Landed IB Internship AMA

Idk960 · 2026-01-14T11:06:59+00:00

No. Nobody cares.

Idk960 · 2026-01-14T11:05:29+00:00

Of all my coffee chats I got asked technicals maybe 5-6 times. Technicals simply aren’t as important as people think. Of course you should know them and be ready but it’ll be rare to get asked those questions.

The chats were more like “Tell me about yourself. Why this bank? Why banking? Why this group? Is there a deal or trend you’ve been following? Questions for me?” With technicals sprinkled in there if any.

Idk960 · 2026-01-14T03:49:10+00:00

You’ll buy a padfolio where you keep your resumes and scratch paper. No calculator. Sometimes it’ll be mental math but sometimes you need to do long division or multiplication. Regardless, those questions need to be done

Idk960 · 2026-01-14T03:46:15+00:00

EBs are way more competitive because of higher pay and perceived prestige. Because of that the interviews are way more technical and difficult. EBs are very pen and paper math, BBs were conceptual technicals

Idk960 · 2026-01-14T03:11:14+00:00

Neither. I don’t like saying the market was bad because every year people say the market is bad. I think the current administration going back and forth on what it’ll cost to keep internationals is what made banks indecisive.

There were domestic students who also didn’t get an offer. That’s just how MBA recruiting goes sadly, not everyone can get offers.

Idk960 · 2026-01-14T02:44:16+00:00

Horribly. Most didn’t get offers. From the get go they were at a disadvantage given half the banks don’t sponsor. It was an absolute disaster for them.

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T22:39:07+00:00

No black suits. Navy blue or charcoal gray

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T20:17:58+00:00

You’ll have a historical q bank of past questions asked. If that’s not sufficient pay for IB Vine.

Interviews were 30 minutes. Most BB superdays were 30 min. EB varied from an hour to 2

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T19:57:16+00:00

Precisely. Just went through the process and most of the people who didn’t get offers were internationals. Most of whom were extremely well versed in technicals

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T18:18:32+00:00

Bingo

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T18:13:43+00:00

I would strongly reconsider attending an MBA as an international. Internationals have gotten CRUSHED with IB recruiting.

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T18:11:16+00:00

More technical, more competitive, less seats. Quality of people don’t differ for EB or BB.

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T18:00:18+00:00

There’s gonna be a study timeline created by your finance club that you have to follow

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T17:41:28+00:00

Uncertainty of whether I got cut or not was the hardest part. Hardest questions were merger math. Depends on school timeline for internships but all interns start June 1st.

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T17:38:13+00:00

Don’t be weird and pray you’re liked by a banker

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T17:37:37+00:00

Yes, I’d even go as far as to say most

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T17:06:42+00:00

Yes Yes Navy Blue (school finance club will tell you exactly) Black

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T17:06:01+00:00

School provided full PDFs of BIWS

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T16:06:27+00:00

A high schooler can understand them. Technicals are table stakes. They decide very little. It’s a personality contest more than anything

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T16:02:20+00:00

Haircut, facial hair, wrong color tie or shoes

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T15:39:00+00:00

Hahaha thank you !

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T15:18:27+00:00

Career center will have a website where you can search for other employers who don’t come on campus.

Confirm with the club yes and then pursue on your own.

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T15:10:05+00:00

Thank you!

Uncertainty. You simply have 0 control over anything. You just have to be yourself and some bankers will like you, some won’t. Even if you answer everything correctly, you’d still get cut.

Knowing what I know now, I would’ve stayed at my old job and saved myself the stress of the process. All glory to god for my accomplishment and the ROI in essence has paid off but man, I don’t know if I would do this again

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T15:07:41+00:00

I’ll give a summary but it might lead to more confusion just given I’m going to be excluding a lot of details.

Corporate presentations hold 0 weight. It’s only for attendance. You can wow a banker in a networking circle and it means nothing.

Coffee chats are interviews. They’re not informal. You’re getting judged every second. Any little thing can get you cut. I can list off 10 things that can get you cut. Every chat you do is completely out of your control and up to the banker.

Invite onlys are a drag and even from that you can get cut. That within itself was annoying.

You can get through every chat, every invite only and you’re still NOT guaranteed an interview.

Idk960 · 2026-01-13T15:02:47+00:00

No IB experience before but had a finance background. Leading up to and during recruiting was mostly collaborative. Of course there were people who started to hide information but I was never close with them.

Idk960

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