How to Answer "Why Finance?" in IB Interviews

Introduction

"Why finance?" sounds like one of the simplest interview questions you will face, but it trips up more candidates than almost any technical question. The problem is not that people lack reasons for wanting to work in finance. The problem is that most answers are generic, rehearsed, and indistinguishable from what every other candidate says. "I like numbers," "I enjoy analyzing companies," or "I want to work in a fast-paced environment" are answers interviewers have heard thousands of times, and they do nothing to differentiate you or demonstrate genuine conviction.

This question is especially important for candidates coming from non-finance backgrounds like engineering, liberal arts, sciences, or other industries. For these candidates, the interviewer is trying to understand the reasoning behind a significant career pivot. A vague answer raises doubts about whether you will actually commit to the grueling hours and steep learning curve of finance, or whether you will burn out and leave after a year. Your answer needs to convince them that your interest is thoughtful, tested, and durable rather than impulsive or prestige-driven.

This guide breaks down what interviewers are really assessing, provides the framework for structuring a compelling answer, walks through sample answers for five different backgrounds (finance major, engineering, liberal arts, career changer, and international student), covers the common mistakes that sink otherwise strong candidates, and explains how "Why finance?" differs from "Why investment banking?" and "Why this firm?" so you can handle all three without contradiction.

Understanding the purpose behind this question helps you emphasize the right elements and avoid wasting time on points that do not matter.

Genuine Interest vs. Prestige Chasing

The single biggest thing interviewers are evaluating is whether your interest in finance is authentic. Banking is demanding enough that people who are only in it for the money or the resume line tend to burn out quickly, create morale problems on deal teams, and leave before the firm recoups its training investment. Banks have learned that candidates with genuine intellectual curiosity about finance, markets, and deal-making perform better and stay longer than those chasing prestige.

This means your answer needs to demonstrate that you have actually explored finance in some meaningful way and found it genuinely engaging. Taking a corporate finance class, reading financial news, building a personal stock portfolio, doing an internship at a financial firm, or joining an investment club all serve as evidence that your interest goes beyond surface-level attraction. The more specific and personal your evidence, the more credible your answer.

Self-Awareness About the Tradeoffs

Interviewers want to see that you understand what you are signing up for. Finance careers, especially in investment banking, involve long hours, high pressure, and significant personal sacrifice. A candidate who has thought carefully about these tradeoffs and still chosen finance demonstrates maturity and realistic expectations. You do not need to dwell on the negatives, but acknowledging that you understand the demands and explaining why the rewards (intellectual stimulation, skill development, career optionality) outweigh them shows self-awareness.

Coherent Career Narrative

Your answer should fit within a logical story arc that connects your past experiences to your current pursuit of finance. Random or disconnected motivations raise red flags. If you studied computer science and worked at a tech company, interviewers need to understand the bridge from tech to finance. If you majored in English literature, they need to understand what shifted your trajectory. The narrative does not need to be dramatic or unusual, but it does need to make sense.

Ability to Articulate Clearly

How you deliver the answer matters as much as the content. Finance professionals communicate complex ideas to clients, colleagues, and senior leadership constantly. Your ability to present a clear, organized, and engaging answer to a straightforward question is itself a test of the communication skills you will need on the job.

Master your interview story: A compelling "Why finance?" answer is just one piece of a coherent interview narrative. Download the IB IQ app for 400+ questions with detailed answer frameworks.

The most effective structure for answering "Why finance?" is the past-present-future framework. This approach creates a logical narrative arc that feels natural, demonstrates genuine exploration, and projects confidence about your career direction.

Past: The Spark (2-3 Sentences)

Start with a specific moment or experience that first drew your attention to finance. This is not the time for broad statements like "I've always been interested in numbers." Instead, describe a concrete experience that made you curious:

The spark should feel genuine and specific to you. It does not need to be dramatic. "I took an intro accounting class to fill a requirement and realized I was spending more time on the optional readings about financial statements than on my major's coursework" is a perfectly good spark because it is specific and authentic.

