Research interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about your most impressive piece of investment research.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why long-only asset management? Why not a hedge fund or sell-side research?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your investment philosophy — and why does it fit the firm's?
7. How would you describe the firm's investment process and edge in your own words?
8. Why should a client pay the firm for active management over an index fund?

Technical concepts to master

• Three financial statements — connections you'll be probed on

  Income statement (IS) overview · Balance sheet (BS) overview · Cash flow statement (CFS) overview · Statement connections — the canonical question · Prepaid expense scenario

• The three core valuation methodologies

  Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) · Public Company Comparables (Comps) · Precedent Transactions · When each is most relevant · Methodologies you specifically would NOT use

• Enterprise Value vs Equity Value — the bridge

  Equity Value (Market Cap) · Enterprise Value · The bridge — Equity Value → Enterprise Value · Why cash is subtracted · Which multiples use EV vs which use Equity Value

• The long-only stock pitch — the scaffold

  Recommendation + business · Thesis + variant view · Quality · Valuation · Catalyst, risks + position

• Quality + the moat

  ROIC vs cost of capital · The moat · Reinvestment runway · Capital allocation

• Active management + benchmark awareness

  Relative-to-benchmark thinking · Active share + tracking error · Information ratio · Position sizing by conviction

Practical drills

• Pitch me a stock in the firm's universe / style. 5 min prep, 5-7 min delivery. Be ready to be probed for 10-15 min on the variant view, the valuation, and why it's worth an active position.
• Walk me through how you'd value this business with a DCF, and tell me which assumptions matter most.
• A company has $250m EBITDA, $500m net debt, and 100m shares. Peers trade at 10x EV/EBITDA. (a) Implied equity value per share? (b) It also generates $150m FCF and trades at $16 today — what's the FCF yield, and is the stock cheap?

Smart-question anchors

• Idea generation + research process — where the firm's ideas come from and how an analyst's work feeds decisions
• Decision + sizing — how recommendations become positions and how conviction maps to active weight vs the benchmark
• Philosophy + horizon — the firm's style (quality / value / growth), turnover, and time horizon, with a representative holding
• Active vs passive edge — how the firm justifies fees: active share, the research edge, performance net of fees
• Analyst autonomy + coverage — sector ownership, how much an analyst's view drives the position, and the path to PM

Sourced from

Mergers & Inquisitions — Stock Pitch Guide · Wall Street Oasis — Pitch me a stock / Equity Research · Corporate Finance Institute — Equity Research Interview Questions · Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern) · Financial Edge / Sell Side Handbook — equity research + stock pitches · CFA Institute — active management metrics (active share, information ratio)