Rothschild & Co Assessment Centre Prep

Behavioural / competency interview

Typical scenarios. Why Rothschild & Co over a balance-sheet bank; a team-conflict story under deadline; identifying and rectifying an error in your own work.

Common failure modes. Generic responses that fit any bank, unstructured behavioural answers, or a lack of genuine humility.

Tactical advice. Weave the firm's identity into your answers and emphasise wanting to be a long-term, conflict-free trusted advisor.

Technical interview

Typical scenarios. Three-statement flows for an equipment purchase split between cash and debt, with depreciation, interest and tax a year later; why a convertible bond over vanilla debt or equity; the EV-to-equity bridge and how capitalised leases are treated.

Common failure modes. Rote memorisation without comprehension, for example defining a DCF but failing to prove why a higher tax rate lowers unlevered free cash flow.

Tactical advice. Take your time, write the formulas out explicitly and talk through your logic aloud; composure beats a guessed instant answer.

Modelling exercise (M&A / Strategic Advisory)

Typical scenarios. From a three-page extract of a UK mid-market target, clean the data, project a 3-year income statement, calculate margins and unlevered free cash flow and build a trading-comps table to recommend an entry Enterprise Value range.

Common failure modes. Over-complicating the architecture with an intricate integrated model, running out of time and leaving the core valuation unfinished.

Tactical advice. Prioritise structural completeness over cosmetic perfection, keep core formulas perfectly accurate and justify growth assumptions from the sector data provided.

Restructuring / distressed case (Debt Advisory & Restructuring)

Typical scenarios. A UK retailer with a £300m senior secured term loan maturing in nine months, leverage at 6.5x EBITDA, a £20m minimum-cash covenant and flat EBITDA; outline viable options (amend-and-extend, debt-for-equity swap, junior capital) and argue who holds the leverage.

Common failure modes. Approaching it with a pure M&A mindset, for example suggesting the company simply sells itself or issues equity when those markets are closed to distressed issuers.

Tactical advice. Start with the capital-structure hierarchy, identify who is in and out of the money, and focus relentlessly on liquidity preservation.

Partner / senior MD interview

Typical scenarios. Where you would deploy £500m across a single UK sector over five years; the macro headwind worrying top clients; a recent cross-border mandate and why the firm won it.

Common failure modes. Being robotic or reciting rehearsed lines, and having no sophisticated questions ready at the end.

Tactical advice. Shift from student-being-tested to junior colleague in a commercial briefing, and speak with conviction about macro themes.

Networking lunch with current analysts

Typical scenarios. Candid questions about culture, hours and deal flow.

Common failure modes. Letting your guard down: inappropriate language, complaining about the morning, boasting about competing offers or ignoring peers to monopolise the analysts.

Tactical advice. Stay polished and engaged, and gather proprietary deal insight you can reference in the afternoon Partner round.

Summer analyst, Global Advisory (M&A), target university (passed)

Prep. Drilled three-statement flows and prepared firm-specific motivation around deal volume and independence.

Experience. Arrived at New Court at 08:45 to an intimate, formal atmosphere. The morning competency panel pushed on Rothschild & Co versus Goldman Sachs; they focused on the pure-advisory model and the firm's UK deal volume. The technical escalated from three-statement flows into debt mechanics and how capitalised leases affect EBITDA multiples; not knowing the exact lease adjustment, they reasoned aloud, were guided and self-corrected. In the written case they kept the Excel model simple, balanced the historicals and wrote a structured strategic summary, then held their valuation assumptions when the Director pushed.

Outcome. Received an offer call from an MD at 17:30 the same afternoon.

Graduate scheme, Debt Advisory and Restructuring, non-target postgraduate (passed)

Prep. Prepared capital structures, leverage covenants and the asset-backed versus cash-flow loan distinction.

Experience. A full-day track with a rigorous technical round and a dedicated restructuring case on a UK casual-dining chain facing a liquidity cliff and a restrictive fixed-charge-coverage covenant. Presenting to a Director and Partner, they walked the capital-structure stack, showed the junior lenders were out of the money and would take a haircut, and proposed an amend-and-extend paired with selective non-core asset disposals, prioritising the next 90 days of cash runway over long-term growth.

Outcome. Offer extended the following morning via HR.