Present: The Exploration (3-4 Sentences)

Describe what you have done to explore and validate your interest since that initial spark. This is where you build credibility by showing that your interest is not theoretical but tested through action:

The exploration phase demonstrates initiative and commitment. A candidate who discovered interest in finance and then took three finance classes, completed a Wall Street Prep modeling course, joined the investment club, and networked with alumni in banking has clearly validated their interest through sustained effort. That is much more convincing than someone who just "finds finance interesting."

Future: The Alignment (2-3 Sentences)

Close by explaining how finance aligns with your long-term goals and why this career path makes sense for you specifically. You do not need to map out a detailed ten-year plan, but you should convey directional clarity:

The future section should connect back to the spark and exploration, creating a coherent arc from initial curiosity through active exploration to purposeful career pursuit.

These three questions are related but distinct. Understanding the differences prevents you from giving the same answer to all three and helps you tailor your response appropriately.

"Why Finance?" (Broadest)

This question asks about your interest in the financial services industry as a whole. Your answer should address why you chose finance over other career paths (tech, consulting, law, medicine, etc.) and what draws you to financial work in general. Focus on your interest in capital markets, corporate decision-making, financial analysis, and how businesses create and allocate value. This is the question covered in this guide.

"Why Investment Banking?" (More Specific)

This question asks why you chose investment banking specifically rather than other finance roles (asset management, private equity, hedge funds, corporate finance, sales and trading). Your answer should address what about the advisory and deal-oriented nature of IB appeals to you: exposure to complex transactions, client relationships, working across industries, the intensity and learning curve, and the career optionality. For detailed guidance on this question, see our guide on answering "Why Investment Banking?".

"Why This Firm?" (Most Specific)

This question asks why you want to work at this particular bank rather than competitors. Your answer should reference firm-specific factors: culture, deal flow, group strength in your areas of interest, conversations with current employees, and specific aspects of the firm's approach that resonate with you. For guidance on firm-specific questions, see our guide on answering "Why This Group?".

How They Connect

Your answers to all three questions should be consistent and build on each other. Your "Why finance?" answer establishes the foundation (why this industry). Your "Why IB?" answer narrows it (why this role within finance). Your "Why this firm?" answer gets specific (why here). If your "Why finance?" answer emphasizes analytical rigor but your "Why IB?" answer focuses on client relationships, the inconsistency will confuse interviewers.

Think of it as concentric circles: finance is the outermost ring, investment banking is the middle ring, and the specific firm is the innermost ring. Each answer should be consistent with and build on the one before it.

The best "Why finance?" answers are personal and specific to your background. Below are five detailed examples for different profiles, each following the past-present-future framework.

Sample 1: Finance or Business Major

"My interest in finance started sophomore year when I took Professor Morrison's corporate valuation class. We analyzed a real LBO transaction as our semester project, and I spent more time on that project than anything else that semester, not because it was required but because I found the process of deconstructing a deal genuinely fascinating. Understanding how the capital structure, operating improvements, and exit strategy all interacted to drive returns made me realize this was the kind of analytical problem-solving I wanted to build a career around.

Since then, I have taken every finance and accounting course available, including advanced financial modeling and M&A. I completed a summer internship at a regional advisory firm where I worked on two sell-side transactions and built my first real comps and DCF models. I also joined the student-managed investment fund where I manage a $200,000 sector allocation and present quarterly investment theses to our advisory board.

These experiences confirmed that I want to work in finance because I am genuinely energized by the combination of quantitative analysis and strategic thinking. I find myself reading deal announcements and 10-K filings in my free time, not because I feel obligated to, but because understanding how companies create value and how transactions are structured is genuinely interesting to me."

Sample 2: Engineering Background

"I came to finance from a different angle. As a mechanical engineering major, I spent three years focused on designing and optimizing physical systems. What shifted my trajectory was a junior-year engineering economics class where we evaluated capital investment decisions for manufacturing projects. I realized I was far more interested in the financial viability of our designs than the technical specifications. While my classmates debated gear ratios and material properties, I was building spreadsheets to model NPV scenarios and sensitivity analyses on project costs.

