You want to tell a story about how you became interested in finance, investing, and improving businesses. It’s best to provide some context initially about yourself so the interviewer understands what’s unique about you: where you grew up, where you went to school, and how the first “spark” led to your interest in finance as well as private equity, whether it be from working on a deal with a private equity sponsor, trading your own portfolio, joining an investment club, or taking a finance class.
After some quick context on your personal background, you can talk in further detail about your experiences. If you’re interviewing for a post-IB associate role, you want to focus on the deal experience you’ve had. In particular, you should highlight 1 or 2 key deals, and walk through a few key steps of the process and provide the context of the deal and industry.
It’s important to highlight the background of the target and buyer, such as a company overview, and some general metrics to indicate the size of the deal (eg revenue, EBITDA, enterprise value, multiples). If the deal is private, you can use rough ranges. You’ll also want to highlight the strategic rationale behind the deal, as well as the size of the team you worked with and your role in the process.
If you built the model, then you should provide a brief preview of how the model was structured, such as the revenue segments, how the revenue model was driven, and any important assumptions or conclusions.
Since fit is very important in private equity given smaller team sizes, it can also be helpful to mention some hobbies and interests at the end of your answer. You should conclude with a quick sentence on why you are looking for a role in private equity.