Interview – Preparation 

Preparation is everything and will give you confidence to discuss the industry. 

Ok so how do I do it? Ideally you should start your preparation a couple of months before the interview. Follow the industry; pick a couple of examples to follow. Only got a week? Don’t worry you’ve still got enough time, do spend time on their website and try to dig out some deals they’ve been involved with. 

Make sure you know you know all the major financial stories and are able to discuss. Do you know the latest M&A deals? What is the state of the stock market? What is the £/$ exchange rate? Interest rates? Do you think interest rates will rise or fall?  

Best sources:

• Times newspaper – excellent source with brilliant day to day summary of business news. Ideal starting point.
• Times Sunday newspaper – excellent weekly summary, a must.
• FT newspaper – excellent in depth coverage of the industry and current events. Don’t just read it the morning before your interview, you may find your interviewee has not had time to read it yet. Note, not every interviewee would expect you to have read the FT religiously for the last few months but if you have the time then it is worth doing. Don’t worry if you don’t fully understand everything at this stage. It sounds obvious but if you don’t understand the jargon then look it up, I recommend: www.investopedia.com and www.fool.com.
• The Economist – takes an invaluable step back from the industry with excellent summary of weekly business news on first couple of pages.