That semester, I started taking finance courses as electives. I enrolled in corporate finance and then accounting, and both felt more natural to me than any engineering class had. I completed a Wall Street Prep financial modeling course over winter break and started following M&A transactions in the industrials space where my engineering background gives me an edge in understanding the underlying businesses. I also reached out to alumni who had made similar transitions from engineering to finance, and their experiences confirmed this was a viable and rewarding path.

Engineering taught me structured problem-solving, attention to detail, and comfort with quantitative analysis, all skills that transfer directly to finance. But what excites me about finance specifically is that the problems are dynamic. In engineering, you optimize a system once. In finance, you are constantly analyzing new companies, new industries, and new deal structures. That variety and the direct connection between analysis and real-world business outcomes is what draws me to build my career in this field."

Sample 3: Liberal Arts Background

"I know my history major is not the typical path to finance, but my interest actually grew directly from my studies. My senior thesis analyzed the economic factors behind the 1980s leveraged buyout wave, and researching firms like KKR and Drexel Burnham led me deep into how capital markets shape corporate strategy and industry structure. I was fascinated by how financial engineering could transform entire sectors of the economy.

After graduating, I recognized I needed to build technical skills, so I took a deliberate approach. I completed the CFA Level I exam, enrolled in financial accounting and corporate finance courses at my local university's continuing education program, and finished a self-paced financial modeling course. I also started following transactions in the media and consumer sectors, writing short investment memos for each deal to practice applying frameworks. Through networking, I secured informational interviews with over 20 bankers and eventually landed a three-month internship at a boutique advisory firm where I contributed to pitch books and market analyses.

What I bring from the liberal arts is the ability to synthesize complex information quickly, write clearly and persuasively, and think critically about strategic narratives, skills that matter in finance beyond just the modeling. And my experiences over the past year have confirmed that I am genuinely passionate about financial analysis. I find the work engaging in a way that my prior career path was not, and I am committed to building my career in finance."

Sample 4: Career Changer (Tech, Consulting, Other Industry)

"I spent two years in product management at a tech company, and while I learned a lot about building products and working cross-functionally, I found myself consistently more engaged with the financial aspects of my role than the product development side. When our company evaluated a potential acquisition, I volunteered to support the corporate development team's analysis, working on market sizing, competitive positioning, and financial projections. That experience, spending nights building comparison models and evaluating strategic rationale for the deal, was the most energizing work I had done since joining the company.

That realization prompted me to explore finance seriously. Over the past year, I completed a financial modeling bootcamp, took night classes in accounting and valuation at NYU, and had informational conversations with over 30 professionals in banking and corporate finance. I also began attending industry conferences focused on tech M&A, which reinforced my interest in the transaction side of business rather than the operating side.

The transition makes sense because what I enjoyed most about my tech role was understanding how businesses create value, analyzing competitive dynamics, and evaluating strategic decisions. Finance, and specifically deal-oriented finance, puts those activities at the center of the work rather than making them a side project. My tech background also gives me genuine understanding of the technology sector that I can apply when analyzing companies and advising clients in that space."

Sample 5: International Student

"Growing up in Brazil, I watched my family's manufacturing business navigate currency crises, interest rate shocks, and two separate rounds of M&A conversations with larger competitors. Those experiences gave me early and personal exposure to how financial markets and corporate transactions directly affect businesses and families, and they shaped my desire to understand the financial systems behind those events.

When I came to the U.S. for university, I immediately pursued finance coursework and joined the investment club. I took corporate finance, financial accounting, and an elective on emerging market economics. Through the investment club, I led our coverage of Latin American equities and presented a long thesis on a Brazilian fintech company that the portfolio adopted. I also completed a summer internship at a regional bank in Sao Paulo where I worked on debt restructuring for mid-sized companies affected by the economic downturn.

These experiences confirmed that I want to build my career in finance because I have seen firsthand how capital allocation decisions transform businesses and communities. My cross-border perspective and language skills position me well for international deal work, and the analytical rigor of finance aligns perfectly with how I think about problems. I am not pursuing finance because it is prestigious. I am pursuing it because understanding and facilitating corporate transactions is what I find most intellectually compelling."

