Acing the Interview
Part IV of a Multipart series
If you’re looking for a job in impact investing, it will come as no surprise that opportunities for junior roles (< 5 years professional experience) are few and far between. The job market is opaque, and positions are often filled by connections and word-of-mouth before the job posting ever sees the light of day. Last week my colleague, Sarah, wrote a great piece about kickstarting your impact investing job hunt. Once you’ve had a chance to explore the landscape, find your fit, and immerse yourself in the network, with any luck you will have found some interesting opportunities. Now it’s time to ace the impact investing interview.
I’ll preface by saying that interviewing is not a skill that comes naturally to me. I’ve had more than my fair share of embarrassing interview experiences, including the time I was so nervous in a consulting case interview as an undergrad that I accidentally introduced myself in a British accent (I’m from New Jersey). I’ve since recovered from those episodes and have even gotten the chance to be on the other side of the table, interviewing and hiring candidates to join our team at Blue Haven.
For the most part, preparing for an impact investing interview is the same as for any other job interview. The typical rules of thumb apply: research the firm beforehand, use real-world examples to showcase your qualifications, ask good questions of the interviewer, follow-up in a thoughtful way, etc. etc. Here are a few tips and tricks from the Blue Haven team specific to impact investing interviews.
1. Be ready to articulate “why impact investing” and be sure to make it specific to the organization you’re interviewing with.
You’ll hear impact investors joke that we are all recovering investment bankers and consultants. Hoping to put their professional skills to use in a fulfilling way, lots of millennials are eager to prove out the “double bottom line” potential of impact investing. That’s great, but in the interview it’s important to get specific. Be prepared to demonstrate that you are genuinely interested in the approach of that particular organization and that you aren’t just applying for the job because it’s the cool thing to do (and / or the only open position on the GIIN job board). Show that you’ve done your homework by researching the impact of one of your prospective employer’s investments and why you find it exciting. “I think your investment in Corporation X is solving a huge need for the millions of small businesses that lack access to traditional sources of credit” is a much more compelling answer than “I’m looking for a job that combines my Excel and PowerPoint expertise with my desire to do good in the world.”
2. Have opinions and don’t be afraid to share them.
During one of my interviews with Blue Haven I was asked to pick my favorite investment in the BHI portfolio and articulate why I liked it. Luckily, I had reviewed the portfolio and was able to address the question with relative ease. Phew! As soon as I finished answering I was immediately asked “Which investment would you have passed on and why?” This one caught me off guard. Who was I critique my prospective employers’ portfolio without having ever met the entrepreneurs or seen any scrap of data on their performance? I caveated my way through what I remember to be a pretty pathetic response. The lesson here is, don’t be afraid to have opinions on your interviewers’ work and share them — respectfully. As long as you’re able to articulate those opinions in a thoughtful and constructive way, your interviewer will appreciate your candor. Plus, it is a vital skill once you’re on the job.
3. Get comfortable with ambiguity and demonstrate resourcefulness in creative ways.
Impact investing is still largely unchartered territory. Most organizations are relatively young, operating with understaffed teams, limited track records and little precedent on which to fall back. The ideal candidate will hit the ground running and take calculated risks with confidence while maintaining the humility to acknowledge mistakes and learn on the fly. To steal a piece of vocabulary from one of our portfolio companies, Spire, it’s important to embrace a “growth mindset.”
Growth mindset is tough to show off during an interview, particularly when you’re not the one steering the conversation. A more natural time to showcase your resourcefulness is through a case study or during the Q&A portion of an interview. Use these opportunities to prove that you can think on your toes, get creative and pull your weight in an entrepreneurial environment. This could take many forms — maybe you take initiative to source a relevant investment opportunity and mention it to your interviewer. Perhaps you recognize that the firm you’re interviewing with doesn’t have a standard impact measurement approach, and you offer to take the lead on that initiative. Maybe you’re applying for an investment position, but feel that you could also contribute to post-investment support — go ahead and mention some ideas you have for portfolio engagement projects. It doesn’t hurt to be proactive, especially when interviewing with firms and funds that are still very much startups themselves.
4. Brush up on the latest industry news, and this doesn’t just mean “impact investing” news. Get tactical.
As my colleagues alluded to in prior posts, no two impact investors are made the same (at least we won’t admit it if we are). “Impact investing” is too vague a term to serve as a productive organizing principal for your job hunt. Believe it or not, impact investors don’t spend their days grappling with the philosophical questions that seem to dominate industry discourse. When I was first searching for a job in impact investing, I read dozens of articles and blog posts about whether or not there is a “trade-off between impact and returns.” In retrospect, given that I wanted to get into impact Venture Capital, my time would have been much better spent brushing up on my term sheet vocabulary or reading the blogs of other seasoned VCs. A good rule of thumb is — if it’s the title of a panel at a big impact investing conference, it’s probably not going to be relevant to your day-to-day work.
Force yourself to get specific and tactical in your interview prep. This will allow you to differentiate from the herd of people who want to “get into impact investing” but don’t have a sense for where, why or how. Spend time getting to know the firm’s team, portfolio, investment philosophy, geographic focus and industries of interest. Reach out to people in your network who may have an inside view on the organization (often websites don’t do justice). Sign up for newsletters and Google Alerts specific to the firm’s strategy and industry, whether that be emerging markets VC, or domestic ESG. Your interviewer will appreciate the extra effort.
That’s all for now from the Blue Haven team. Good luck and happy interviewing!
