想请教M&A咨询界的前辈们
前辈们好，马上毕业了但是感觉到梦想的工作内容和自己所学有所偏差，所以前来请教前辈们学的是东亚研究，除了一些bwl的经济学基础知识就没有那种vertiefung了的。前段时间被一家专门搞M&A的投行抓去面试，额，结果很惨，因为他们给我的笔试题我几乎一题都没有答出来，尤其是那种带缩写字母的，分析公司价值的模型，还有收支表分析等等，总之这些缩写我见都没见过，一些术语也没听过（我的学霸同学也表示不懂什么是Net working capital）。所以第一环节就把我的阵脚打乱了，这也是我第一次那么正式的面试，以前实习都和咨询行业无关，只是在毕业论文阶段对这个行业产生了浓厚兴趣，很想试试看，哎，谁知道我太天真。
所以我的问题就是：M&A前后环节，是否要求全程必须具备扎实的金融知识背景才行，换句话说，我这种不对口专业的人有没有可能通过一些自学或者专注于某方面的深入研究（不要求那么多金融知识，比如说那种公司估值模型的东西）也能够进入这个领域？
hmm，对中德投资领域真的超级感兴趣，自己平时兼职也涉及不少这个领域一些个项目跟班那种角色，所以还挺热情的，但是如果现实真的要求太高，我又真的是专业不对口，就还伤早点改变方向，不要牛角尖。。。
希望前辈能够谈谈经验给一点意见，谢谢
本帖最后由 shrek_munich 于 2018-9-12 21:57 编辑
mib 发表于 2018-9-12 20:17
投行的人脑子也不对劲，怎么会邀请LZ面试
他只是参加了oa，投行招人本来就对专业要求限制不高，更看重的是名校，当然不代表bar低，只是不通过专业晒掉可能的人才。 dsfbjiowr 发表于 2018-9-12 15:33
前辈你说的这个事情我也想到了，如果没有一定的分析能力，光靠语言是走不久的，所以，我的问题就是，难道 ...
首先是CFA，不是CAF。另外虽然这个很多人是自学考出来的，但是如果大学阶段没有一点金融方面的知识，个人觉得自学成功的可能性很低。另外做m&A的未必只有投行，很多搞咨询的企业都有这个业务，你未必把眼光就放在投行上。老实说，你没有金融背景要进投行个人觉得可能性很低。不妨进门槛低些的刚好需要中国人的搞M&A的咨询公司先入门，估计会从翻译跟班做起，但是接触多了多少会学习到一些，再专业学习知识可能会容易些。但前提条件是这类公司在你目前专业背景下会给你工作的机会。不过话说回来，在德国学经济然后以金融为主要学习方向的中国人不在少数，所以竞争估计会比较激烈吧。不过作为中国人，如果语言上有很明显的优势而且和有擅长商业交流的软技能可以补拙的话，那也未必没有机会。 如果你有很扎实的客户资源，可以给公司带来客户项目，那有没有专业无所谓，如果你未来的雇主想发展中德业务，需要会中文的可以带出去拉客户或者做翻译的，专业知识不是那么扎实也无所谓，但是基本没有大的发展前途。如果想真正参与进去，做专业上的东西，就必须有很扎实的金融专业。自学的话，考CFA的很多也是自学出来的。而且M&A所涉及的不仅仅是金融方面的知识，前期会需要很多方面的Due diligence方面工作，包括法律的，税务的，财务会计的等等。如果是投行本身，他们更偏重的估计就是估值这块，那金融知识肯定是必须的。 一定要干自己学过的专业。 如果你的学霸同学指的是金融专业的，不清楚Net working capital说不过去把？
如果你的学霸同学指的是东亚研究专业的，不清楚不是很正常？人家也没打算让非专业的去干啊。
虽然是外行，不过你要做并购，多扎实很难说够，但是不懂肯定是不够的。作为一个非对口专业的人士，你总要说服对方为什么放着那么多专业的毕业生不要而招你把？你口头上说超级感兴趣，但是你的行动没看出哪里对这个行业感兴趣了。。。。 shrek_munich 发表于 2018-9-12 11:40
如果你的学霸同学指的是金融专业的，不清楚Net working capital说不过去把？
如果你的学霸同学指的是东亚 ...