Even candidates with genuine interest in finance undermine their answers by falling into these traps.

Mistake 1: Leading With Money

"I want to work in finance because the compensation is attractive" is the fastest way to lose credibility. Every interviewer knows the pay is good. What they want to understand is what else motivates you. Mentioning compensation signals that you lack deeper motivation and may leave when a higher-paying opportunity appears elsewhere. Never make money the primary or even secondary reason in your answer.

Mistake 2: Being Too Generic

"I like numbers and I enjoy analyzing companies" could apply to accounting, consulting, data science, or a dozen other careers. It does not explain why finance specifically appeals to you or what about financial analysis is uniquely compelling. Replace generic statements with specific examples that demonstrate genuine engagement with financial concepts.

Mistake 3: Not Having Evidence

Claiming to love finance without having taken any finance courses, done any internships, read any financial news regularly, or engaged with the field in any concrete way destroys credibility. Interest without action is just a nice idea. Build evidence of exploration before the interview, even if it means starting now with online courses, books, or following deal activity.

Mistake 4: Confusing "Why Finance?" with "Why IB?"

These are different questions. "Why finance?" should address your interest in the broad field of financial services and capital markets. "Why IB?" should address why the specific role of investment banking appeals to you within the finance universe. If your "Why finance?" answer sounds like a "Why IB?" answer (mentioning deal execution, pitch books, and modeling), you have answered the wrong question. Start broader.

Mistake 5: Telling Someone Else's Story

Recycling a framework you found online without personalizing it sounds inauthentic. Interviewers can tell when a candidate is reciting someone else's narrative versus sharing their own genuine experience. Use frameworks to structure your answer, but fill them with your own real experiences and moments.

Mistake 6: Being Overly Long

Your "Why finance?" answer should take 60-90 seconds to deliver. Going over two minutes tests the interviewer's patience and suggests you cannot communicate concisely, a critical skill in banking. Practice timing your answer until it flows naturally within this window.

Strong interviewers will probe your "Why finance?" answer to test depth and consistency. Prepare for these common follow-ups:

"What specifically about finance excites you?" - Drill deeper than your initial answer. Reference specific concepts (valuation, capital structure, deal dynamics), specific sectors, or specific types of analysis that you find intellectually compelling. The more specific, the more credible.

"What have you done to explore finance outside of class?" - Describe self-directed activities: financial modeling courses, following M&A transactions, networking with professionals, personal investing, reading industry publications. This question tests whether your interest extends beyond academic requirements.

"How do you know this is the right career for you?" - Reference concrete experiences that validated your interest. An internship where you worked on real transactions, a class project that confirmed your analytical orientation, or conversations with professionals that reinforced your conviction. Evidence of testing and validating your interest is the strongest answer.

"What other careers did you consider?" - Be honest about alternatives you evaluated (consulting, tech, law) and explain specifically why finance won out. This demonstrates thoughtfulness about your decision rather than tunnel vision.

"Aren't you just doing this for the money?" - Acknowledge that compensation is attractive, but pivot immediately to intrinsic motivations. "Compensation in finance is certainly strong, but what actually drives my interest is [specific genuine reason]. The financial rewards would not sustain me through the demanding hours if I did not find the work itself engaging."

Get the complete framework: Our comprehensive guide covers all behavioral questions alongside technical preparation. Access the IB Interview Guide for detailed frameworks and practice questions.

When preparing your "Why finance?" answer, remember these principles:

Your "Why finance?" answer sets the tone for the entire interview. A compelling, authentic answer builds immediate credibility and gives interviewers confidence that you have thought carefully about your career decision. A generic or unconvincing answer creates skepticism that follows you through every subsequent question. Invest the time to develop an answer that is genuinely yours, grounded in real experiences, and delivered with conviction. The framework is simple. The execution requires honesty about what actually draws you to this field and the willingness to share that authentically.