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Expanding on that, how would you prepare for questions on due diligence? What critical things do you look for?

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Lola from Hummingbird VC published this great list of VC resources: https://www.notion.so/A-very-practical-list-of-resources-about-venture-0b5ea0d94b144e1d8ca5ce9bd8758c75

What other resources would you recommend?

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Let’s start with the basics, how would you answer: ‘Why do you want to work in venture capital? Why right now?’

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Expanding on that, what about: ‘Why VC as opposed to an operational role with a startup or launch your own company?’

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What about ‘where do you want to be in five-years?’

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What about past roles? How would you prepare for questions like: ‘What were you responsible for in your last job?’ or ‘what did you like/not like about it?’

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How should people talk about their most significant strengths and challenges?

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Continuing on that last comment, another common question is, ‘tell us something we don’t know from your resume?’ Can you talk about why it’s essential to get that one right?

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How about: 'what do you expect your day today in the role to look like?'

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Yes! Doing your homework before each interview is an essential part of the process. Another common type of question you should prepare for is: ‘Why our firm?’ or ‘How are we different from our competitors?’. How would you prepare for that, and why is attention to detail so important?

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Another firm-specific question I always prepared for was: ‘which of our portfolio companies are you most excited about?’ it’s flipside, ‘which would you have passed on?’ was often a little harder. How would you approach those?

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What about questions around sector expertise?

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And pitching a startup?

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And your top questions in a first founder meeting?

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Core to a VCs job is being able to pick out and invest in the most promising startups. However, you can’t invest in the best if you never have a chance to meet them leading to the common question: ‘how would you source companies?’. What do firms want to hear?

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What about the other end of the investment lifecycle—how do I prepare for the questions about the IPO or M&A market?

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Before we wrap up, every interview should leave time for the interviewee to ask some questions. What questions would you recommend asking the interviewer if given the opportunity?

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Are VC firms only interested in associates who want to become partners?

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It's said that associates have three jobs, source, pick, win. However, that assumes that the partners are successful at raising.

What can associates do to help with raising (beyond killing it at source, pick, and win)?

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