Applicant Interview Expense Report: Fill & Download for Free

This was super exciting for me.It was a normal Friday at the downtown office where I’m an Executive Assistant for a global consulting firm.I was plowing through a particularly hairy expense report (the hirsute nature of said report being due to a plethora of missing receipts because that particular Partner just can’t be arsed with getting them to me, but that’s beside the point) when my desk phone rang.The receptionist informed me that an applicant was on his way down to my floor. This had been happening for the past 45 minutes; it was a recruiting day and there were a dozen or so prospective management consultants (aka puppies) coming in for interviews.After a few impatient minutes in the elevator lobby wondering if the dang expense report system was going to log me out and lose my progress and trying to remember the last time I saved, the latest puppy emerged from the elevator.As usual, I offered my hand to shake and introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Kittie, I - “Immediately I was greeted with a big smile and heard, “You’re Kittie from Quora!”I was taken aback, I admit! I’ve never been “recognized” in public before from my time on Quora, and my online life diverges significantly from my professional one. (Though I do proudly display a Quora bumper sticker at my cubicle and have enjoyed brief conversations with coworkers who recognize the logo.)After a stunned moment of not knowing how to feel, I realized I was tickled pink! This young man was well dressed (thankfully! other puppies were not so sartorially successful) and obviously a kindred spirit.We chatted amiably as I walked him down the hall to the conference room where his ordeal would begin.It made my day! And what was better is that, unbeknownst to me, my work ‘buddy’ - the other Houston Executive Assistant who I love to death - had come to the elevator lobby behind me and seen the whole exchange.She had heard me talk about writing on Quora but this was the first time it became real to her.I think she was impressed.She has teased me about my ‘fan club’ a few times, anyway.And that’s the impact that being a Quora Top Writer has had on my career.

You should fill it out, but that application is mostly HR housekeeping. If you go to a target school, they’ll come to you through your careers department and interview you in person on campus.If you don’t go to a target school, your best—and probably only—option is to exploit the hell out of your university’s alumni network. Go through the last five to ten years of graduates, and find as many current or former investment bankers as possible. These guys and gals have: one, already done what you’re trying to do, and two, possess a professional banking network and contacts that will prove more valuable to you than a literal bar of gold. Trust me, I know; I went to a state school in central California. It was an excellent institution, but had no banking presence whatsoever.So I did it myself.I started researching, networking, and preparing for a banking job during the first quarter of my sophomore year. This head-start was invaluable. Investment banking interviews are notoriously difficult, especially for yet-to or recently graduated BS/MBA’s. They are highly technical, and exhaustive, and very little of what you learned in the classroom applies because this is the real world. MD’s can’t bank on myths like revenue synergies or perfect-states or pure-plays because they don’t exist except between the pages of bible-thick textbooks.This means you will have to dedicate a significant portion of your free time to learning (or re-learning) the technical information necessary to survive on the job.It’s what I had to do.I devoured every investment banking textbook I could find (Training the Street, Investment Banking, Valuation, etc.), wrote out the answers to 300 plus practice interview questions, ran through dozens of mock interviews, networked relentlessly, and even helped found a university club dedicated to training students for banking jobs and then helping them break in. (They liked this *hint* *hint*)I maintained a high GPA (*hint* *hint*), worked a relevant (private wealth management) summer internship between my freshman and sophomore years to pad my work experience, and did whatever else I could think of to make myself stand out, including assisting a finance professor with the authorship of his new textbook, published before graduation (*hint* *hint*).And all of that would have amounted to nothing if not for a single alum. One who I almost didn’t contact.Without him, my resume wouldn’t have made it past the receptionists. But I reached out, managed to impress him, and was notified I’d made it through the first round at my number one choice three days later (JPM). I did well on the phone interviews, got invited to the third round superday, and voilà—a summer internship that ended with a full-time analyst offer.Honestly, I cannot stress enough how important networking is to landing a banking job. If you’re from a non-target school and you neglect it, don’t bother with the rest. It won’t happen. Go for a nice, easy, back-office finance job, do a two-year rotation, and settle in for a lifetime of budgets and expense reports.Or pick up the phone, and maybe get your dream job.Up to you.Thanks for all the upvotes!

The funny thing about dishonest or disingenuous behavior is that someone will find out and someone will use it against you. There is a clause in the job application that your employer can invoke at any time and it is called “material misrepresentation or omission of fact”. If the question is not on the application about your experience or skill or background, you’re lucky.If the question is on the application, make sure you save your money because your exit will be swift and you won’t be able to collect unemployment or COBRA benefits. See what happened to Scott Thompson, former CEO of Yahoo (Yahoo confirms CEO is out after resume scandal) or Ronald Zarella of Bausch & Lomb (10 Executives Who Lied On Their Resumes - And 2 Who Got Away With It - ReadWrite).There is little that you can do to rehabilitate a lie. The only solution is that no one will find out about it. Since you mentioned it here on social media, you probably mentioned it elsewhere or to someone (you bragged about it), and your chances of discovery by your employer will eventually happen if not in the next year, sometime in the next ten.Can you survive one lie from one company when you apply to another.? The one thing that employers don’t like is dishonesty. That means you will be dishonest on your reports, your expense reports. Trashing your credibility is a big risk. Now don’t tell anyone and hopefully your future results can be a redemption that is visible to future employers.Best of luck in your career.