The application insider

What was your experience of the application process? Polly Courtney, a former first-year corporate finance analyst turned author, tells how it was for her.

My expectation

I knew landing a job in investment banking wouldn't be a walk in the park - particularly in a year when the markets were plummeting and newspapers were filled with headlines about City firms slashing jobs. Competition was always going to be fierce.

I did my homework, checking out the investment banks' websites, reading careers advice and grappling with corporate jargon to work out what went on in all the different departments. I plumped for corporate finance, not because it had the biggest bonus pool - although that was the motivation of many of my peers - but because that seemed to be the place with the most exciting career prospects. I wanted to work on big transactions.

The best way to prepare, I decided, was by talking to people who were in the know. I chatted to a banking analyst at one of the milk-round dinners in Cambridge, and I called a friend who had gone into banking the year before. They gave me sound but conflicting advice: my friend claimed that past experience was the key to success, while the banking analyst assured me that a good CV was the secret.

The reality

After passing a GCSE-level online maths test, I was invited to an 'assessment day' where there were about 50 undergraduates competing for 15 places. We were kept waiting for several hours in a plush reception area, though our ordeal consisted of just two 45-minute interviews.

The first interview was all about me. I had plenty to talk about on my CV, and that's what we did for nearly an hour until the interviewer realised we'd run out of time.

The capabilities-based interview was much harder. I was set a series of common-sense tests which I completed relatively quickly, but received no recognition from the interviewer. He then asked me how an internal combustion engine worked (I was an engineering graduate; so was he), and looked unimpressed when I told him. At that point he gave me a calculator and asked me to work out the NPV (net present value) of an income stream. I had no idea what he meant and I admitted as much. The interviewer looked disappointed, and told me to send in the next candidate.

I was shocked to receive an offer letter at the end of the assessment day. I cancelled all my other interviews and accepted the internship.

My advice to applicants

· Know your CV. Don't put anything on it that you're not prepared to talk about at length. A friend of mine put 'walking' and was asked to describe the route of her latest trek.

· Know what's going on in the City. Read the FT and follow the key stories during the weeks leading up to your interview. It helps if you know one or two transactions inside out - not just the headline news on your interview day.

· Know your interviewer. If you get told in advance who it'll be, get Googling! There should be information on the company website, too. Once you know their role in the firm, find out what they do for a living.

· Don't ask stupid questions. Yes, they'll expect you to say something at the end of the interview, but don't ask about working hours or the social scene - or Christmas parties, like one of the applicants I met (he didn't get through). And don't ask anything you could have picked up from the company website. The interviewers aren't stupid, and they don't like sycophants, either.

Polly Courtney is the author of Golden Handcuffs, a novel based on the life of a first-year analyst in the City, published by Matador.