Technical / Companies, Deals & Trends
How to Speak about Companies, Deals, and Trends in an Investment Banking Interview
A strategic framework for preparing coverage interview answers by creating an interconnected cluster of companies, deals, and trends that demonstrates both depth and connectivity.
Strategic Positioning
"Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals." — Donald J. Trump
Most candidates fail market questions not from weak technicals or poor behavioral answers. They lack a defensible worldview.
This gap surfaces in three question types: company, deal, trend. These appear distinct but are interconnected. Every answer should pull the conversation into a tight information cluster you control.
The Cluster Method
Prepare 3–5 companies, 2–3 deals among them, and 1–2 underlying trends. When asked about one, thread back to the others.
Why it works: Interviewers test depth and connectivity. You cannot be expert in everything, but you can dominate a knowledge cluster. Once they enter your cluster, you handle follow-ups because you've researched this limited scope thoroughly.
Execution discipline: Do not volunteer extra information. Let them steer while you keep the conversation inside your cluster. Answer what's asked, then stop. They will pull deeper if they want more.
Sample Delivery
"I've been following HashiCorp—their product suite around multi-cloud infrastructure stood out."
Stop. Wait for the follow-up.
"What's interesting about them?"
"Two things. They were just acquired by IBM for $6.4bn—that transaction validated the meta-cloud thesis. And they're a direct play on the broader hybrid cloud trend, where enterprises want vendor optionality."
Stop again. You've positioned company + deal + trend without overplaying.
Building Your Cluster
Start from any of the three points depending on your context. The easiest entry is a deal, but any approach works. The following builds from trend to company.
Trend Selection
Pick something you know well. It should map to the group you're targeting.
Undergrads: Focus on your target group. Compensate for lack of experience with structured research. Present a defensible perspective that survives the first 10 follow-up questions.
MBA / Experienced Hires: Tie the trend to prior work. Former software engineers should discuss tooling shifts they've lived through. More bugs from AI-generated code and debug tools emerging? Explore implications, winners and losers, strategic responses. Avoid technical rabbit holes—focus on adoption curves and why certain vendors won.
Cluster Integration
Your cluster should feel like one story told three ways. Practice entering from each angle and threading back to the others.
