Walk Me Through Your Story

Use the Mergers & Inquisitions framework. Part 1 — The Beginning / Spark (20-30 seconds): how you first got interested in finance or business. This can be a class, a club, an internship, a family business, or an investing experience. Keep it brief and authentic. Part 2 — The Middle / Growing Commitment (45-60 seconds): two or three experiences that deepened your interest and built relevant skills, each one logically leading to the next and increasing in relevance toward banking. Part 3 — The Close / Why Here, Why Now (20-30 seconds): tie it together and end at why you want this specific role at this specific firm. The whole thing runs ~2 minutes.

Bankers care less about which clubs you joined than about whether your story holds together. The narrative should feel inevitable — each step a natural consequence of the last, all converging on banking. That logical progression is itself the test: it mirrors how you'll need to structure a pitch or a memo. A candidate with a modest resume and a tight, coherent story usually outperforms one with a stronger resume and a disjointed ramble. Cut anything that doesn't advance the arc toward 'why I'm in this room.'

Deliberately seed a few interesting, true details you'd be happy to discuss further — a specific deal you followed, a club you turned around (see Greatest Accomplishment), an unusual background fact. Interviewers often pick up on these for follow-ups, which lets you steer the conversation toward your strengths and the stories you've prepared. The story is the trunk; your other fit answers — Why Finance, why this firm, your strengths — are branches that should grow naturally from it.

This is the answer to over-prepare on substance but under-rehearse on script — you want it word-perfect in structure and natural in delivery. Practice out loud and to time; don't memorize sentence-by-sentence, or it sounds canned. Open with energy (the first 15 seconds set the tone), maintain eye contact, and finish with conviction on the 'why now.' Because it's the opener, a strong story buys you goodwill for the technical grilling to come; a weak one puts you on the back foot immediately.