I've already stressed the importance of putting in the hours of preparation but when it comes to preparing for the questions, there are literally thousands of common questions that you could be asked, and you are never going to be ready for them all. So to make your preparation easy, my advice is to prepare for the questions in four broad categories. First, your story. Next, your fit. Then your knowledge of markets, companies and deals. And finally, your technical knowledge, including numerical, logical reasoning and brain teasers.

There are lots of ways you could be asked to tell your story.

Perhaps you'll be asked to walk me through your CV, maybe tell me something about you or give me some highlights from your resume.

These questions are likely to come up early in the interview process and it's important that you nail them. It's your opportunity to tell your story and to answer the question, why me? So when answering questions about you and your experience, it really helps to create an APPLE, action picture plus lots of enthusiasm. Try and take the interviewer to the place you are describing and be enthusiastic. The best way of achieving this is to prepare a number of mini stories, which you can use to answer the questions and that demonstrate your key skills.