- Sep 9, 2024
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Hi @ashwright and first of all huge congratulations for getting your first AC - you should be very proud of yourselfHi @Andrei Radu, @Abbie Whitlock and the team,
Hope you're doing well!
Do you guys have any advice for preparing for an AC in a short space of time? I received my first AC invite ever (A&O Shearman) and I don't have much time to prepare. I never thought that I would reach this stage (years of rejection have made me uber-cautious!), so I would greatly appreciate any firm-specific and/or general guidance.
Whilst I read/listen to the standard commercial awareness podcasts, my technical knowledge (e.g., how to calculate EBITDA, company value, market cap) is lacking. Any advice on this in particular would be especially appreciated.
On a separate note, I would also appreciate any guidance on building confidence. I am not sure whether I can change how I feel inside in just a few days, but I would appreciate any advice at least on appearing confident to others (even if just for a couple of hours).
Thank you
!! As for your questions, I would say the following:- For general competency interview preparation advice, I would advise you to follow the step-by-step approach I laid out in the Complete Competency Interview Preparation Guide. Its underlying philosophy is to enable you to develop great interview skills rather than simply memorising answers, and I converted ACs at MC/US firms 4/4 times I implemented it.
- For firm-specific preparation, I cannot give you much guidance as I have not applied to the firm. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend you check out (i) any interview experience articles at A&O Shearman on TCLA's Premium Database; and (ii) texting people in your wider social circle/messaging LinkedIn connections who interviewed at the firm to ask for best advice.
- Some fundamental company law & company organisation matters, such as the different roles of shareholders vs directors, role of articles of association, concept of limited liability and separate legal personality, etc.
- Common financial jargon - ie interest rates, equity vs debt finance, IPOs, bonds, securities, market capitalisation etc.
- Types of institutions in financial markets and their roles: corporates, investment banks, PE funds, hedge funds, venture capital funds, asset managers, private credit funds, etc.
- The different types of legal services offered to these clients by different practice areas of a law firm (ie you should be able to explain what department of the firm is responsible for what type of legal service and why clients need that type of legal service).
- Some knowledge of M&A: you should understand the basic nature and structures of M&A deals (asset deal vs share purchase agreement), their strategic rationales, risks associates with M&A and how that is mitigated through contractual terms, the basic M&A terms (warranties & indemnities, NDAs, conditions precedent, etc), and the rough stages of an M&A transaction.
- Have the right mindset and do not put too much pressure on yourself: of course, having the right mindset is key; the hundred dollar question is identifying (i) what exactly is this optimal mindset to aim for; and (ii) how can you actually go about developing it. For (i), I would say you want your attitude on the day to be something along these lines "The fact that I have gotten to this stage out of a huge pool of candidates is clear proof I have everything it takes to succeed. I have prepared thoroughly and I know that, if I simply focus on answering each question well and I therefore score well across the board, I have a really good chance to succeed. I do not need to put pressure on myself to be absolutely exceptional in any way or to compare myself with and try to outshine others, as I know this actually more often than not leads to making major errors and to not scoring well at all in some assessment criteria." For (ii), I think you should try to continuously internalise this line of thinking by consciously reminding yourself of it every time you catch yourself worrying a lot before the AC and thinking you may not be good enough. At first, you may not think this is very helpful, but as time goes on, continuously directing your thoughts in a positive way can definitely work wonder.
- Speak at a slower pace and take more strategic breaks when answering questions: this is a point I have made a number of times on the forum, but I truly think it can make a huge difference. In stressful scenarios, people naturally start speaking faster, which unfortunately leads to you having less time to consider exactly what you want to say and how you want to go about saying it, which can then cause you to choose suboptimal substantive points to make or to express them in an unclear/inarticulate manner. This can then cause a negative feedback loop that impacts your whole performance. If instead you slow down and take more 2-3 second breaks between points/before starting an answer, that gives you more time to think and will also make you appear more composed and in control, which can create a positive feedback look and actually make you feel more composed and in control.
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