talk about your finance job interview

[Scorpion Man]

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yeah I can echo scorpion mans sentiments that its very important to show up prepared for these things. They all give you the same geenral questions so its important to go in with a prepared answer that sells yourself at the same time. Check out the vault for interveiw preping, make sure to research the firm so you can ask intelligent questions and show up early.

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But if you were interviewing a candidate, you would want prepared answers to your questions and a sales pitch from the person? Are you hiring an accountant or a trader who can react to unforeseen events better than his competitors?

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The answers shouldn't sound prepared...that is part of the game...but the general pitch of your interest in the space and the firm specifically should be prepared. Again, this is a matter of style, but I would actually SCRIPT answers to the most important quetsions at the most important firms I cared about. I would then practice them many times and skinny them down to a bullet point format...the last thing I was always doing as they called my name was feverishly scanning my bullet point list...

[Scorpion Man]

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Great answers so far. I think being prepared is probably key. You want people to be able to react to unforseen sitatuations, sure, but preparation >>>>>> being able to react in almost every situation. If you are prepared, you don't need to react to a lot of things and you can spend a lot of effort on the things you really do need to react for. Interviewers will be able to surprise you either way - so being prepared as much as possible seems to be the best route.

Scorpion Man - it seems like you have experience on both sides of the table. What types of logic/math questions would you ask besides the Monty Hall Problem?

James

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I did not give a lot math/logic problems, as I was generally interviewing analysts, not traders. I would often ask the more junior level trading candidates "what is 45 times 62, give or take". You would be SHOCKED at how badly people did at this. I had one woman say "I don't know". Then I said...I don't mean exactly, I just mean give or take. "I just don't know". I said give it your best guess. "I don't know". Um, ok.

I was more likely to give accounting questions to analysts candidates...a favorite was to ask what deferred revenues was, where it was on the balance sheet, and how the it flowed through the different statements over time...again it was totally shocking how bad people were at this. Same thing with deferred taxes. The beauty of this question was that I always asked how their accounting was first. People way overstated their competence. By the end I would ask them again how their acctg was and they would retract their original assessment.

I personally don't think that logic/math are the most important questions...although my big hedge fund break out of business school had a lot of practical case quetsions - -one was about how a reverse mortgage company worked and the other was whether a big earthquake in Japan was a good or bad thing for GDP and the economy there. Funny aside...this interview was a follow up and was done on the phone (I was in Mass and he was in L.A.) -- he put me on hold for so long in the middle of that question that I was able to pull out my macro econ book and do a bunch of research that helped me come up with some great quotes to answer the question by the time he came back. It's all about being resourceful and putting your best foot forward. Its also about confidence (but not arrogance..its a fine line). My message to the guys interviewing me was simple - you will not find anyone more likely to get this job done than I. You will find people as smart but not smarter, and not more hardworking. The rest of that was implied, not stated, of course. But I used to literally say "I will walk through walls for you."

[Scorpion Man]

One last thing...FWIW I used to give a much more consulting type interview question (we were fundamentally oriented and I wanted to see how people thought about business). I would give a very short description of a public company and say "I am the CFO of this company, ask me anything you want. Then tell me whether you want to buy or sell my stock and why." This was great for me because I had a huge mental database of how different people approached the question. This allowed me to slot people in terms of competence quite easily.

[DcifrThs]

i think imay have told you about this previously but if not here is one of the best interview processes i've been through:

it is for a hedge fund analyst type position.

once you pass the first phone screen they call you up and ask a question like "how would the chinese currency peg affect the US mortgage market?" the interviewer is not asking for a direct answer, just how you think about it. he'll give you the steps and expect you to connect them. that is, if you don't already have a good understanding of the intermediate steps in which case that question is a gimme.

next they bring you in for a round of like 5-6 interviews. they cut you immediately if you fail one called "the discussion group" (DG). in this one, two current employees (typically analysts/strategist types) come in and give you a sheet with 5 topics on it. topics range from "should there be a maket for organs?" or "should space exploration exist? and if so, who should fund it?". these questions are meant to test your ability to develop a framework for analysis and stick to it/adjust it/come back to it as the situation demands.

the next set is brain teasers where they give you 5 of them and 30 minutes. getting it correct is not required. understanding it once shown is. there was a wine one on mine that involved determining what % of some bucket of wine was white or seomthing. it was relatively simple math so i got it but my interviewer told me later that some people EVEN WHEN SHOWN the answer still do not get it. they get cut obviously.

finally there are passion & life interviews where you need to show that you have passion and direction in life and a short term type plan. why do you want to work at this fund? if you had an ideal work environment what woudl it be like? these can be given by one of the top 5-10 employees at the fund. they are also crucial.

those interviews together it hink give a ton of insight into a candidate.

Barron