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👩🏻‍💻 Finance Internship Interview Experience: Interview Series Part Two 👩🏻‍💻


Back in April, I had my first-ever ‘real’ job interview for a finance internship – not just a 15-minute ‘tell me about yourself’ chat, but a two-hour interview, split into competency-based and case study segments. In my previous post, I covered preparation techniques. Here, I’ll share my actual interview experience!

'My Interview Experience' with graphics of skills, insights and education.

Competency-Based

The first part focused on scenarios and past experiences, for example, “a time I had to make a difficult decision, and how I approached it”. Many questions were ones I hadn’t specifically prepared for, so having a range of different experiences to draw from was important. I found myself improvising, and even sharing some personal struggles I faced in the workplace when adjusting to a managerial role (something I never expected to share with a potential employer). The whole process felt conversational, and my interviewer was intrigued when I mentioned my involvement with ‘pole fitness’ at uni! Any interests can be great conversation starters.


Showcase your passion through your involvement in societies, insight days, and discussions with industry professionals. Also: don’t be scared to ask the interviewer for clarification, or a moment to think; my interviewer prompted me to brainstorm ideas which was extremely helpful when I had a mind blank.

 

'Case Study'

The second part resembled a case study where I reflected on data and questions, ultimately ‘presenting’ my findings and perspective to the interviewer. While presenting for 15-minutes seemed daunting, I found the process fun. The experience felt very similar to participating in tutorials, so my best advice is to become comfortable with discussions in those settings! Random facts I heard in industry podcasts transformed into really useful and valuable points.


Understanding key trends and their impact on companies was crucial, and especially when thinking under time-pressure. Whilst you can’t prepare for the content, the skills you can!

 

This doesn’t cover for every interview as they are extremely subjective based on the company, role, and type, however, I hope this gave you some insight!
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