Competency? Flashcards
what did you learn in your last internship
I learnt a combination of technical, interpersonal skills to thrive in a high pressure environment. For example:
On the technical side I expanded my standard equity modelling to learn Hotel USALI modelling and exit transactions. This modelling was used to underwrite a $220 million luxury hotel in Europe.
In terms of soft skills, I adapted my interpersonal skills to be able to understand both client and senior relations. Particularly the when and how of asking for help, standards for deliverables and knowing when to challenge seniors with your own research viewpoints to add on value.
From these I feel I have a solid base to perform at _ but also have space to learn more in a much larger financial institutions while maintaining the principles that let me thrive.
what do you expect from this internship
I expect to start off with performing basic tasks and hopefully being able to talk to seniors about their experiences and learn from them. I hope to use my resourcefulness and research to find ways to add value to my tasks and prove my competency. I hope to be able to then deliver on tasks above what was expected by committing myself to spend extra time with seniors to learn more.
Tell me about a time you had to show resilience
Charity committee founding and planned this big flagship event for months. Covid and week before nearly cancelled —> calmed everyone down and took a positive and practical outlook —> created more marketing tools with the extra time such as BTS trailers and auctions of VIP tickets —> extra week allowed us to break the school record for fundraising, setting up our future success of raising £35,000 in our first year and receiving congratulations from the King and Minister of Education .
What 3 words would your friends use to describe you?
Leader - I have a history of forming multiple successful organisations using my friends and network such as the Charity Committee and Sherpa Mentors
Curious - I sought out a unique and risky degree with the lowest acceptance rate at LSE rather than taking the safer choice. With my career I’ve also looked to pursues my passions and curiosity rather than purely talking the ‘prestige’ or popular choices. I believe such diverse perspectives and curiosity that diverges from the mainstream gives me a unique and diverse opinion and input.
Discipline - To achieve my aims in academics and extra-curriculars required time management and discpline to do hard work and not crumble under pressure. I teach this to mentees at Sherpa Mentors
Tell me your weaknesses?
Taking on too many or unnecessary responsibilities - From an early age I’ve taken on many different responsibilities and leadership roles to match my initiative. However this can sometimes be excessive as in my recent internship or even university societies I looked to stay on extra and do additional work just to ‘prove myself’. Reflecting on this, I believe that while going above and beyond in your tasks is essential, you should be sensible and sustainable if you want to do this as a long term job.
Trying to do everything perfectly all at once - often at times during my internship, I would want to delivery every piece of work to the highest standard as well as using my own initiative to add value; e.g rate analysis looking at every day and adjusting by suite. Whereas partners just said to take a weekly average, as we had other projects to work on. Made me realise that prioritising and being able to deliver all your tasks to a suitable standard is more important that doing one perfectly and sacrificing everything else.
Tell me about a time that you resolved conflict
CC elections —> zayn problem with others —> others angry, I wanted to give him a second chance —> came up with a solution where he could come up with and put on a successful event then he would be let in —> we put on a unique multi-faith iftar event, the first of its kind, and it was an amazing success —> proved competency and helped us spearhead future success
How do you keep up with news and trends
Job at Avington and Avingstone keeps me up to date on both confidential and breaking news as part of my job is forming a weekly deals newsletter
Apart from the standard Financial Times and Economist, I utilise podcasts such as In Good Company, newsletters such as Pari Passu which give an in depth look into specific companies and topics.
I’m also integrated into the main societies at LSE who bring in their own networking events, as well as regularly attending SEO with over 100 hours in events, lunch and learns, and masterclasses.
What do you do in your spare time?
In my spare time I enjoy my charitable roles as well as football finance. My charitable roles include advisory as a chairman to my schools charity committee and being founder of Sherpa Mentors..,
I enjoy viewing football through the lens of an investor, following the differing strategies of large institutional investors like Clearlake Capital in Chelsea FC or upcoming potential purchases such as Friedkin and Everton.
What is your weakness?
Taking on too many or unnecessary responsibilities - From an early age I’ve taken on many different responsibilities and leadership roles to match my initiative. However this can sometimes be excessive as in my recent internship or even university societies I looked to stay on extra and do additional work just to ‘prove myself’. Reflecting on this, I believe that while going above and beyond in your tasks is essential, you should be sensible and sustainable if you want to do this as a long term job.
What is your weakness?
Taking on too many or unnecessary responsibilities - From an early age I’ve taken on many different responsibilities and leadership roles to match my initiative. However this can sometimes be excessive as in my recent internship or even university societies I looked to stay on extra and do additional work just to ‘prove myself’. Reflecting on this, I believe that while going above and beyond in your tasks is essential, you should be sensible and sustainable if you want to do this as a long term job.
What is a misconception people have about you based on first impressions?
In the past, colleagues have mentioned that I’m “too nice,” but I see it differently. I believe kindness, flexibility, and adaptability are strengths. For example, in my recent internship I took on a last-minute project in my last couple days and even worked on the weekend after my contract ended to finish the work to a high standard . Some coworkers thought I should have set boundaries, but I saw it as an opportunity to support the team. I knew I could handle the workload and communicate if it became too much. Ultimately, it allowed me to secure a return offer to work part-time during university and as a summer analyst in 2025.
What strengths/skills do you have that are transferable to a role within Investment Banking
I’d say the main transferable hard and soft skills would be my technical skills, ability to thrive in a high pressure environment and collaborating my skills in a team environment.
I grew my technical skills through my previous internships and society positions, as well as through keeping up with newsletters such as Pari Passu, allowing me to complete deliverables to a high standard and quickly.
High Pressure: During my time at Avington, there were multiple deadlines dropped to be done within a few hours, which moulded my ability to prioritise and optimise my output to meet all the demands of a high pressure situation.
Team Collaboration: This would often be done through communicating with available team mates and working to exploit each other’s unique skillset and prior knowledge to best complete the task.
Why did you choose your degree discipline? (If you are studying a non-finance related degree ensure you can make a link between your subject and IBD/Finance)
I chose my degree despite the risk as it was a niche and the lowest acceptance rate at LSE, as it was a true passion of mine to find out why a country is richer than another, looking into any factor from geographic to social. For me it is a subject that is often ignored for modern and snapshot explanations, but the most successful investors such as Ray Dalio in his new book realise the importance of realising long-term historical shifts over time.
Do you prefer leadership or teamwork?
Prefer leadership where you also keep yourself within the team environment to maintain your understanding of bottom-up processes. For example, leading the Charity Committee, despite delegating events to executive members, I would retain a close relationship with all members and workers. This allowed me to still understand key processes that could be optimised for example by being present at every culture week assembly, I realised how event quality was immensely impacted by who we had on IT, so rather than just do a rotational list of members, I formed an IT team to optimise all of our event operations. It led to further specialised teams such a Graphics that became part of core strategies in marketing. Reached 35k and king Charles congrats
What is your proudest achievement to date
Proudest Achievement is Charity Committee raising over 35,000 in our first year, drove school to receive congratulations from the King and Minister of Education. –> Flagship event months planning –> implemented unique marketing strategies such as trailers and auctions –> success let us grow to the most popular society and put on 15 blockbuster events.