前辈你说的很对，我的学霸同学和我一样专业的。非金融专业。
这次面试失败我觉得主要原因就是专业知识0，虽然毕业论文写这方面的东西，但是准备的还是不够充分，不过一些M&A基本知识我觉得自己还是能够通过看书自学掌握一点，但是要具体像金融会计师那样用模型去分析，估值我就觉得 ohne studium kann ich kaum schaffen。。我也不知道是不是这样 knuddelmaus 发表于 2018-9-12 12:10
如果你有很扎实的客户资源，可以给公司带来客户项目，那有没有专业无所谓，如果你未来的雇主想发展中德业务 ...
前辈你说的这个事情我也想到了，如果没有一定的分析能力，光靠语言是走不久的，所以，我的问题就是，难道真的要再搞一个金融学位吗？老实说我学够了……那个CAF我试图了解一下，权衡一下自己能不能通过自学搞出来吧 以前的一些面试中的问过的问题；
1. How do the 3 statements link together?
2. If I were stranded on a desert island and only had one financial statement and I wanted to review the overall health of a company, which statement would I use and why?
3. Let’s say I could only look at 2 statements to assess a company’s prospects – which 2 would I use and why?
4. How can you tell whether or not an expense should appear on the Income Statement?
5. Let’s say that you have a non-cash expense (Depreciation or Amortization, for example) on the Income Statement. Why do you add back the entire expense on the Cash Flow Statement
6. How do you decide when to capitalize rather than expense a purchase?
7. Why is the Income Statement not affected by Inventory purchases?
8. What’s the difference between Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses?
9. When would a company collect cash from a customer and not record it as revenue?
10. Deferred Revenue reflects cash that we’ve already collected upfront for a product/service we haven’t delivered yet. Why is it a Liability?
11. How are Prepaid Expenses (PE) and Accounts Payable (AP) different?
12. You see a “Noncontrolling Interest” (AKA Minority Interest) line item on the Liabilities side of a company’s Balance Sheet. What does this mean?
13. You see an “Investments in Equity Interests” (AKA Associate Companies) line item on the Assets side of a firm’s Balance Sheet. What does this mean?
14. Could you ever have negative Shareholders’ Equity? What does it mean?
还有一些也是面试中问过的问题：
1. What does negative (Operating) Working Capital mean? Is that a bad sign?
2. Let’s say a customer pays for a TV with a credit card. What would this look like under cash-based vs. accrual accounting
3. A company has had positive EBITDA for the past 10 years, but it recently went bankrupt. How could this happen?
4. Normally Goodwill remains constant on the Balance Sheet – why would it be impaired and what does Goodwill Impairment mean?
5. Walk me through how Depreciation going up by $10 would affect the statements
6. What happens when Accrued Expenses decreases by $10 (i.e. it’s now paid out in the form of cash)? Do not take into account cumulative changes from previous increases in Accrued Expenses.
7. Explain what happens on the 3 statements when a company issues $100 worth of shares to investors.
8. Explain what happens on the 3 statements when a company issues $100 worth of shares to investors
9. Let’s say we have the same scenario, but now instead of issuing $100 worth of stock to investors, the company issues $100 worth of stock to employees in the form of Stock-Based Compensation. What happens?
10. A company decides to issue $100 in Dividends – how do the 3 statements change
11. Walk me through a $100 Write-Down of Debt – as in OWED Debt, a Liability – on a company’s Balance Sheet and how it affects the 3 statements.
12. Now let’s say that at the end of year 1, the company sells the $100 of Short-Term Securities but gets a price of $110 for them instead. It also uses the proceeds to repay the $90 worth of remaining Debt.
13. Explain what a Deferred Tax Asset or Deferred Tax Liability is. How do they usually get created?
14. What are examples of non-recurring charges we need to add back to a company’s EBIT / EBITDA when analyzing its financial statements?
15. What’s the difference between capital leases and operating leases? How do they affect the statements?
16. How do Net Operating Losses (NOLs) affect a company’s 3 statements?
17. What’s the difference between Tax Benefits from Stock-Based Compensation and Excess Tax Benefits from Stock-Based Compensation? How do they impact the statements
18. If you own over 50% but less than 100% of another company, what happens on the financial statements when you record the acquisition?
19. You own 70% of a company that generates Net Income of $10. Everything above Net Income on your Income Statement has already been consolidated.
20. Walk me through how you would recognize Net Income Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests, and how it affects the 3 statements.
投行的人脑子也不对劲，怎么会邀请LZ面试