Resources
What to read, and how to use it
Commercial awareness is not a reading list, it is a habit and a way of thinking. This page shows how to get to the sources you probably already have access to, what to read per sector, and how to turn an article into something you can actually say in an interview.
Access
You probably already have access
Nexis Uni, via your university library
Carries the full text of the Financial Times, plus NRC, de Volkskrant, The Times and De Telegraaf. You log in with your student account. This is the route most students do not know exists.
Factiva, same route
Business news from the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, plus Dow Jones and Reuters wires. Stronger than Nexis Uni for company and deal news.
Het Financieele Dagblad, through your institution
Many Dutch institutions have a subscription you reach with your student login. Check the library guide of your own university; the route differs per institution.
What is free anyway
The insight sections of McKinsey, BCG and Bain, the publications of DNB and the ECB, annual reports and press releases of the firms themselves, and the deal announcements of the law firms on this site.
One caveat: subscription prices change every year and differ per country, so we do not list them. What lasts is the route, and the route is almost always free through your institution.
The habit
Ten minutes a day
1
The front page of the FD
Two minutes. You are looking for Dutch companies, deals and regulation. This is what a Dutch interviewer asks about, and it is the part that Anglo-Saxon sources do not cover.
2
The Companies section of the FT
Five minutes. Not the whole paper: the headlines plus one article you read properly. Pick the one closest to the sector you are applying to.
3
Write down three lines
Three minutes, and this is the step everyone skips. What happened, why now, and what it means for the parties involved. Without this you have read the news; with it you have something to say.
Per sector
Not everyone reads the same thing
Finance
Deal news above all: who bought what, at what multiple, financed how. The FT Companies and Lex columns, Bloomberg for markets, and the FD for Dutch transactions. Follow two or three listed companies closely rather than everything superficially.
Consulting
Less transaction, more structure. The Economist for how a sector works, the insight sections of the firms themselves for how they frame a problem, and Harvard Business Review for the vocabulary. In a case you are rewarded for a way of thinking, not for a fact.
Law
The FD for what your clients are doing, and the trade press for what the profession is doing. Read the deal announcements of the firms themselves: they tell you which practice areas are busy, and that is exactly what you want to know before you choose one.
The method
From article to answer
The difference between a candidate who reads and a candidate with commercial awareness is one step: turning what happened into what it means. An example.
What you read
A listed company announces it is acquiring a competitor, financed largely with debt.
- Say the fact once, briefly. Nobody wants the article read back to them.
- Ask why now. A takeover in a sector under pressure means something different from one in a growing market.
- Follow the money. Debt at a moment of rising rates is a different bet from debt when money is cheap.
- Name who is affected. The shareholders, the competitors, the regulator, the employees. Pick the party that matters for your sector.
- End with a question, not a verdict. That signals you know what you do not know, which reads better than false certainty.
Do this once a day and after a month you have around twenty stories you can genuinely talk about. That is more than enough for any interview.
Related
Read on
The case interview guide
Where commercial awareness turns into structure: how to take apart a business problem.
The finance interview guide
Valuation, the financial statements and the technical questions you get in private equity and M&A.
The law firm application guide
The route to trainee, the practice areas, and how firms test commercial awareness.