Understanding: Whichever domain you are applying to, you should have an understanding of how financial markets work. This applies to Equity and Debt markets for sure. It is also good to develop an understanding of Currency and Derivatives Markets

3) Finance Concepts understanding: Some core corporate finance concepts such as NPV, IRR, Future Value, Statistical Finance and Working Capital will definitely be useful. Various Financial frameworks and models use the concepts of Risk and Return as well.

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Awareness Concepts

1) Macroeconomics: We live in a connected world, so most interviewers would expect an understanding of common macro parameters. Read up on topics such as Monetary Policies, Fiscal Policies, and key worldwide economic dynamics.

2) Modeling tools such as Excel: Excel is hygiene these days. Companies expect a reasonable understanding of Excel

3) New trends in financial markets: An understanding of some of the new topics is relevant. Cover areas such as Fintech space, payments space and Cryptocurrencies. The entire finance industry is evolving, and these areas also offer many roles which students seek. Follow these areas for understand the latest developments in the area of finance. Follow companies in these segments

Proof of work

Last but not the least, carry your proof of work. Projects that you have worked on, reports you have prepared. Share these with the interviewers. Always help to show that you have practical understanding of all the concepts.

There is always more you can learn about finance. However, if you cover the topics as listed above, you are in a good position to crack a finance interview.

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